Tag: privacy

Digital Detox Reblog (and lots of food for thought around Microsoft for education)

I needed to reblog this post, because:

  1. I love Dr. Brenna Clarke Grey’s posts about anything
  2. because if you haven’t already started following the Digital Detox, you need to, and
  3. because of the discussions in our unit and institution around making Microsoft Teams more available for students, and integrating it within our LMS.

To be honest, I still think it’s a good idea to build access for students into our Teams (and to also integrate it with our LSM) as we are struggling, as other institutions are, with finding good tools to support online student to student engagement and collaboration. But…well, read for yourself:

Digital Detox #4: Habits, Data, and Things That Go Bump in the Night: Microsoft for Education

 

Ethical Dimensions of Educational Technology: Part 2 – Some important ethical issues to keep in mind

It’s been awhile since the first post about this workshop, and now it’s time for the second revolving around some important ethical issues that came up during the face to face session. So, for today’s post, I am going to introduce and briefly discuss six big ethical issues we decided need to be considered when integrating educational technology into teaching and learning. This will not be an exhaustive (or exhausting) discussion of these issues – rather, I will introduce each one (in no particular order) and point you to more resources both here at the college, and outside.

Privacy

When you use an online tool, do you and your students have to set up accounts? Do you need to provide the tool with your name and/or email address? What happens to this information (and any material you work with in the tool) and who owns it? Privacy is about keeping your personal information or intellectual property safe. While Camosun has a Privacy Policy (http://camosun.ca/about/policies/operations/o-6-information-management/o-6.1.pdf), it does not directly address the use of cloud-based tools to support teaching and learning. For that, we need to turn to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act in BC (http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/ID/freeside/96165_00).

In a nutshell, if you are asking students to provide personal information to a third-party for any purpose (for an activity, assessment, content access, etc.), you need to inform them of FIPPA, give them the option to opt-out, and be prepared to give them an alternate way of accessing the material if they choose to opt out.

Accessibility

Can your students access your course material? Can they see or hear it? Do they have access to the right equipment or software to engage with it? Do they have access to support and training for the tools you are using? Accessibility/inclusivity involves incorporating a variety of instructional formats, assessment strategies, etc. to support any number of issues, including visual, auditory, learning, mental health issues, and access to technology.

Consider how to make your courses accessible by designing your course materials ahead of time rather than waiting for someone to ask for an alternate format later (which is accommodation). When adopting a tool, review any accessibility features it promotes. If you can’t find any information, send them an email. An instructional designer in eLearning can help you assess the tool you are wanting to use.

To find out more about WCAG (Web content Accessibility Guidelines), see https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.

Want to go further? Learn more about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) https://sites.camosun.ca/fair/diversity/universal-design-for-learning-udl/ UDL Guidelines: http://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Also, see Camosun’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion policy (http://camosun.ca/about/policies/governance/g-2-organizational-goals-and-accountability/g-2.1.pdf) for information on how the implementation of UDL principles supports college priorities.

Learning Analytics

Do you like to know what your students are doing in your online course site, for example, how often they logon, how long they spend reading materials, how engaged they are in course activities, their overall progress through the course? These are learning analytics, and while they can be useful for knowing who is doing what with your online tools, and for ensuring that your students are completing the tasks you have given them, using them comes with ethical concerns.

We need to consider transparency and consent, as well as how we interpret and act on analytics. (https://elearningindustry.com/7-ethical-concerns-with-learning-analytics some of the considerations)

Online classroom ethics

Like the face to face classroom, the online classroom should also be a place where students feel safe interacting with their instructor and fellow students. Some things to keep in mind:

  • If you are adding others to the course (for example, another faculty member, or an assistant of some kind), let your students know who they are, and why they are there.
  • Discuss Netiquette with the whole group, or have students draft class or group/team codes of conduct for engagement in the online classroom.
  • Address any concerns or questions students may have about anonymity.
  • If you are using student or class progress tools in D2L, let students know you are tracking them.

Some college policies which support conduct in our teaching and learning environments include

Indigenization

I am in no way qualified to discuss indigenization, but I can point you towards those at Camosun who are!

According to our Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning website:

“Indigenization is the process by which Indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing and relating are incorporated into educational, organizational, cultural and social structures of the institution. The goal is to create a more inclusive environment through the presentation of a different world view, and to enhance and enrich the educational and cultural experience of the educational community. This does not mean the institution is Indigenous-centred, but it does mean that consideration of Indigenous issues comes “naturally”.”

And you can find out more about Indigenization initiatives, and who to contact for support, at http://camosun.ca/about/teaching-learning/initiatives/indigenization.html and http://camosun.ca/about/indigenization/

Digital identity

Closely connected to privacy, a person’s digital identity is their footprint online. Every time you sign up for a tool using your personal information, this information is saved and sometimes passed on to others, with or without your knowledge or permission. It is not enough for us to say that “all students use Facebook” so they know how to protect themselves because even if students are using cloud-based social media tools already, it is still our responsibility as instructors and as an institution to inform them of how to protect themselves from cyber-bullying, identity theft, etc.

Ask yourself “What do my students know about their digital identity?”, then ask yourself what do you know about your own digital identity.

In addition to one’s personal digital identity, consider how you and your students can protect your intellectual property. When using a cloud-based tool to host course or research materials, as yourself Who owns it? Who is using it, and how are they using it? Check the privacy settings, the copyright/ownership information, and don’t’ be afraid to send an email to the company to find out more. These are things you need to know before asking or suggesting students to use these tools

To learn more about digital identity, and for tools to help you and your students navigate this complex issue, go to UBC’s Digital Tattoo site (https://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/)

Of course, there are many other ethical issues to keep in mind when adopting educational technology, including:

  • Social Justice, human rights, and equality with regards to the non-neutral nature of (educational) technology (for example, silencing, constraints, access, power structures, openness (or not), etc.)
  • Digital literacy and fake news
  • Emotional wellbeing (digital detox) and online addiction

If you ever want to talk more about the ethical issues raised here, or any others that come to mind, our instructional designers in eLearning would love to talk to you! Contact desupport@camosun.ca to arrange for a consult.

In the next post (the third of four) about this workshop, I will talk about some of the outcomes from the discussions and things participants wanted to do or learn more about!

4 Great People to Follow on Twitter

When integrating educational technology into our teaching, we often find ourselves faced with a myriad of challenges and ethical issues to consider beyond the simple question of how the tool supports our learning outcomes. If you are wondering where to turn, here are four experts I follow on Twitter whose work has helped me work through some of the struggles I have faced when assessing a new tool. And yes, these are only four – if you have a go-to expert on your list, let me know in the comments!

Jesse Stommel: https://twitter.com/Jessifer

According to his website, “Jesse Stommel is Executive Director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies at University of Mary Washington. He is also Co-founder of Digital Pedagogy Lab and Hybrid Pedagogy: an open-access journal of learning, teaching, and technology. He has a PhD from University of Colorado Boulder.”

Exploring digital pedagogy from a critical lens, with the student forefront in his mind, he says about his own practice, “My scholarly work is about the sometimes wondrous, sometimes horrifying relationship between bodies and technology. My particular expertise is in digital pedagogy, digital humanities, and open education. I believe all learning is necessarily hybrid. In on-ground pedagogy, it is important to engage students’ digital selves. And, with digital and online pedagogy, our challenge is not merely to replace (or offer substitutes for) face-to-face education, but to find new and innovative ways to engage students in the practice of learning.”

Rajiv Jhangiani: https://twitter.com/thatpsychprof

A champion of and innovator in the Open Pedagogy movement, Jhangiani says on his website: “I am the Special Advisor to the Provost on Open Education and a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. I currently serve as an Associate Editor of Psychology Learning and Teaching and an Ambassador for the Center for Open Science. Together with Robin DeRosa, I am co-founder of the Open Pedagogy Notebook. I also serve as an Advisory Buddy with Virtually Connecting and on the board of KDocs, KPU’s Official Documentary Film Festival.”

I highly recommend exploring the Open Pedagogy Notebook site which contains concrete examples of open pedagogy in action, and encourages you to collaborate and engage with open pedagogy practitioners from around the world.

Julia Hengstler: https://twitter.com/jhengstler

An advocate for and specialist in privacy as it applies to our world of educational technology, The White Hatter tells us that “Julia Hengstler is a Professor, Educational Technologist, and Chair of the Centre for Education & CyberHumanity (Faculty of Education, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada) … Her doctoral research specializes in privacy and the use of educational technology in BC public schools… With over more than 25 years as an educator in BC’s public-school system, Julia has taught a wide variety of subject areas and grade levels ranging from K-12 to post-graduate. Julia blogs about education and technology at “ED Tech Thoughts”.”

Much of Hengstler’s work revolves around understanding and managing your digital footprint, and the impact of using social media in education.

Jess Mitchell: https://twitter.com/jesshmitchell

Jess Mitchell is the Senior Manager of the Inclusive Design Research Centre  at OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario which “was created as Canada’s first research hub focused on digital inclusion. It is adding new approaches to learning that are championing cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration, and the integration of emerging technologies.” (https://casestudies.etgroup.ca/ocad/)

An advocate for inclusive design, as you may have guessed, Mitchell “manages large-scale international projects and initiatives focusing on fostering innovation within diverse communities while achieving outcomes that benefit everyone”, which is inclusive design in a nutshell: inclusive design benefits all, and practicing inclusive design makes something more accessible overall. When I started reading more about inclusive design, I realized that there is a difference between inclusive design and universal design, as well as between inclusive design and accessibility. The essay “The Number 1 Thing You’re Getting Wrong about inclusive Design” is a good place to start when beginning to puzzle through the distinctions. Following Jess Mitchell will help clarify them.

Privacy: what’s the least I need to know if I’m using online tools in my teaching?

You want students to blog, work in groups on a wiki, sign up for publisher materials, complete assessments on a fantastic new website that is perfect for your subject matter. Sounds great, but before planning too far in advance, there are some important considerations to keep in mind, one of which involves protecting the privacy of your students.

I’ll avoid going into much detail on the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) – you can read more about it at http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/ID/freeside/96165_00.  Instead I am going to give you the basics of how FIPPA could affect what kinds of online tools you can use, and how you can use them in your teaching.

In brief, FIPPA requires that personal information, specifically that of your students, be stored and accessed in Canada only. Therefore, if you wish to utilize third-party, web-based tools that are, for example, running on servers residing in the United States to support your teaching (e.g., social-media tools), there are certain things you need to consider before asking students to use them to complete a course-related activity.

Assuming you already know if the tool you wish to use is on an American server (how to find this out is a topic for another post), AND that students will need to provide personal information in order to use the tool, then you need to consider:

  1. Is the activity mandatory (e.g., is it a required assessment component of the course?)
  2. Is the activity optional (i.e., can students easily complete it without using this tool?)

In either case, you need to provide your students with notice: notice of what activity they will be completing, the tool to be used, what personal information they will be required to provide and why, how the tool’s providers could use the information, etc.

If the activity is mandatory, however, in addition to notice, you must receive informed consent from your students (a written and signed form). If a student does not wish to sign the informed consent form, then you, as the instructor, must provide that student with an alternative to the activity so that they are not penalized for their refusal.

Finally, we also recommend that you provide your students with general information on how to protect their privacy when using third-party, web-based tools.

To find out more about FIPPA as it relates to the use of web-based tools in teaching and learning, go to BCcampus’ Privacy and Security site (http://fippa.bccampus.ca/), specifically the Privacy Guidelines for Instructors PDF (http://www.bccampus.ca/files/2013/08/PrivacyGuideforUsing3rdPartyWebTechnologyinPublicPost-SecondaryCoursesRevisedFeb2011.pdf).

If you are a faculty member at Camosun College, you can also talk to an eLearning instructional designer who can help you determine if the tool(s) you wish to use are compliant with FIPPA, or if you will need to provide your students with notice and/or an informed consent waiver. An instructional designer can also provide you with a notice and/or a waiver template that you can adapt for your own use, and help you prepare a privacy and technology tips sheet for your class.

Note that Camosun College will soon be revising its privacy policy. Updates on this revision will appear in future blog posts.

Reference:  Privacy Guide for Using 3rd Party Web Technology in Public Post-Secondary Courses (PDF, Feb. 2011), BCcampus:  http://www.bccampus.ca/files/2013/08/PrivacyGuideforUsing3rdPartyWebTechnologyinPublicPost-SecondaryCoursesRevisedFeb2011.pdf