Educational Technology Websites - EDUC 639 Wk 4

 

Educational Technology Websites - EDUC 639 Wk 3

 

EDUC 639: Security of Student Data

 

Security of Student Data 

The terms data privacy and data security sound synonymous, but they are not. Data privacy is an ‘umbrella term’ that covers many aspects of this issue. Largely it is made up of state and federal laws, and the expectation of the privacy of individuals. Those expectations might be, but not limited to, no unauthorized access, use, loss, or destruction of data. This may seem simple, but when you start thinking about where companies and municipalities, school districts store their data and who they pay to manage it, it can get quite complicated. How do you legislate “The Cloud”? (SPI Briefing Room, 2015) Where are these databases actually stored? Are they in your city, state, or (even) country?

This has been a growing issue for school districts around the world for some time. However, under the conditions that learning has been happening the last year or so of the global COVID-19 pandemic, this issue has blown up to almost a crisis level in many school districts. Matthew Ketchum, director of EdTech, Modesto City Schools, has some great advice for educators. He suggests that we remain ever mindful as we continue to add new technology apps, tools, and programs to our repertoires. Seek out our local and federal state laws for guidance, making certain that vendors have a clear, accessible, privacy policy to avoid the possibility that student data could be sold. (Dyknow, 2020)

Tools to help check student privacy compliance:

Common Sense Education’s privacy evaluation tool.

iKeepSafe Badging System for vendors.

Student Data Privacy Alliance CA & Nationwide Database

Code of Virginia § 22.1-20.2. Student data security.

 

References

Dyknow. (2020, September 3). A Crash Course on Student Data Privacy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4CjhqieFns

SPI Briefing Room. (2015, July 20). Data Privacy vs. Data Security [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frFVppv2Q8k

EDUC 639: Fostering Digital Citizenship in our Students

 

Blog: Fostering Digital Citizenship in our Students                                                  EDUC 639

Digital citizenship is a hot topic in education today. As educators, how can we teach and/or encourage our students to responsibly participate in and contribute to the digital world? The ISTE Educator standard 3b suggests that we “establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources and fosters digital literacy and media fluency”. Okay, that sounds great, but how exactly do we accomplish that? One very vital way to begin to establish this learning culture that fosters digital literacy and media fluency is to get our students’ parents on board as collaborative allies.

Empowering parents with the support they need to understand the importance of digital citizenship will also foster literacy and fluency. Keeping up with their student’s apps and social media can be overwhelming to parents and teachers alike. That is why it is important to become each other’s allies and we can all grow our digital citizenship together as we teach our students how to do the same.

Keegan Korf had some wonderful suggestions in this TEDxOmaha video. 

·                    Listen
·         Educate Ourselves (Parents and Teachers)
·         Seek out resources available to manage digital literacy
·         Investigate digital laws with your child(ren)/students, for example Sexting Laws
·         Explore social media your child(ren)/students are using to better help them navigate those waters more responsibly
·         Set screen time limits, such as charging all devices in parent/guardian’s room at night after 10pm.

References

ISTE Standards for Educators. (n.d.). https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators

TEDxTalks. (2017, November 14). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztgSr42CSEI