Sharing and Privacy
Code of Conduct
In the same way that many of my lessons have evolved over the years from teacher centered to student centered, so has the code of conduct for student behavior in online environments. During my first few years of teaching, I created an interactive poster that details the expectations and provided students with links to find more information. After reviewing this information with them I would have them complete this interactive quiz and set about the business of teaching other content. However, I soon discovered that there was little in terms of student buy in. Often, students would commit an infraction and although they faced an in-class consequence, the mistake would repeat itself again and again, and there was not a lot of thought about the implications of continuing the behavior down the line.
A few years ago, I moved into a more student centered design, where students are given the information as a means to develop their own code of conduct (what we call a digital citizenship pledge).
The pledges I get in return to this assignment range from the very comprehensive to the simple listing (as you see in the examples below), however they all share the ownership piece making even their enforcement student centered.
That being said, and since I see my students for more than a year, I recently created a new assignment for those students that already have a pledge in their blogs and have refined them as part of our continuous improvement work, while still allowing the new students the time they need to still develop their own. I published this new version on KQED Teach (Digital Citizenship - Iron Chef). I have not used this particular set of lessons, but part of their follow-up is to use the student created videos on Flipgrid as reminders as needed.
Privacy
FERPA - My district uses the LMS Schoolloop and Infinite Campus to maintain student records. These are not shared with entities outside of the district, other than where applicable by law, but never directly by me. Outside of this, and because I do use other platforms when evaluating student work, I am judicious in their use. Oak Grove School District is part of the California Student Privacy Alliance, which means that before I introduce a new platform, such as Formative, or Rocketlit, where there is the potential of revealing portions of my students’ educational records, I contact my IT department who in turn works closely with any non-approved vendors to get them approved. If approval is not granted, which has happened a couple of times, and as much as it sometimes pains me, I do not use the platform. In some cases this has led me to find other approved alternatives or to devise my own way of recreating “what I wanted to do”. This in turn has led me down a path of discovery, allowing me to become a much better user of Google sheets and Google Draw, for example, and opening up several avenues for my own professional development.
COPPA - In a similar vein, student privacy and applicable regulations have taken center stage when developing my lessons and allowing students choices to demonstrate their knowledge. My students often are eager to explore new tools they find, but in many instances, these are not COPPA compliant. As much as I like to give my students a wide range of creation tools, as more regulations have been passed, many are no longer available. Case in point, up until this school year my students would use WIX and Weebly for Education to create their digital portfolios, with the blessing of our district. However, as stricter controls have been enacted and privacy rules have changed, we were informed that students would no longer have access to these two tools, limiting their choices to only Google sites. What this meant for AdVENTURE was not a scrapping of the assignment, but rather a push to find an easy way for students to transform what they had previously created, with the added benefit of a complete revision of the work.
PPRA - Although I am aware of the legislation this one does not really impact my delivery or educational choices as I have never had the need administer surveys, quizzes or activities that would reveal the type of information that this regulation covers. The only times when I’ve done this type of data collection, I’ve done it as part of a district mandated survey (CA Tobacco Survey, for example), and in compliance with PPRA, parents and students have been informed and given the opportunity to opt-out. When I’ve had the opportunity to pilot new products, which first undergo a needs analysis by myself (i.e. would the use of this new product enhance my student’s learning?), I’ve informed parents, my administration and IT of the intent, including when there is a possibility of students completing surveys that could collect student information. In some cases authorization has been denied or parents have requested that their students not participate, and in compliance with the regulation the students have been given an alternate “assignment” so as not to put them in a position where they feel excluded.
Sharing
In an effort to elevate my students' voices I have used a wide variety of tools where they can share their work, including KQED Learn, Edmodo, Google Classroom . Below is a comparison of their respective privacy policies.
Edmodo and Learn’s privacy policies are comparable in terms of the data they collect from students to provide services. In both cases, as long as the students are creating student accounts, the information being automatically collected is minimal - name password and school - and tied to the teacher who initiated the use of the platform. The only real difference between both is Learn’s required e-mail, though it is not used for anything other than creating an account. The data created through the use of the platform is moderated by the teacher of record. Log files and cookies in both do not collect personal information and are used to analyze how the service is being used. The capabilities of both platforms in terms of what they offer to teachers and students do differ, so it is my contention that both platforms can be used in tandem making full use of their differing capabilities. It is worth mentioning that both have requests pending by the California Student Privacy Alliance, so their use within my district is contingent on an individual review of privacy policies on an ongoing basis.
Google Classroom, being part of Google for Education, does collect a lot more personally identifiable data including location and data aimed at tailoring content. Although this opens up the possibility of privacy breaches (as we have been made aware in the media), there are several steps that districts and teachers can take to take reasonable measures to limit the exposure of students, starting with reviewing the privacy settings of student accounts on a consistent basis and teaching students to manage the privacy settings on the different platforms they may use outside of the classroom. This review and constant updating of privacy settings is the reasons why my students’ work cannot be shared directly for viewing in this portfolio, for example. With this said, though, my district fully encourages the use of Google Classroom over Edmodo, mainly due to the fact that students already have access to the Google suite of products, and would use them to create products to submit in either platform.
Reflection
One of the important things to remember and that I try to make evident to students regarding safety and privacy is the old mantra that “nothing online is truly private”. When working with younger students it is even more crucial, since not only are they being exposed to a wide variety of tools and media, they are continuing to develop their own digital footprint. The adults around them have a responsibility to ensure that whatever they do at this age does not come back years down the line as a limiting factor in their future endeavours. Not only do we have to teach them to be respectful, responsible and safe, but we also have to make sure that their information remains private. That first email account, for example, could appear on a random database and end up being used to target advertising or worse to create complete personas without their knowledge. It is imperative that we all take appropriate steps to safeguard these young online personas that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Of equal importance is the reminder that we must continue to safeguard their privacy and rights as creators. We make extensive choices regarding voice and choice, as well as providing students with room to grow their own voices with real-world audiences. However, these opportunities to be heard need to be leveraged against the possible misuse that could be incurred. It is important to teach students that more and more employers now look at social media profiles and could conceivably come across content a student created as a young individual. What seems funny or inconsequential now, could mean the difference between obtaining that scholarship or job in the future. Most of the adults that today are guiding their steps did not have to take that into consideration, but we have seen the consequences reported.