Additional Resources Resources for Ensuring Privacy and Safety Teaching children the importance of internet privacy and safety is imperative, but can be a difficult task. School districts also have a huge responsibility keeping students safe online while at school. It is important for school districts to develop policies that will comply with FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) rules and regulations. The resources below are intended to help guide you to a safe online experience. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act FERPA Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule. COPPA Websites dedicated to teaching digital citizenship: https://www.commonsensemedia.org http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Home_Page.html http://www.edutopia.org/article/digital-citizenship-resources http://www.nisd.net/digitalcitizen/ ISTE Digital Citizenship http://www.stopbullying.gov http://www.stopcyberbullying.org
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Additional Resources
Resources for Ensuring Privacy and Safety Teaching children the importance of internet privacy and safety is imperative, but can be a difficult task. School districts also have ahuge responsibility keeping students safe online while at school. It is important for school districts to develop policies that will complywith FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) rules and regulations. The resources below are intended to help guide you to asafe online experience.
Family Educational Rights and Privacy ActFERPA Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule. COPPA
Websites dedicated to teaching digital citizenship: https://www.commonsensemedia.org http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Home_Page.html http://www.edutopia.org/article/digital-citizenship-resources http://www.nisd.net/digitalcitizen/ ISTE Digital Citizenship http://www.stopbullying.gov http://www.stopcyberbullying.org
Background Information on Ensuring Privacy and Safety
School districts spend a considerable amount of time and money securing brick and mortar buildings. They ensure that intruderscan't get in and that students are protected from things that are harmful to them. With a shift to online environments we need totake a similar approach to how we protect our students from harm. Just as we require visitors to check into our schools andensure that students stay on our safe campuses during school hours, we must also keep digital intruders out and our students andtheir information in the safety of our online environments. The information provided in this section of the Wiki is dedicated to aiding teachers in drawing a virtual security boundaryaround online environments. In addition to drawing boundaries we have provided information on teaching students how to actsafely when approached with issues in the digital world.
As with traditional brick and mortar schools, online schools and teachers must abide by a host of federal regulations regardingstudent privacy. The foremost act dealing with student privacy is FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). FERPAapplies to all schools that receive funding from the Department of Education. So, most private schools do not have to abide bythe act's regulations. FERPA's primary purpose is to allow students and their parents access and the ability to possibly amendeducational records. It also prevents schools from disclosing student records or personal student information without priorconsent of the parent or student. However, schools can disclose certain information pertaining to name, address, and dates ofattendance, among others, unless the parent or student opts out. A student's parents rights under FERPA only apply until the student reaches 18 or enrolls in post-secondary education. Once astudent is enrolled in post-secondary education, the parent no longer has any rights under FERPA. At this point, only thestudent can access records in accordance with FERPA regulations. For more information on FERPA, please visit the departmentof education website at: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html.
Issues for Online Teachers Ensuring Privacy and SafetyThis page is dedicated to possible privacy and safety issues online teachers need to be aware of.
Digital FootprintWhat a student says or does online at a young age can stick around with them for the rest of their lives. It is importantto educate students on the long-term impact of posting photos, statements, or other information in the online forum.Just as you would teach your students not to give out their information to strangers, you should also teach them notto post their information in a public, online forum.
It is important to remind students about the possible negative side effects of their online posts as well as educatethem on how to cite the information they find on the internet. The presentation below is full of "one-liners" that giveadvice to students about their digital citizenship. Showing students this slideshow from time to time would be a goodway to discuss the long-term effects of the internet. Creating a shared slideshow as a class where students add theirown "one-liners" about digital citizenship would also be a good introduction to teaching an online class and getstudents to think about their own online usage. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/145XXQxjtKpEz6K-YppxX1quN1TRzO-DdmSbbVSuWbY0/edit?pli=1#slide=id.p Personal DataWhen signing students up for services or assigning projects to them, it is important to look through privacy statementsand information about how student data will be collected. It is important to note that services that are not specificallyfor education reserve the right to collect personal data. Read through privacy information and reference that withCOPPA and FERPA before signing students up for services. https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions Cyber BullyingBullying can take on many forms, and in an online environment it is called cyberbullying. Currently lawmakers areworking on making bullying online punishable by law, but these laws don't cover everything you would expect. Thevideo below likens cyberbullying to a virus and provides some background information on it.
Exposure to Inappropriate Content The World Wide Web is full of tools and information that can enable us to create, connect, and collaborate, but sincethe Web is largely unregulated in parts, there is plenty of objectionable content out there as well. When assigning anonline assignment to students be sure to check that all materials embedded in the site are age appropriate. A site thathas good information may have links or images of inappropriate content embedded. The site below has good information on the pitfalls of the Internet and the things to watch out for as a teacher. http://www.netsmartz.org/InappropriateContent
Abuse While online environments are not physical places, the medium can lead young people into situations of physicalabuse. The site listed below gives some excellent tips on how to keep our students safe.
One of the most difficult tasks for teachers is ensuring online privacy and safety for their students. Any social interaction makes youvulnerable and puts you at risk while you are online. (Palloff, Pratt 61.) One of the best solutions for ensuring privacy and safety is to teachdigital citizenship daily throughout all areas of the curriculum.
You can read more about the nine elements of digital citizenship at these websites:
School systems should develop acceptable use policies (AUP) to implement in all schools. These policies should be available to parentsand students to review before school begins each year. The AUP should be read and signed by the student and parent indicating that theyunderstand the importance of maintaining online privacy and safety at school and home. It is important that the teacher use the statemandated technology course of study or ISTE standards to guide instruction on teaching with technology. Students should also sign acontract or digital pledge stating the importance of protecting their digital presence. Schools should make sure that their infrastructure issecure and an internet filtering system is used. The filter does not catch everything inappropriate on the internet but it is a good place tostart for keeping students safe. There are also many screen capture and real time monitoring programs that can be installed on computersto monitor what students are doing.
Encourage parents to spend time their children in the digital world. Unlike standard media, the Internet is interactive and gives everyone theopportunity to interact with anyone. Always remind kids the "virtual" safety is just as important as "real world" safety.
Encourage parents at home to keep computers in a common area of the house and set reasonable limits on computer usage. Encourage students to protect their passwords and personal information, as they would with something like a journal. Help the studentsunderstand and use privacy settings to restrict who has access to or can post on social networking profiles, blogs and other accounts. Continuing to talk to students about online safety is imperative. Giving students real world examples of things that could go wrong seems tomake an impact on them. This link provides videos of real life examples of how some students were compromised online. They could beused to start meaningful conversations. Clear expectations and guides should be set and enforced at both school and home. Establishingrules and procedures for using the internet at both school and at home is imperative. It is also important for parents and teachers to modelappropriate behavior online and create a positive digital footprint. There should also be clearly stated and reinforced consequences forinappropriate use. This guide for parents from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is a good resource to help ensure privacy and safety. Teachers play a major role in ensuring student privacy. However, there are steps a school or district can take to ensure privacy as well. Before online educational services are used, such as learning management systems, the school or school district should have proceduresin place to evaluate the potential privacy risks. These procedures include, but are not limited to, evaluating the data being accessed, controlover the data, and what safeguards are in place to protect the system from malicious attacks. As always, each potential system should beused in accordance to all local, state, and federal laws regarding student privacy. In addition to upfront evaluation, once an online service isin place, schools and school districts should make all parents aware of what systems are being used. This may include requesting consentor asking for acknowledgement of awareness. For more information on best practices regarding student privacy, visit the Privacy TechnicalAssistance Center. References:Palloff, Rena M., and Keith Pratt. "Vulnerability Ethics and Privacy." Building Virtual Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the OnlineClassroom Second Edition of Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace. Hoboken: Jossey-Bass, 2007. 61-65. Print. Educational Technology of Baldwin County http://et.bcbe.org/documents--forms.html MORE:Background Information on Ensuring Privacy and SafetyAdditional Resources Issues for Online Teachers Ensuring Privacy and Safety
