Queensland Education's Policy for web publishing in schools

Queensland Education's Policy for web publishing in schools identifies these points as risk factors associated with web publishing. They are; copyright and intellectual property infringements, protection of students, compromising privacy, school network usage, use of Internet and electronic mail, consent to use copyright materials, and guidelines for publication of personal information to school websites.

It advises that schools should develop and implement policies and procedures to minimise this risks. It states, The Department or State can only use a student's, employee's or volunteer's copyright materials (including written,artistic, musical or dramatic works and video or sound recordings) or personal information (including their name, image or other identifying information) with the consent of the person or their guardian. Copyright works may include third party material: i.e., material whose copyright is owned by another party. If third party material is included, the school or TAFE Institute must ensure that permission has been obtained from the copyright owner for the use of that material, unless there are statutory exceptions, every time the work is to be used.

Privacy issues relating to the publication of images and information is highlighted, namely concentrating on the privacy of students. Things to consider are; valid reasons to publish student information, considering the child's age and family situation, identifying information of students, and consideration of how malicious outside forces may attempt to search and locate specific students or distort their images. (DET, LGS-PR-001: Consent to use Copyright Material, Image, Recording or Names).

To combat these issues schools should adopt these recommendations. Best practice should include; signed consent forms must be obtained by the students parent/guardian in order to publish information, including photographs, about each student.Schools should carefully select which student information should/can be published, giving first name details only.

The department adds that teachers should be wary of what they publish on the Internet, such as sensitive personal, financial or private school documents. It recommends that 'schools might restrict publishing of personal web pages to the school intranet'.

Love reading the fine print? click here for legislative acts.

References

Queensland Government Department of Education and Training. (n.d.). Web publishing for schools. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html