1. Information policy in schools Project team: Nancy Law (principal investigator), Sandra Lee, James Henri, Teddy So and Lau Fai Kim Presentation to the IT in Education Symposium University of Hong Kong CITE July 10, 2003

2. Objectives Identify the nature and status of information policy inHong Kong schools Determine future directions for information policy planning Identify areas for international collaboration to study state of information policy in schools Design and pilot an instrument that will enable educators to study information policy development

3. Significance Think about the response to Article 23

4. Growing interest in information policy issues Schools are organizations to which information is central and therefore, are in the business of information. (Hay, 1999) As information organizations however, there is a surprising lack of awareness of information issues. The ‘information industry’

5. The Study: Status of policy development Hong Kong and future collaboration for comparative study –Canada, the United States, Austalia, Canada, Iceland and South Africa. –The possibilities are endless!

6. Information policy at the micro-level Acceptable use of the Internet guidelines Copyright Data privacy Access to personal information by students and parents Freedom to read/access to information Technology plans

7. Purpose of project To obtain baseline data about understanding and interest in information policy To ascertain what information policies exist in Hong Kong schools. To determine what policy making processes have been adopted and who takes responsibility for creating the policy.

8. Project progress Now in the early stages of instrument development –Compiling a list of all likely school policies, –Questions about policy development, responsibility –Questions about information policy Literature review completed, highlights below

9. Literature, lacking People have written about: the need for information policy and about how such policy can be achieved But there is little evidence of the actual existence of policy. Nor is information available about how such policy is actually developed.

10. Defining information, defining information policy Information as object and information as process In general terms, information policy is about regulating or guiding the people, organisations and processes involved in information flow in society. (Weingarten, 1989). Other authors and academics have written numerous articles that define and review issues (Browne, 1997; Rowlands, 2002; Kniffel, 2002) yet a review of the literature reveals little has been published in the context of education and school management.

11. Hong Kong March 1998 the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute published: A Report on a Pilot Study of the Hong Kong Information Infrastructure (Final Report) The Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee completed its work in June 1998. A new IIAC has been established under the auspices of the Communications and Technology Branch Home Affairs Bureau Education and Manpower Bureau Information Technology in Education: Way Forward

12. Policy resources for schools Management structure of the school School policies Informal policies Guidelines EMB circulars

13. Contact: Sandra Lee sandra@cite.hku.hk http://iphks.cite.hku.hk/ Interested? Questions?

14. Key resources Browne, M. (1997). The field of information policy: 2. Redefining the boundaries and methodologies. Journal of Information Science 23(5), pp. 339-51. Hay, L. (1999). Information policy issues In Hay, A & Henri, J.(eds.) The Net effect: School Library Media Centers and the Internet. London: Scarecrow Press. Kniffel, L., (2002) Who wants to be the first to go to jail? [Patriot Act]. American Libraries 33(7),pp. 46. Rowlands, I., et. al., (2002) Frame analysis as a tool for understanding information policy. Journal of Information Science. 28(1), pp. 31-8. Weingarten, F. (1989). Federal information policy development. In eds. C. McClure, P. Hernon, & H. Relyea. United States Government Information Policies. Ablex Publishing: Norwood, NJ.