ISTE 2011 Privacy in the Digital Age: Policy and Practice in Schools

Panel Members:

• Jeff Mao (moderator) - Maine Department of Education
• Jennifer Leach - Federal Trade Commission
• Carrie James - GoodPlay Project
• Kristin Hokanson - PA Association for Educational Communications & Technology
• Shira Lee Katz - Common Sense Media

(1) What is important about privacy?
(2) Case Study
(3) Key Questions
(4) What can we do?

Privacy is important to ensure protection and safety of student's identity and intellectual rights in the Internet. There is also the concern of lending students with campus owned equipment and making students understand it's proper use when brought home.

What is your biggest concern about online privacy for your students? There is a significant concern in using the Internet when it comes to sharing information, using campus devices to demonstrating presence online, documenting personal accounts online or comments on professional environment, to name a few. These different issues are growing and are affecting the learning climate in schools, at work, and at home.

Some facts taken from a study conducted by this panel: 90% of parents are concerned that kids share too much information online. 65% of teens are concerned about their privacy. 85% of teens thunk social networks shouldn't consent tones personal info for marketing. 70% of parents think schools should educate students about privacy.

What is privacy? Privacy and Security, Privacy and Reputation, and Privacy and Advertising are three huge groups that contribute to the determination on the identification and understanding of privacy. Privacy today is identified through information being searchable, information being replicable, issue on scale, notion of persistence, and websites being non-transparent.

Unfortunately, there is still a significant number of parents who are not aware of what their children are doing online. These parents are still in the belief that their children are not capable of doing harm to themselves and/or to others online. Likewise, parents are not aware of the consequences of their children's actions, especially when there are records or documentation that can be retrieved online to demonstrate the different web sites visited and being accessed by their children. Parents don't have to be tech gurus in order to be mindful and aware of their children's actions online. What parents need to understand that they have thebpowerto be vigilant and consistent in knowing what their children are doing. This includes finding the resources to use to support the need to monitor their children.