Digital Safety in a Digital World

 The Internet: A Digital Frontier...

...full of endless possibilities and vast resources for its users to explore. Nowhere else can people find an ever-expanding library that shifts and grows exponentially by the second. Now more than ever, the internet has become a vital asset in almost every aspect of our society, including that of education. From Zoom to Google Classroom to Kahoot, the internet provides a variety of tools for both teachers and students to utilize.

But with these tools, there comes a concern of safety. Just as there are people out there who wish to use the internet for good, there are people out there who seek to harm others with it. Whether someone steals your personal information or hacks into your bank account to drain your funds, the question for students and teachers alike becomes:

How do teachers keep their students safe, and what can students do to aid in this process?

For Teachers

Especially when incorporating technology into elementary and middle level classrooms, teachers act as the first and last line of defense when it comes to students' safety online. Luckily, there are a number of ways teachers can further ensure that their students' private information is protected.

Vetting

Vetting is a process that teachers and school districts go through when they encounter a new website or application that they want to use in the classroom but don't know if it's safe for students. The process boils down to a safety check for the app in question, its main focus being to ensure that the new piece of software does not compromise students' personal info if they sign up for an account. A good example of such a compromise is when the app in question begins to send students advertisements through email.

Vetting a piece of software, as per class discussion, usually falls to the district's education technology department, where computer experts, like Hayden Champagne, will reach out to the company in hopes that the company signs the necessary agreements in order for it to be used in the classroom. No agreement = no vetting = no classroom use. Don't worry though, most districts keep a publicly accessible list of vetted and unvetted websites and apps so that everyone knows which sites to stay away from.

Data Privacy Laws

On the more legal side of things, teachers should know that student data is protected under two key laws (Hayden's slides):

• FERPA - This law prohibits educational institutions from making money off of selling students' data. Any app that participates in this is automatically unvetted.
• COPPA - This law makes sure sites and apps follow strict standards when collecting data from children under 13 years of age.

The two others, PPRA and the SDPPRA, are not as well-recognized, but are just as important.

For Students

The big thing for students, especially young students, is making sure that they are as educated as possible about how to safely use and engage with technology; whether we like it or not, kids much younger than we were are getting their hands on phones and laptops, so making sure that they know how to properly use the internet is huge. This idea is summed up in what's called digital citizenship, seen as the moral code and guideline of the internet. Making sure students know how to act and how to avoid questionable software is key to protecting their data.

The internet will never stop growing as long as there is more to know and to learn. Soon, student privacy, and privacy in general, may become hard to keep.

What if, one day, technology advanced far enough that we could find out anything about anyone, whenever we wanted to? Would privacy even be something to consider anymore? Only time will tell...