Virtual learning sparks privacy battle between tech, teachers, parents - Business Insider

"The price of attending public education shouldn't be giving up your privacy, especially for a child; children's privacy should be the most sensitive and the most protected."Trust and Kiesecker agreed that students, parents, and educators can take advantage of the benefits of certain edtech tools without giving up their privacy rights, but also that the burden shouldn't fall entirely on individual teachers, parents, or even schools.Trust said teachers should run new digital tools by their school's IT department, which may be more knowledgeable about potential privacy issues, while school districts and administrators need to take a proactive role in developing policies around technology that "support teachers and learning how to find and evaluate and use technology in their classrooms."She also worked with her students to develop a free guide for teachers on how to evaluate digital tools, including a chapter devoted to understanding privacy, adding to a growing list of resources meant to empower teachers and parents, including:Ultimately, however, Kiesecker and other privacy advocates say there needs to be stronger legal protections and incentives for both schools and companies to look out for students' privacy.At the federal level, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) give parents some degree of control over their kids' education records, what data companies or schools can collect about them, and what digital information schools can show them.