Every school year, all students and staff at Fenton Area Schools are required to sign an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) before being granted access to any of the district's technology tools: computers, scanners, digital cameras, etc. The district's AUP is clearly a "business" document. It looks and sounds like a contract; its terms are undecipherable to most students, particularly those in the lower grades.
This 1-week unit will be taught at Fenton Intermediate School in a 5th/6th Computer Literacy class. There are approximately 30 students per class, each with an individual PC workstation. Classes meet daily for 33 minutes. The unit takes place [roughly] during the second week of the course - after the general housekeeping of the first few days.
Because of the age group and [assumed] skill level of learners, the unit highlights use of Microsoft Word. However, one could adapt the lessons for presentation, concept mapping or web development software.
This unit is all about helping students understand the AUP they're required to sign. Microsoft Word is the technology tool they'll be using, but it's completely tangential to learning. Word processing allows students to easily edit their ideas, look up synonyms for "big" words, and quickly combine their individual groupwork into one cohesive document.
By the end of the unit students will (hopefully):
| Gain knowledge about what an AUP is, and give examples of where these documents might pop up in their own lives (i.e., many employers require workers to sign an AUP) |
| Better understand the text of the district AUP in terms of their rights, responsibilities, and the consequences for violating the AUP agreement |
| Take - and support - a position as to whether an AUP is even necessary in a school setting |
| As a group, produce a more student-friendly version of the district's AUP that incorporates specific expectations for the Fenton Intermediate School lab |
| Expand their knowledge of Microsoft Word as a tool for expressing ideas |
Age Group/Theoretical Perspective:
The learners for this unit are 5th and 6th graders, so it encompasses two of the age levels defined by the matrix.
The lessons were created from a situative learning perspective:
| The ultimate outcome of the project will be a document created by the entire class |
| The individual components to the final document will be created by smaller groups |
| The learning is authentic (all students are required to sign the AUP and few understand it) |
| The teacher plays the role of "knowledgable
other" by providing feedback and offering
suggestions to help simplify the concepts embedded in the
AUP |
| Day 1 | Introduce the AUP - kids have seen it before - brainstorm a list of what it is, what it means, and why we have them. Teacher records ideas in a Word doc, using the LCD. At the end of the session, teacher outlines the rest of the week and explains how the class will "re-write" the district's AUP into a more understandable form. | |
| Day 2 | In cooperative groups, students take a section of the document and come up with a short description of what that "piece" means, and why it is important (or not important). Students have the option of using paper/pencil or Microsoft Word to record their thoughts. Groups present to the class, and hand in their printed/written notes for teacher review. | |
| Day 3 | Groups revisit their assigned sections and incorporate teacher feedback into their "understanding" of that section. Groups begin drafting student-friendly versions of their assigned section using Microsoft Word. | |
| Day 4 | Finalize the student friendly versions of each section of the AUP, including FIS lab rules. It's quite possible that students may need another work day to finish. In that case, this becomes a 6-day unit. | |
| Day 5 | Groups present their individual sections and make an argument for why or why not that section is important/needed. Once all groups present and hand in their disks, teacher uses own workstation (projected via LCD) to incorporate all sections into one Word document. Any sections deemed unnecessary are left out. The class reads the doc from the LCD and teacher makes final changes as suggested. 30 copies of the student-friendly version of the AUP are printed for individuals to sign. |