In the world of educational technology, one of the big concerns is student privacy. On the one hand, customizable software and applications offer an ability to meet each student’s individual needs, but doing it well requires obtaining and updating huge quantities of student information.
How to protect that information is one of the hot topics this week at SXSWedu in Austin and two of the folks speaking are Keith Krueger, CEO of Consortium for School Networking and Aimee Rogstad Guidera, president and CEO of the Data Quality Campaign. Here’s their take on what’s at stake, and why there is a need for national standards:
Protecting student privacy requires a national commitment
By Keith Krueger and Aimee Rogstad Guidera
Austin is renowned worldwide for its inspiring music and entertainment scene. Over the next several days, Austin again will shine on center stage, but this occasion is for a different kind of harmonious movement — one that is transforming America’s learning landscape as we know it: innovation in education.
The sessions at SXSWedu conference show how the use of data and technology in education has the power to help ensure that every student is on a path for success. For example, early warning reports can provide teachers and families with critical information to determine whether students are on or off track to academic success and intervene accordingly.
With the use of mobile devices, e-textbooks and other digital resources, students are able to collaborate and connect with peers and educators inside and outside of the classroom as they master new concepts. Technology also provides parents and guardians with the information they need to monitor and support their children’s educational progress.
As technology’s role grows in shaping the learning experience and development of our students, so does the potential use and amount of student data available. The availability of high-quality information brings the promise of personalizing learning to meet the unique needs of every child, but also raises legitimate concerns for parents, who want to know how their child’s data are being used and what efforts are being made to protect them.
Education leaders, therefore, have an obligation. And that is to ensure that student information is used responsibly, ethically and only when necessary to benefit learning.
More than two-dozen major national education organizations — representing teachers, parents, administrators, as well as district and state policymakers — affirmed their commitment here in Austin to the safe and effective use of student data through the release of a set of commonly held principles. These principles reinforce that anyone who has access to the personal information of students should do everything in their power to protect it and use it in the service of learning.
This historic, first-ever set of principles state that data should: support learning; foster continuous improvement; inform, engage and empower; be accessible to parents, students and educators; inform professional judgment of educators; and only be shared for authorized school purposes.
The Student Data Principles outline practices that lead to better data use and protection, including anyone with access to student information should be trained and follow publicly available rules, and institutions that collect and maintain student information should carry out strong governance and security and remain transparent about how the information is used and protected.
The commitment expressed this week does not start and end in Austin or with the 30 endorsing organizations. All people with a stake in education can do more, and there is an incredible opportunity to truly transcend learning under such core beliefs and practices.
The education community is leading the path forward to fully realize the potential of America’s real rising rock stars: our students.