The purpose of technology in Seven Oaks is to support learning. The Seven Oaks community of learners will be enabled by technology to solve problems, communicate information, improve their personal performance, develop the ability to collaborate, and gain the critical and abstract thinking skills necessary to become self-directed, lifelong learners and contributing members of their communities.

To link our community of learners together technologically, the division has established a wide area network. This network will connect schools to one another and to the school board office. In addition the division has established an Internet link to allow wide area network users access to global resources that can be found on the Internet. The Seven Oaks School Division encourages the maximum use of the divisional wide area network (WAN) and the resources located on the World Wide Web to achieve stated educational goals. Activities such as e-mail and accessing curricular appropriate web sites are the types of activities that are encouraged and recommended.

Bandwidth or the amount of information that can be transferred to and from the Internet can be decreased as a result of specific types of activities. These activities not only negatively impact the users in the school where they are occurring but also all the WAN users in the division. Activities that consume large amounts of bandwidth should be limited or restricted between 8:00 A.M. to 4.30 P.M. These activities include:

• the downloading of files and programs.
• accessing and transmitting audio files.
• using the divisional WAN to access or transmit video files.
• cruising the Internet for personal rather than educational purposes.
• Using Instant Messaging Programs such as MSN, AOL

Internet Web Sites

The design of the Seven Oaks wide area network does not allow for schools to establish Internet Web Sites at the school level. In order to place a homepage on the divisional server a school will need to be assigned a home directory, a username and a password.

Content Guidelines

The purpose of establishing school and divisional web pages is to provide the outside world with information about divisional or schools programs, share the work of staff and students, provide users with link to internal and external resources and provide readers with relevant information. Ultimately the school administration is responsible for the content of pages produced on behalf of the school. The principal may designate one or more individuals to compose and update the school's web page and maintain the page on the designated web server.

The following general guidelines apply to all pages produced on behalf of a school:

• All materials published as part of a school web site must conform to school board policy.
• Pages must not contain advertisements for commercial businesses or be used for commercial purposes.
• All material will be carefully scrutinized, including all links to other sites.
• Schools must not publish information, which could potentially identify an individual student by his/her name, phone number, address and photograph.
• Web pages should not allow readers to contact any student directly.
• Copyright materials should not be used on school web pages unless the appropriate permissions are obtained.
• Schools are encouraged to publish information that reflects schools activities, the work of staff and students, and information the school community would find valuable. The publishing of items such as important schools dates, and highlights of school functions are encouraged.