Educational Technology Policies and Regulations

Educational Technology Policies and Regulations 

 Key Takeaways and Impacts

Key takeaways from the readings/videos:

I learned a tremendous amount of information this week that all educators should know, and that I should have learned years ago, before I started teaching kids in a classroom. The basis for our learning this week is that there are many laws (Federal, state, and local laws) that protect the privacy of parents and students by protecting identifiable information. Identifiable information is data like grades, learning disabilities, special needs information, test scores, disciplinary information, and more. The most impactful law protecting the privacy of parents and student's identifiable information is the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.

Understanding FERPA is critical in our roles as educators. It requires educational institutions to keep identifiable information private unless given written consent to share with someone else. Of course, as educators who care about our students, we rarely if ever knowingly share this information. Therefore it is what we don't know that will hurt educators, students, and teachers.
Data about us can be found in many places. When we look at a webpage, when we go shopping, when we send emails, etc.

As educators, we need to understand:
1) How this information can be collected by third parties and gathered and distributed.
2) How can we prevent our students' identifiable information from being collected by outside parties?

These two questions than lead to a third important question:

3) What educational tools online can I allow my students to use that will not gather their identifiable information?


Through my reading this week, I have found several answers to each of these questions. Some good practices for educators include:

1) Manage computing advices available to students by installing software updates, adjusting content filer settlings, and modifying system preferences. Keeping security and privacy settings up to date can prevent malware and help protect student data.

2) Schools and Districts can install tools that can remotely disable or erase devices in the event of loss or theft. Putting stickers or engravings on devices may also cut down the possibility devices may be stolen, as they make it more difficult for the thief to resell the device.

3) Ask students and parents to sign a Acceptable Use Policy(AUP). This is a written agreement between parents, students, and the school that outlines the terms of responsible device use and consequences for misuse.

4) Clearly communicate to students and their families what student data is being collected by the school, and how this data can be used.

5) Be aware of what educational services are currently being used in your district.

6) If you as the teacher want to recommend an app that was not specifically designed for education, go through this checklist first:

A) Check with your administration that it complies with applicable school policies
B) Investigate the app, does it make students make an account in order to start using the app? If so, does it collect personal information(email, name, age, etc.)?
C) Does the app developer share your information with others? This should be listed in their privacy policy.
D) Does the app collect additional information such as location or contacts?



How can your new learning impact your current work or help you in the near future?

Watching the instructional video and doing the reading this week has scared me and opened my eyes at the same time. Just last week, I recommended a free scanning app to students so that students could scan their homework from home and upload it online. This could have been, and probably was, a serious violation of FERPA. This upcoming week, I will investigate and explore all my current practices in relation to students using online web sources that collect data, and use this information to seriously impact what educational tools I will use in the future. I also will use this information to help the other teachers at my school avoid potentially serious consequences by informing them of the dangers of unknowingly allowing student private identifiable information to be shared.