Internet Privacy in Education

We are living in a time where college students admittedly spend 9.5 hours on internet-connect devices which translates into a huge amount of metadata being gathered from users daily.  Data collection is a driving force for businesses as marketing of products and services to target audiences such as students as well as the target of spam mail and pop-up ads.  Yet, students continue to be oblivious to the fact that while using devices connected to a schools' network or otherwise, their behavior is being tracked and data is being gathered.

As school leaders, it is our legal and ethical responsibility to provide an infrastructure that will safeguard students accessing the internet on the district's network.  CIPA requires that school districts develop an internet safety plan addressing the unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal identification information regarding minors.  Actions that violate the privacy of students include posting students' names, classwork, and pictures on a school website.  School districts must determine the level of student information disclosure that is considered safe and appropriate coinciding with the instructional goals for students.  Under COPPA, teachers can act in lieu of parents to grant permission for children under the age of 13 to provide personal information to commercial websites.  The Student Privacy Protection Act, included as part of an amendment to ESEA in 2015, will further protect the disclosure of students personal information.  School districts should establish and implement privacy policies to ensure no collection, analysis, or sale of individual or aggregated student use for market research purposes should be permitted.  

Students must be taught that everything moving through the internet is public and no one should use the internet with the expectation of privacy.  Additionally, Internet education should be taught to students in elementary school in order to build a solid foundation for safe and secure internet use.

Cyber Ethics in Schools

Children have been taught about ethics in schools for centuries, and now it is past time that they are taught about cyber ethics.  A cyber ethics curriculum should be adopted by all school districts and implemented within all schools every two years beginning in grade three.  Additionally, school leaders can be even more proactive by incorporating the curriculum into every class and particularly during the first week of the course to begin establishing expectations.

So what exactly is cyber ethics?  It is the study of moral, legal, and social issues involving cybertechnology.  It evaluates the social policies and laws that have been created in response to issues generated by the development and use of cybertechnology.  What do you think is the greatest cyber ethic issue in schools today?  Hacking?  Plagiarism?  The unauthorized downloading of games and music is the number one cyber ethics issue in schools.  Misuse of intellectual property, aka copyright violations, is also a great cyber ethics concern in schools. Students tend to "drive recklessly" while using the internet and are seemingly blind to the road signs that are erected along the information highway.  They see the popular song available on a peer-to-peer network, and two seconds later they are downloading it to their hard drive or mobile device.  

Educators are behooved to teach students about cyber ethics by establishing a culture of responsible and appropriate use of cyber technology.  Students must be aware that hiding behind anonymity online is a fallacy since everything done online can be tracked back to the person who is supposed to be anonymous.  The rules that apply to the physical world also apply to the online world and students must govern themselves accordingly.  This must be practiced in the classroom on a daily basis in order to ensure students begin adopting the online practice and stop to think before they link.

Ethical Use of Social Media in Schools

School leaders in the 21st century must embrace the use of social media in schools because it affords the opportunity for all students to contribute to the world in meaningful ways.  Online and mobile access to social media is not just a trend but has revolutionize the way students socialize.  Social media should be embraced by educators as a learning tool in the classroom. When incorporating social media in the classroom, educators should be mindful of Children's Online Protection Act of 1998 and the Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000.  COPPA protects students under 13 from having their personal information collected without the permission of a parent or guardian.  CIPA requires that schools provide Internet filtering to prevent student access to offensive content.  This is the reason why school districts have implemented Acceptable Use Policies for students which must be signed by parents. 

On the flip side,  the use of social media in schools has also been unethical.  The reports of educators "friending" students can and has led to inappropriate and unethical relationships between educators and students.  Other reports have been made of educators engaging in cyberbullying tactics against students.  Instances such as these have led districts to implementing rules blocking educators and students from communicating on social media for any reason related or unrelated to education.  Districts have also instituted "no-friending" policies to restrict inappropriate contact between educators and students.

As educators, we consistently model skills, strategies, and methods for our colleagues and our students.  Educators should also model responsible use of social media in schools as well as provide feedback to students on their use of social media on a daily basis.  Behavior modification requires constant practice of the new behavior and some school districts have stopped using AUPs and have replaced them with RUPs (responsible use policies).  If we want to change the culture of using social media from one of irresponsibility to one of healthy, responsible use, then we must create an educational environment that fosters this behavior.  The more students are immersed in this environment of practicing responsible use of social media, then the more they will be invested and adopt the behavior as their own.

What constitutes acceptable use?

Most, if not all, school districts have implemented a clearly written acceptable use policy regarding the use of technology for educational purposes.  This is thought to be one of the most important documents created and implemented by districts since it governs how students and employees can use technology for educational purposes within the school district.  The policies also protect the school district from liabilities while students and employees are accessing the network to access the internet.

Let's think about what really constitutes acceptable use.  Is it acceptable for employees (teachers) to shop for non-educational items during working hours and have the items delivered to the job?  Is it acceptable for students to purchase pizza online during school hours and have it delivered for lunch?  Why is it then acceptable for teachers to order pizza online during school hours and give it to their students for lunch?  Both scenarios are unrelated to education and both are identified in a district AUP, yet one is acceptable while the other is not.  So how do we rationalize this double standard to students?  Why do we accept this double standard from adult teachers?

The guidelines in a written AUP should always be rationalized to support the academic improvement of students as well as the professional improvement of teachers.  We are educators who are in the business of educating our students and improving our professionalism while utilizing the networks of the school district that employs us and educates us.  Teachers and students must always realize that using the school district's network demands them to behave according to the established rules.  Prior to accessing the district's network, be sure to review the AUP and ask pertinent questions of the district if and when an AUP policy guideline deems questionable in relation to the goal of increasing student academic achievement and teacher professionalism.

Ethics and Technology. What is it and why should we be concerned?

Experiencing the information technology innovations within the last twenty years has absolutely captivated educational leaders in many ways.  As school leaders, we are focused on developing students holistically to become future leaders and great achievers of English, Math, Science, and Technology.  Let's not forget that we are also focused on exposing students to ethical decision-making which leads students to becoming responsible and respectful members of society.  When Ethics and Technology come together, the outcome can result in either:

 Mona Lisa

 or Frankenstein.

Ethics are moral principles that govern our behavior, and technology has fundamentally altered our lives.  Imagine marrying ethics and technology and reproducing an offspring of quite unique characteristics that push the boundaries of ethical behavior in a technological realm.  Now imagine this taking place among the adolescent population within a high school setting, and I believe you can probably begin to conceptualize why we all should be concerned.

This blog will dive into various ethical issues that are related to information technology from a school leader's perspective.