Securing the network, and personal and sensitive data without locking down.
Poor E-Safety poses a real risk to the reputation of an organisation, and the first response is often locking down the network to avoid this. Technology has a lot to offer learners, e-Learning; its flexibility, availability and portability contributes to the personalisation of their learning and supports their engagement and acheivement. It also has a lot to offer providers in terms of meeting their obligations to deliver learning equitably and to exactingstandards within ever more challenging financial constraints.
When designing an e-safety policy it is important that the purpose of the policy is not to barr people technologically from accessing content (even though that might be needed to block certain known websites and Janet Internet Filtering is one of the many solutions) but to educate the learners to keep themselves safe online. As evident from UKERNA's submission to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology (sub-committee) on Investigation into Personal Internet Safety.
While designing e-safety policy in regards to the Technology & Infrastructure side the institutional legal obligations needs to be covered.g it may be necessary to monitor the network for potential cases of cyber bullying or for behaviours where there are legal ramifications. JISC Legal has pblished the following papers on:
IT Law for FE and HE Senior Management (01/11/2005) ,
Monitoring Internet Use (12/12/2003) &
Legal Risks and Liabilities for IT Services in FE and HE (01/09/2003)
There is a themed section on the JISC Legal webite which includes more advice.
JISC Legal e-safety Policy Template also offers a starting point if you are looking to develop a strategy.