When tens of Millions of students suddenly have to study far away, schools lending laptops and tablets to those who do not have them. But these tools often come with a monitoring program, marketed as a way to protect students and put them to work. Now, some privacy advocates, parents, and educators say the programs have created new digital components, reducing what other students can do and putting them at risk of being disciplined.
One day last fall, Ramsey Hootman’s son, who was a fifth-grader in the West Contra Costa School District in California, came up to him with a problem: He was trying to write a social studies report when his browser tabs just shut. Each time he wants to open a new study tab, it disappears.
There were no accidents. When Hootman sent the e-mail to the teacher, he was told, “‘Oh, amazing, we have this new program where we can monitor everything your child is doing all day and see what he sees, and we can close everything if we want.'”
Hootman soon realized that all the tools provided to the district schools use Careful, a student monitoring program that allows teachers to view students’ real-time views and even close tabs if they find that a student is out of work. During class, students should have only two open tabs. Following Hootman’s complaint, the district upgraded the site to five tabs.
But Hootman says he and other parents would not have chosen the equipment donated to the school had they known the magnitude of the assessment. (“I’m lucky it’s our chance,” he says.
“As parents, we spend a lot of time helping our children learn how to do their homework and other things,” she said. “Obviously, the internet is a huge distraction, and we are working with them to deal with disruptions. You can’t do this if everything is planned for you.”
Ryan Phillips, the school’s medical superintendent, said that Securly’s policy was designed to protect students’ privacy, and that teachers should only monitor the student’s computer during school hours. She insecurely did not respond to a request for comment.
Mu reported earlier this monthThe Center for Democracy and Technology, a non-profit organization in Washington, DC, said the program, based on computer-generated computers, created two groups of students. People from low-income families can use computers donated to the school, so they are monitored.
“Our view was that there were other groups of students, especially low-income school students, who would rely more on school equipment and would be more likely to be supervised and followed than their peers who could afford to opt out,” explains Elizabeth Laird, one of the students. report authors.
The report found that black and Puerto Rican families relied more on school equipment than their white counterparts and were more likely to complain about the benefits of the program.
The team will review programs, from companies such as Securly and GoGuardian, offering a variety of capabilities, blocking access to older people and documenting other key words (swearing, swearing, self-injury words, violence, etc.) to allow teachers to view student experiences in real time and change. .
Clarice Brazas, a teacher at Philadelphia public schools, is appalled by the prospect of watching from a distance. The district provided Chromebooks to eligible students, but was concerned about the disciplinary consequences of monitoring state programs in which most of the students were white and low-income.
“I don’t know if it’s my job to train the police what students look for when they’re at home,” he says. “I see family as a job.”
Speaking to other educators about GoGuardian, a monitoring program operated in Philadelphia, he found that there was no uniform way to do police online. Lack of supervision, he says, has created opportunities for student-centeredness, which could harm national students.