As More Schools Surveil Students Online, Privacy Concerns Intensify

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Virtual learning has led to a boom in school surveillance technologies that can monitor students’ online behavior and allow teachers to view students’ screens and search histories. Though many schools are back in person, surveillance tech appears here to stay, with 81% of teachers reporting using some form of it. Proponents say the technology curbs cheating, keeps students on task and helps identify instances of threats or abuse. But critics have concerns about privacy and data collection. They also have equity concerns: as this technology is more likely to be deployed on school devices, students without personal devices — especially low-income students of color — are more likely to be surveilled. We’ll talk about all of this and take your questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.2	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim. Coming up on forum, a byproduct of the abrupt switch to online learning as COVID-19 took hold was more digital surveillance of students.
0:56.6	As kids' academic lives moved online, so too did tools for making sure students were staying
1:02.9	on task and completing assignments. But now that schools have opened back up for in-person learning,
1:09.0	the apps have not gone away. And some
1:11.7	districts have even expanded their reach, raising privacy and equity concerns and questions
1:17.1	about the impact of this level of monitoring on students. We'll learn more after this news. This is Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
1:35.2	New research by the DC-Base Center for Democracy and Learning finds more than 80% of teachers
1:41.4	report using some form of surveillance technology to monitor students
1:45.7	online.
1:47.1	The pandemic-driven switch to remote learning ushered in these tools.
1:51.1	As schools deployed laptops, teachers needed some way to track students' work, or in this
1:55.8	case, their screens.
1:58.2	But now that schools are back in person, it's looking like the digital surveillance
	...

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