Very disturbing privacy statements from Edmodo, Schoology, and Coursera:
Thank you so much for compiling these three excerpts from the policies of tech companies. I think that most of us are blissfully unaware about these kinds of practices, but I’m not sure that we can use ignorance as an excuse any more.
I am trying to figure the way forward, though. I want to be able to use tools that allow for the best types of collaboration while ensuring that students own their data. How can we ensure that teachers (the ones that are closest to kids) are making good decisions about student data while not being hamstrung by the inability to use “cloud-based” platforms? Do we have to literally own all of the servers in order to make it safe? And, is it safer when the data is “owned by the district” than when it is “owned by a company acting on behalf of the district”?
These are the questions I have, but I don’t want these statements to exist. I don’t want student data to ever be an “asset” that can be bought or sold. A student, and their learning data, is precious and for the time that their parents have entrusted us with them, we should do right by them. We should give them their data any time they want to leave or when they graduate. But, we should also let them publish their work and reflect upon it publicly if they want to do so.
The student data privacy conversation may be murky, but companies selling student data is not. It is never okay.
