Overview

From time to time, SDMC may administer or sponsor participation in student activities involving computers or computer-related information. These may be conducted in part or wholly through electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, or laptop computers. These may be used as stand-alone devices, or over networks that may be open, even if the activity begins and ends in the same classroom. Some examples include:

• Use of personal laptop computers in SDMC’s Computer Science program, which generally involves stand-alone use, networked activity utilizing UCSD Guest Wi-Fi, or home-based activities linked over the internet.

• Use of smartphones or tablets as personal input devices for Wi-Fi-enabled classroom activities.

• Use of video conferencing platforms to conduct distributed activities such as online classes that students can join remotely.

• Activities that may or may not directly use devices, but may require disclosure of personal information such as student email addresses; e.g., as part of a registration process.

Permissions

It is likely that over time essentially all SDMC students will participate in such activities in diverse ways. It is quite impractical for us to maintain a matrix of permissions activity by activity, so it is important that parents understand the nature of such activities and exercise their own discretion as to which activities they wish to permit their students to join – it is essential that your decision to permit your student to participate in an activity implies your awareness of and consent to the unique features involved.

Conduct

Activities involving devices and/or networks require all the same dimensions of constructive, positive conduct as do other SDMC activities, as well as some unique to their electronic aspects. This is mostly a commonsense extrapolation from our primary Code of Conduct, but to mention a few points:

• Access to UCSD Guest wifi is subject to UCSD's own terms and conditions.

• Any device or network access during an SDMC activity should be according to the directions provided by the instructor or activity leader and should be limited to those instructions.

• Devices allow distraction, both of the user and of other students; students must exercise discipline to stay on task, and especially to refrain from wandering out of the SDMC sphere into the internet.

• In multi-user environments, shared platforms activity can be degraded by uncooperative or disruptive actions such as over-talking an audio channel, spamming a chat window, displaying inappropriate visuals in a video channel, misusing shared screens, inappropriate use of private messaging, posting links/memes (don’t), misusing the chat for off-topic diversions, etc. It is essential that students exercise high discipline to avoid any disruption of these facilities.

The default behavior for every student in such activities should be a commonsense extrapolation of our primary Code of Conduct to the device or networked situation – conduct that is respectful of other students, the instructor, instructor assistants or moderators, disciplined in general, and focused on the activity as directed.