Hopefully school and school district "Acceptable Use Policies" will be able to inform school and educator developed wiki policies and guidelines as they are developed. In general a district wiki policy should cover issues related to student identity on the World Wide Web, in order to prevent students from including specific identifying information in classroom wikis, such as full names, photos and emails. A district wiki policy should also include guidelines for posting information on a wiki that is inappropriate, inaccurate or where postings may bully another student. It is a good practice to develop the rules and guidelines for your wiki with your students and ensure that they have a positive tone. As in a traditional classroom, students are more likely to abide by rules that they have developed than ones imposed on them. This is also a good time to layout any rules or citation guidelines that you would like student to follow when referencing other content whether online or offline.

Example:

1. Understand that this site is an extension of school. All school rules apply, even if you come to this site when you are not at school.
2. Use the name that you were assigned by your teacher.
3. Never, ever, put your last name on this site.
4. Never, ever, put your e-mail address, home address, phone number nor any other means of contact on this site.
5. Never make any changes or add any sorts of content to the site that are inappropriate.
6. Do not make changes to this site that are outside the instructions and intent of this wiki.

Don't forget CIPA - Children's Internet Protection Act - http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html

Social Networking Acceptable Use Policy

Sample Blog Acceptable Use Policy

Related articles:
School Administrator: Web 2.0
Is Web 2.0 a Good Fit for Education
Build a Web 2.0 Sandbox
AUPs in a Web 2.0
Developing an AUP
Keeping Children Safe
AUP 2.0
Sample AUPs
Weber School District AUP

Administrator Approval
Once you an envision how your wiki will work and be used, it is best to get your principal or supervisor's approval if you are one of the first teachers using such a "new" web tool. Recent news stories about social networking sites have administrators on edge. Your school's Acceptable Use Policy may have some specific rules about using tools like wikis. You want to find out the following:

• Is it permissible to post student work to web?
• What is the policy on posting student names (initials? pseudonyms?)
• What is the policy on posting pictures of students or class scenes?
• What is the policy on posting any information that might identify the wiki class?
• Can these policies be met through security settings, parent and student agreements?
• Does the district filering prevent access to the wiki tools from school? If so, will your administrator facilitate UNblocking of the wiki's exact URL?

Everyone knows what devices and applications have to be covered in an AUP, but here’s a list of some newer items you should consider addressing next time you update: Devices

• Multifunction cell phones
• MP3 players
• Jamming/interference devices

Applications

• Social networks
• Social bookmarking
• Podcasting
• Blogs
• Wikis
• Multiuser role-playing environments
• Video games