The Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) is a new law in California that prohibits the selling of student data for advertising or other reasons (Herold, 2014). This puts a lot of the responsibility on the operators of online educational programs. This law is a big step towards protecting students because it allows teachers to use various online resources without running the risk of accidentally releasing student information because SOPIPA prohibits the operators from using student information. The biggest factor is that the operators of the online tools are not allowed to use student information. This protects teachers because now they are not expected to scour and understand a lengthy and complex privacy policy before using a resource (although this still needs to be done somewhat because some operators may not be SOPIPA compliant).
In the organization that I am analyzing for my enterprise architecture class there is a large department designated solely to Information Technology. This department needs to be up-to-date on all current legislation that affects how schools use technology in the classroom, specifically what precautions educators need to take when it comes to protecting student privacy online. The IT department would also need to be diligent about investigating the privacy policies of the approved online educational tools teachers may use. Providing an approved list to teachers will help guide them to use online tools that appropriately protect student privacy. Additionally, if the IT department comes upon online tools that are not compliant with specific privacy policies, it is vital that all educators within the district are informed that they should not use that tool.
Overall, the advice I would give a leadership team when it comes to protecting student privacy is that we need to be far more aware than we are about protecting student privacy. I had no idea there were so many legal protections in place for student privacy and I have never been asked to investigate the privacy policy of an online tool I am using. At the same time, though, I have been pushed to use as many new and innovative online tools a possible. In fact, teachers get far more attention in a school district if they are using new and different online tools than the ones who are using the district provided and approved tools. This worries me because there have been no conversations around protecting student privacy, but teachers are praised for using online tools. How many teachers are currently breaking the law with their teaching practices? These laws need to be in the forefront of teachers’ minds when they are evaluating new online tools. The IT team should be the leaders in informing the educational community about all current legislation (including SOPIPA) since they should be the most familiar with the legislation and how we can comply.
Resources
Herold, B. (2014). Landmark student-data-privacy law enacted in california. Education Week. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2014/09/_landmark_student-data-privacy.html
In the organization that I am analyzing for my enterprise architecture class there is a large department designated solely to Information Technology. This department needs to be up-to-date on all current legislation that affects how schools use technology in the classroom, specifically what precautions educators need to take when it comes to protecting student privacy online. The IT department would also need to be diligent about investigating the privacy policies of the approved online educational tools teachers may use. Providing an approved list to teachers will help guide them to use online tools that appropriately protect student privacy. Additionally, if the IT department comes upon online tools that are not compliant with specific privacy policies, it is vital that all educators within the district are informed that they should not use that tool.
Overall, the advice I would give a leadership team when it comes to protecting student privacy is that we need to be far more aware than we are about protecting student privacy. I had no idea there were so many legal protections in place for student privacy and I have never been asked to investigate the privacy policy of an online tool I am using. At the same time, though, I have been pushed to use as many new and innovative online tools a possible. In fact, teachers get far more attention in a school district if they are using new and different online tools than the ones who are using the district provided and approved tools. This worries me because there have been no conversations around protecting student privacy, but teachers are praised for using online tools. How many teachers are currently breaking the law with their teaching practices? These laws need to be in the forefront of teachers’ minds when they are evaluating new online tools. The IT team should be the leaders in informing the educational community about all current legislation (including SOPIPA) since they should be the most familiar with the legislation and how we can comply.
Resources
Herold, B. (2014). Landmark student-data-privacy law enacted in california. Education Week. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2014/09/_landmark_student-data-privacy.html