Writing in EduResearch Matters, Buchanan and McPherson (2019), discuss banning of smart phones in public schools, companies collecting data
about students, data collection in schools for educational purposes, and
the monitoring of individual students performance using learning
management systems. However, the authors have conflated related, but separate topics.
Bans on student mobile devices are intended to reduce student
distraction. This has nothing to do with collection of data about
students. I suggest it would be better to teach students, particularly
older students, how to use mobile devices responsibly, than banning
them. I am old enough to have been shown how to make an emergency phone
call at school: is that still done?
Data collection via social media, and mobile devices by corporations
is an issue, but not one exclusively for teachers. What is a school
issue is the use of corporate educational sites which are “free”, but
collect student data for resale. Teachers should not use Apps which
infringe their students privacy.
Extensive standardized testing of students predates the Internet, but
is facilitated by it, as in the example of online NAPLAN. What needs to
be remembered is collecting data is not in itself useful. Also there
has been extensive research on how such testing can be harmful.
The propensity of school systems to measure students and try to put
their behavior (not just their academic knowledge), on some sort of
scale is facilitated by a greater ability to collect data. But then
again there should be a good reason and evidence, this actually works.
If the data is not being collected for a good educational reason,
then I suggest teachers have a professional responsibility not to
collect it.
Like many AARE articles, this one portrays teachers as
powerless employees required to carry out the instructions of their
employers. I suggest teachers need to assert their professional status,
and decide what is in the interests of their clients (the students), as
all professionals are ethically required to do. Where data collection is
not educationally justified, or is harmful, teachers have an ethical
obligation not to collect that data. Teachers need to put in place
guidelines, and then lobby collectively to have them adopted by school
systems.
References
Buchanan, R., & McPherson, A. (2019). Teachers and learners in a time of big data. Journal of Philosophy in Schools, 6(1). URL http://dx.doi.org/10.21913/JPS.v6i1.1566
Bans on student mobile devices are intended to reduce student distraction. This has nothing to do with collection of data about students. I suggest it would be better to teach students, particularly older students, how to use mobile devices responsibly, than banning them. I am old enough to have been shown how to make an emergency phone call at school: is that still done?
Data collection via social media, and mobile devices by corporations is an issue, but not one exclusively for teachers. What is a school issue is the use of corporate educational sites which are “free”, but collect student data for resale. Teachers should not use Apps which infringe their students privacy.
Extensive standardized testing of students predates the Internet, but is facilitated by it, as in the example of online NAPLAN. What needs to be remembered is collecting data is not in itself useful. Also there has been extensive research on how such testing can be harmful.
The propensity of school systems to measure students and try to put their behavior (not just their academic knowledge), on some sort of scale is facilitated by a greater ability to collect data. But then again there should be a good reason and evidence, this actually works.
If the data is not being collected for a good educational reason, then I suggest teachers have a professional responsibility not to collect it.
Like many AARE articles, this one portrays teachers as powerless employees required to carry out the instructions of their employers. I suggest teachers need to assert their professional status, and decide what is in the interests of their clients (the students), as all professionals are ethically required to do. Where data collection is not educationally justified, or is harmful, teachers have an ethical obligation not to collect that data. Teachers need to put in place guidelines, and then lobby collectively to have them adopted by school systems.
References