As educators we often need something to use in our classroom yesterday; consequently, privacy is often neglected when adopting new educational technologies. Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on bringing the two parties (developers and consumers) on either side of the technology of interest together to agree on a privacy plan to protect the user. FPF deals with data privacy issues that involve many technology sectors, but one that would be of interest to us is, of course, education. In this regard FPF acts as a privacy watchdog as technology and education continue to blend.
Now, this venture is obviously not as shiny, and eye-catching as others we have seen; nevertheless, as we move forward with technology in the driver’s seat with classroom educators, teachers need to consider the privacy of their students and take the precautions to keep them safe.
FPF’s website is very user friendly where you can find the topic of privacy in education under “Issues” along with other issues that affect education such as AI and algorithms. Much is based on US privacy acts; regardless, privacy is something to seriously consider when inviting tech companies into the classroom.
Thank you for this Neal! As I deal with personal client information, privacy has always been a concern and particularly moving forward. I didn’t know where to look to get information or learn how to contribute (besides diving into cybersecurity itself!) so this is a great resource to start with.
My presence in this course shows I have obviously learned to embrace AI as well as other adaptive digital solutions in the formal education setting as well as in industry and am looking forward to what lies ahead in this arena . But all this data goes somewhere and can potentially be used to identify users outside of the original setting and intended purpose. The same way our personal data (date of birth, address, SIN) are all neatly compartmentalized for our use, makes it that much easier for our data to be stolen.
And yes, caution is not as shiny as you say, but necessary all the same.
Privacy issues are of main concern in the k-12 classroom teacher. While many decisions are made centrally, far removed from the student, teacher or classroom, as technology becomes more ubiquitous, and teachers start venturing out to find their own tools having a watchdog such as this is ideal to lessen the burden on school boards while simultaneously providing teachers with more confidence when using new tools. Perhaps this transition is short, and boards of education get on board with the rapidly changing technological environment, but until then watchdogs such as this pose an interesting, and perhaps beneficial mechanism to providing students with 21st century opportunities while still providing some level of security.
Privacy is something that gets overlooked in schools when it comes to Technology… I remember when our district brought in Google Apps for Education and then had to do a 180 when they realized that all the student info was being stored in servers outside the country; a huge privacy breach. As we incorporate school apps, BYOD, and other technologies into the classroom setting, we need to be mindful that we are still protecting both ourselves and our students.