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RFC 1746            Ways to Define User Expectations       December 1994


   The ASIS code speaks directly to issues of electronic mail privacy.
   We believe that students and teachers must feel certain that their
   communications are private. In many electronic mail systems currently
   used in schools, the teacher must act as an intermediary between the
   school and the outside world. When students are "full" members of the
   Internet, mail is sent directly to the outside world with no human
   mediation. As a rule, such communications should be private, and the
   network policy must make explicit any reasons for teachers or
   researchers to have access to message content. Users must be made
   aware of times and circumstances under which private mail may be
   monitored.

   * Prodigy. Privacy in electronic mail communications seems like a
   straightforward issue--it is analogous to the U.S. mail. But what
   about network bulletin boards or Internet newsgroups? Posting a
   message in one of these public information exchanges may raise
   questions of freedom of expression among students and other network
   users, but no more than in any other public forum.

   One approach to dealing with this issue was described in the Wall
   Street Journal's technology supplement of November 15, 1993. Prodigy,
   a dial-up bulletin-board service jointly owned by IBM and Sears, has
   a strict editorial policy for both its public forums and its members'
   private email exchanges. Prodigy employs editors who screen every
   message before it is posted, sometimes delaying posting by up to 40
   hours. It also uses special software to screen messages for what it
   deems objectionable language. The result is a lowest-common-
   denominator approach to what is acceptable or unacceptable material.

   This approach undervalues the maturity of Prodigy's users. In the
   CoVis classroom, we want to strive to develop students' maturity, and
   in order to learn these lessons, they must feel that their message
   content is under their own control. To let students know what level
   of behavior is expected of them, we are very clear about the use of
   offensive, obscene, or inflammatory language on the network. These
   guidelines are not unfamiliar to the students in CoVis, as their
   local school codes of conduct include the same admonitions. Offensive
   messages posted by students are not ejected from the network.
   However, students can lose their privileges on the network if they
   post such messages (a significant disincentive for CoVis students),
   and they are encouraged to post a retraction or apology once they
   understand why their message was problematic. These interventions are
   only initiated upon the complaint of another user, not as part of an
   explicit editorial policy.

   * School Conduct Codes. Every school has a code of conduct for its
   students that details appropriate school behavior, outlines rights,
   and sets expectations for students. Because the CoVis Network is used



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   as part of a school activity, the school's code of conduct applies to
   network activities. Thus, we believe the network use policy should be
   an extension of the school's policies. An important part of the
   development of the CoVis Network use policy was a close reading of
   the participating high schools' codes of conduct. For example, at one
   of our high schools, special rules against vandalism of computer
   equipment and unauthorized access to information exist. These rules
   cover such important concepts as computer piracy, hacking, and other
   tampering with hardware or software. Both CoVis schools have codes
   warning students that use of harassing or abusive language is
   unacceptable, as is obscenity. At the same time, both high schools
   place a high value on students' right to freedom of expression and
   outline the dimensions of that right in some detail.

   * Field Trips. All of the rules that apply to student conduct in
   school also apply when the students are off campus on field trips.
   The Internet offers many opportunities for virtual field trips to
   distant locations, and CoVis adds a new twist to this genre with the
   addition of full audio and video connections to remote locations.
   Students in the CoVis community will be able to "visit" the
   Exploratorium in San Francisco, directing a remote camera around the
   exhibit floor and engaging in conversations with guides and other
   museum visitors. It is important that students realize they act as
   ambassadors for their school in such encounters, and our policy
   states this explicitly.  Currently, parental permission slips are
   required before students may take field trips. At one of our
   participating high schools, such slips are required even for "trips"
   within the school building. Is there a precedent for extending the
   concept of permission slips to the virtual field trip? We do not
   believe so, but we do recognize the importance of written information
   alerting parents to interesting or innovative school activities.

Beyond the Barriers

   Barriers to internetworking in schools are being lowered every day,
   and soon electronic bulletin boards may be as familiar to the
   American classroom as blackboards. Educators are encouraged by
   continuing developments that make the Internet accessible to schools.
   This is accomplished in part through commercial networks such as
   America Online and Delphi and by the decreasing costs of modems and
   communications software. With the cooperation of nearby universities,
   dial-up Internet connections can now be obtained for an investment of
   under $100 per existing computer.

   Schools will find tremendous new opportunities for enhancing,
   extending, and rethinking the learning process with the advent of
   internetworking. But will they be ready to face the challenges? To
   date, schools have had little experience with advanced



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   telecommunications technologies. Many classrooms still lack even such
   basic tools as telephones. Given the general lack of communication
   even between classrooms in the same school, it will not be easy for
   schools to join in the fast-paced discourse of the Internet. The
   CoVis Project has taken a proactive stance toward the issues that
   internetworking raises for schools with the development of a
   network-use policy based upon the best lessons available. We invite
   feedback on our policy and offer it as a contribution to this
   exciting and rapidly developing area of educational technology.

   Barry J. Fishman is a Ph.D. student in the Learning Sciences program
   of the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy.
   Roy D. Pea is Dean of the School and John Evans Professor of the
   Learning Sciences at Northwestern. They acknowledge the assistance of
   Laura D'Amico, Larry Friedman, Paul Reese, and Dick Ruopp in the
   preparation of this article. Their research is supported in part by
   National Science Foundation Grant MDR-9253462.

   Margin Notes: Electronic versions of the original texts of American
   Library Association, American Society for Information Science, and
   Houston Chronicle documents can be found at FTP (file transfer
   protocol) address ftp.eff.org, in the pub/academic/library/directory.

   The Communications Policy Forum meeting is reported on by Andrew Blau
   in the EFFector 5(4), also available from ftp.eff.org in the
   /pub/EFF/newsletters directory. Statistics about the Internet are
   available from ftp.nisc.sri.com, in the /pub/zone directory. Both of
   these FTP sites can also be reached via gopher.

For further reading:

   Roy Pea, "Distributed Multimedia Learning Environments: The
   Collaborative Visualization Project," Communications of the ACM (May
   1993).

   Denis Newman, Susan Bernstein, and Paul A. Reese, "Local
   Infrastructures for School Networking: Current Models and Prospects,"
   Bolt Beranek and Newman Tech Report No. 7726 (1992).

   Richard Ruopp, Shahaf Gal, Brian Drayton, and Meghan Pfister, LabNet:
   Toward a Community of Practice (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1993).










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APPENDIX: THE COVIS NETWORK USE POLICY

A.  Mission Statement

   The Learning Through Collaborative Visualization Project (CoVis) was
   established to explore project-enhanced science learning supported by
   advanced computing applications in a secondary school environment.
   As such, the computer network environment supported by the project
   (the CoVis Network) is designed to enhance the learning and teaching
   activities of the participating science classrooms at New Trier and
   Evanston Township High Schools.  The term "network" in this document
   refers to a number of computers and other electronic tools that are
   connected to each other for the purpose of communication and data
   sharing.  CoVis is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded
   research project, and use of the network is therefore provided to
   allow the study of its impact on learning and teaching.

   1.  Purpose of the Internet

      The Internet (a global network made up of many smaller
      contributing networks) and its services are intended to support
      open research and education in and among US research and
      instructional institutions, plus research arms of for-profit firms
      when engaged in open scholarly communication and research.  Use
      for other purposes, e.g., for-profit activity or extensive
      personal business, is not acceptable.

   2.  Purpose of the CoVis Network

      The purpose of the CoVis Network is to facilitate communications
      and collaboration between members of the CoVis community.  Network
      use is primarily intended for the support of project work
      conducted for participating CoVis classes, and far less
      significantly for other purposes that students and teachers
      determine to be of educational value.  The CoVis Network has
      limited resources, and CoVis classrooms have limited time
      available for network- supported teaching and learning activities.
      Any use of the network which adversely affects its operation in
      pursuit of teaching and learning or jeopardizes its use or
      performance for other community members is prohibited, and may
      result in the loss of network privileges.

B.  Services Available on the CoVis Network

   The CoVis Network consists of a variety of computing equipment,
   software, and network connections.  This section describes the
   primary tools and services approved for use in the CoVis Network.
   Other tools may be used, but may not be supported by the system



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   administrators:

      1.  Cruiser Videoconferencing.  Cruiser is a tool designed to
      allow video and audio connections between two people, each of whom
      must have a Cruiser station and access to the CoVis network.
      Cruiser conversations are private;

      2.  Timbuktu Screen-Sharing.  Timbuktu is a commercial software
      product that allows a Macintosh user to view or control another
      Macintosh computer remotely (with the remote user's permission).
      This is designed to allow two or more people to work together over
      the CoVis Network. Timbuktu sessions are private;

      3.  Collaborative Notebook.  The Notebook is a personal or group
      workspace designed to support project work in CoVis classrooms.
      Work done using the notebook may be either private or public, as
      designated by the user.  Users should be careful to note whether
      they are working in a private or a public portion of the notebook.

      4.  General-Use Internet Tools.  These include, but are not
      limited to, the following:

         a) Electronic Mail, or email.  Email is just like regular mail,
         except instead of paper, you use the computer.  Email
         correspondence is considered private.  The CoVis Project uses a