Remote Learning Ushered In A New Era Of Online Academic Surveillance. What's Next?

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4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

According to a recent survey from the Center for Democracy and Technology, around 80 percent of K-12 schools are now using software that tracks students' computer activity.

Companies can monitor students' online activity while on school accounts or devices and will flag warning signs for suicide or violence.

Even so, some privacy advocates are concerned about the growing surveillance and how the data is stored and used.

Colleges also expanded their monitoring capabilities. Proctoring programs meant to prevent cheating use artificial intelligence to try to identify when a student's eyes move away from the screen. They have provoked privacy concerns and proven unreliable.

How should schools monitor students online? How do we keep kids safe while also protecting their privacy?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	For 22 years, I was a school district IT director and we provided thousands of laptops to students,
0:13.6	all of which had content monitoring software installed on them.
0:17.6	That may seem well-earned, but first off, it's required by federal law.
0:21.1	And second, we provide these laptops to the students and we expect them to use them in
0:25.6	their homes and at school.
0:27.4	So we do have a responsibility to keep students safe on the internet.
0:31.1	Beyond preventing access to things like pornography, they also could alert us when students were
0:37.2	doing internet searches for activities that were harmful, such as suicidal ideation, drug
0:42.4	use, cutting, and similar.
0:44.9	Well, there may be some unease about the fact that we do keep an eye on these things.
0:50.0	First off, we have to.
0:51.0	And second off, there's a very critical safety component which we as school officials
0:55.0	were responsible for.
0:57.0	When students went home for school in 2020 and stayed there, they brought surveillance
1:01.8	with them.
1:03.1	Many K-12 schools now use online monitoring software to track students' behavior while on school
1:09.0	devices or accounts.
1:11.2	During an adolescent mental health crisis, their surveillance is meant to keep kids safe and
1:15.7	ring the alarm when they might be contemplating self-harm or violence.
1:19.9	But it can also go wrong and intrude on their privacy.
1:23.2	14-year-old teeth is a transgender student in Minneapolis.
1:26.9	His school uses gaggle.
	...

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