Do you think that we should be protecting student data ? Why or why not?

In this week’s topic we discussed what eLearning is as well as the implication that it has in regards to it as a potentially unethical source of learning for students in relation to their privacy Regan & Jesse’s (2018). This is a topic that is often brought up in my major as an area of concern for what exactly is considered as private information since so much information is gathered online nowadays. This is especially relevant today since almost all schools have incorporated some form of online learning into how they deliver learning to students since the beginning of COVID. With this said I strongly believe that there should be measures taken to ensure that all students’ data is protected.

Reasons to Protect Students’ Data

In my opinion, student data should be protected for a number of reasons. These reasons are primarily based to ensure that students are protected but there are also strong reasons for an institution to protect this data. A big reason why I believe that student data needs to be protected is because institutions such as universities and schools all collect various degrees of student information which can range from full name, date of birth, and all the way to current residence. In addition, this affects a students feeling of safety in the learning environment because of the unknown nature of how their information is being used. This ties into anonymity and how it is almost impossible for someone with an online footprint to remain anonymous on the internet due to many websites and social media services (Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) that collect your data and sell to affiliate services in order for them to “better know you” and provide you with tailored recommendation based on your online activity. This has led in recent years to large amounts of distrust to emerge between “Users” and institutions that “Collect” data because of the vagueness of how the data is used. This distrust causes a whole myriad of issues and unless handled in advance will take years to rectify.

Benefits to the Institution

In regards to why institutions should strive to protect students data is for a large part to prevent legal backlash from the release of personal information. The unwarranted release or collection of students’ data not only causes distrust but also creates mass amounts of ethical implications and often leads to institutions suffering from millions of dollars of lawsuits. With this in mind, all institutions, especially education which collect a wide variety of data for each students’ needs to outline what data they collect, why they need it, and how it is used if at all. There should also be terms set for students to opt out of some fields of information collection if they are not comfortable sharing certain pieces of information. This in effect would not only help to protect the institution but also help to strengthen the trust that students have in the institution and understanding how their information is stored.

References:

Regan, P. M., & Jesse, J. (2018). Ethical challenges of edtech, Big Data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167–179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2