Best practices for student information and data security would include knowing exactly what you are signing your students up for when accepting terms for online services. One thing that I do for my students is I use GoGuardian. This is an online management tool provided by our county to monitor what students are doing online. This is important because I can see if students are on appropriate sites and if they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. We have had cases in the past where students have been on a math game site that was approved and a stranger made contact with the student. Through GoGuardian I can see exactly what was happening and I can shut down sites through the student’s computer even if I am not near them. We as teachers must safeguard our students privacy and limit who has access to their information as stated by FERPA (Data Quality Campaign, 2014).
In order to build digital citizenship in all of my students, we talk about expectations the first week of school. I talk with them about how passwords should never be shared and how no website should ever be asking you personal information. I talk with parents some about how they need to protect their children at home while using devices. I talk with my students about being aware of everything they are accepting, not giving out their passwords, etc.
My school also promotes digital citizenship week. Each day we were something that goes along with a saying about being aware online. If you are an online school, each day a teacher could do a short Zoom lesson and save it for parents or guardians and students to listen to. Adams goes into talking about what this could like in her article (2016). Adams includes a website that gives teachers free resources and curriculum to teach about digital citizenship.
“Potentially everything…is recorded by the learning management system” (Dennen, 2016, p.7). This is an important piece to include in county or district AUP’s so that parents and students understand what happens with their data on the district/county LMS.
Reading for the term such as… how it means that there are many things that the company is probably not telling you. Understanding how exactly they will protect student data and information, how will it be used? In order to efficiently manage students privacy and data, something I do is I only use county approved websites, etc. If I want to use another website, I make sure to have it approved prior to using it.
In order to ensure students are safe online if they are older, it would be important to discuss the terms of use/service and make sure students understand what they are signing before clicking “accept”.
As a county, we do not use any sites that “collect data” on students. Most recently, we have not been able to use ClassDojo (a favorite of mine) as a behavior system as it is seen as “collecting data” on students behavior. Part of this goes with the privacy act of 1974 which states that we cannot collect data on students online.
References:
Adams, H. R. (2016). Choose Privacy Week Educate Your Students (And Yourself) about Privacy. Knowledge Quest, 44(4), 30–33. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.messiah.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lxh&AN=113437747&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Data Quality Campaign. (2014). Federal Privacy Laws That Apply to Children and Education. Safeguarding Data. Data Quality Campaign. Data Quality Campaign. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.messiah.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED560584&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Dennen, V. P. (2016). Ownership of Digital Course Artifacts. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 17(4), 5–19. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.messiah.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=122616869&site=ehost-live&scope=site
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