Continuing our discussion about online privacy rights and exposing students' information...
By Daniel Otto
Education Apps = Loss of Privacy?
With the new age of digital apps and assistive technologies
rolling out on a monthly basis, are we as educators threatening the privacy of
ourselves and our students by signing up for them? As future technology leaders
this is going to be a key topic for us to cover in our buildings. With
districts finding it difficult to keep up with the new technologies or even not
having the funding to purchase these new technologies, educators are taking it
upon themselves to purchase and sign up their classes. This is resulting in data
breaches and privacy issues in some districts. Apps are sending students and
teacher’s information to other companies which results in student profiling.
Teachers have no idea who or what companies are seeing this data. Should
educators be putting this information out there or should they be waiting for
their districts to catch up to the times?
This is an important issue that needs to be addressed and introduced to students as soon as they begin using cOmputers. This will instill safe Internet use at a young age, and hopefully carry over through their lives. When we have our students sign up for different resources online it is important to know how and if your students information and work is being used for anything else besides the initial purpose. My school has begun requesting that we submit information about any of the sites we use and I think that is to avoid student and teacher information from being shared with companies.
ReplyDeleteIf schools ignore this pressing issue, they are going to find themselves in trouble with the school district and parents.
Daniel,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some similar questions that Elizabeth brought up regarding the privacy of our students. I do not use programs that I am not familiar with or have not been suggested/required by our district. If I do use anything with my students I make sure that they use their school email only and do not put any personal information down on the site or when signing up for the app/program. I have not had issues with our information being sent and used by other companies. I know if I am going to be using a new site or program that I let my administrators know first. I explain to them the program, why I am using it, what information is required, and how it will enhance my lesson. I think the best way to avoid this issue is to research and take time to let administrators know what we are doing so it is off of us.
For students to have access to computers they need to be educated by about the proper use of the internet and how to protect themselves. At the elementary level, students sometimes does not understand about privacy issue and I always explain it by using real life situations (when taking a shower, do they want to be watch?) . My student have started to understand the pros and con of using the internet. As with anything, I always have my principal know about a site that I will be using and why just because I don't want if anything she is not aware. The goal is to make educate students about what responsibility comes with using technology.
ReplyDelete