蜜桃影视

Although the pandemic forced students into an abrupt shift to haphazard online learning earlier this year, a majority of parents and educators support the boom in education technology and hope online learning goes on after the public health emergency subsides, according to a new report.

But researchers argued that the surge in digital education shouldn鈥檛 come at the expense of privacy protections that keep kids safe online 鈥斅爀ven if neither parents nor educators ranked that as an urgent concern.

鈥淐andidly, this was not something we expected to see鈥� because of the challenges that came with transitioning to online learning so quickly, Elizabeth Laird, the senior fellow for student privacy at the nonprofit , said during an Oct. 21 webinar.

鈥淚n spite of those challenges, parents and teachers really do see value in online learning and the task ahead is to figure out how to do it responsibly, how to protect students鈥� privacy,鈥� and make sure they鈥檙e not subjected to data breaches and other threats, she said.

Yet the emphasis on student security hasn鈥檛 kept up with the proliferation of new tech, the group found in its report, which the center released Oct. 22.

Nearly half of teachers reported receiving no substantive training on how to protect students鈥� personal data. For example, 65 percent of teachers reported using group video conferencing programs such as Zoom 鈥� but just one in five educators said they鈥檝e been trained on the privacy implications of the platforms.

At a moment of heightened instability for both families and educators, neither group considered students鈥� digital privacy to be a top priority during the pandemic, according to surveys, and 70 percent of parents said they trust schools鈥� student data practices. However, just four in 10 parents said their school has explained how it protects student data. In focus groups, students also expressed little concern about data privacy and security, all the while highlighting incidents where video calls were hacked or teachers exposed students鈥� grades while sharing their screens with the class.

Online surveys and focus groups in the report were conducted by the firm Edge Research between May and August and included a nationally representative sample of more than 1,200 parents and more than 1,000 K-12 teachers.

When the pandemic shuttered campuses, schools nationwide scrambled to provide computers and internet to children without home access to technology, a trend that played out in the center鈥檚 survey data. In the teacher survey, 43 percent of educators said their schools provided students with computers before the pandemic. After COVID-19 closed campuses, that number jumped to 86 percent. But as the use of technology grows, the report argues, it鈥檚 incumbent on policymakers and educators to ensure that it鈥檚 used responsibly without hampering students鈥� civil rights.

Several recent incidents bring the issue to the forefront. Through a partnership with the company GoGuardian, Chicago teachers are able to access students鈥� computers remotely, giving them a window into how children use district-issued devices. But when the pandemic turned students鈥� bedrooms into makeshift classrooms, the program . By providing teachers access to students鈥� webcams and microphones, a default setting within GoGuardian allowed teachers to watch tens of thousands of students without their knowledge, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The issue was fixed last month.

A recent report by 蜜桃影视 highlighted how more than 100 school districts across the country 鈥� including the Minneapolis public schools 鈥� have contracted with the digital surveillance company Gaggle to monitor students鈥� online activities during remote learning. Through artificial intelligence and a team of moderators, Gaggle scans student emails, chat messages and files in search of trigger words like 鈥渂omb鈥� and 鈥渒ill me.鈥� Though Gaggle is designed to keep students safe, critics argue it violates student privacy rights.

Beatriz Beckford, a parent and national director of the nonprofit MomsRising, said during the webinar that third-party education technology companies should be subjected to greater regulation 鈥� especially software that 鈥渦se algorithms that are steeped in racial bias.鈥� Parents are unsure how education technology companies, including big players like Google, which was hit with this week by the U.S. Justice Department, safeguard student data, she said.

鈥淧arents aren鈥檛 at a space where we know to even ask them, like, 鈥極h, they鈥檙e using Google Classroom, well how heavily regulated is Google Classroom with respect to student data?鈥欌�� she said. 鈥溾�業s there going to be some data leak that happens somewhere and then that 43 that my kid got on a test because he had the flu that day is now circulating the internet forever?鈥�

Laird noted that Beckford鈥檚 concerns were reflective of parents鈥� sentiment more broadly, according to the center鈥檚 report.

鈥淢ost parents report schools not having those conversations with them, so parents are left just wondering what is happening with the data,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e think that schools should be having those conversations.鈥�

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