eSchool News counts down the ten most significant developments in educational technology during the past year. No. 4 tracks Big Data’s movements.
In school systems from coast to coast, tech-savvy educators experimented with augmented reality, educational gaming, and other techniques designed to enhance teaching and learning.
These are only some of the key ed-tech developments affecting K-12 schools in the past year—and we’ve got a full recap for you.
Here, the editors of eSchool News highlight what we think are the 10 most significant ed-tech stories of 2013.
To learn how these stories have made an impact on K-12 schools this year—and how they will continue to shape education in 2014 and beyond—read on.
(Next page: Big Data’s evolution)
4. ‘Big Data’ infiltrates education, bringing privacy concerns as well.
Click here [1] to access a PDF of all Top 10 stories.
At the SXSWedu conference in Austin, Texas, in early March, the most influential new ed-tech product unveiled to the masses might have been the least flashy: a $100 million database built to chart the academic paths of public school students from kindergarten through high school.
The database already holds files on millions of children identified by name, address, and sometimes Social Security number, Reuters reported. It includes information about learning disabilities, test scores, and attendance. In some cases, it even tracks student hobbies, career goals, attitudes toward school, and homework completion.
The database is a joint project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which provided most of the funding, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and school officials from several states. A nonprofit organization called inBloom [2] was created to run it.
Local education officials retain control over their students’ information. But federal law allows them to share files in their portion of the database with private companies selling educational products and services.
The database had ed-tech entrepreneurs salivating over the possibilities for using data to enhance instruction. But parents from New York and Louisiana have written to state officials in protest. So have the Massachusetts chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and Parent-Teacher Association.
If student records leak, are hacked, or are abused, “what are the remedies for parents?” asked Norman Siegel, a civil liberties attorney in New York who has been working with the protesters. “It’s very troubling.”
Siegel’s concerns have been echoed across the country as states and school districts have ramped up their efforts to collect useful student information and make it available to educators and administrators through the cloud.
Supporters of the inBloom project argue that the information is safer in the database than scattered throughout school districts. Plus, the project’s upside is enormous, they say, with the power to transform classrooms nationwide.
But as efforts to link Big data with educational outcomes continue, school leaders can expect the privacy concerns of parents and privacy activists to linger.
See also:
Nine templates to help educators leverage school data [3]
K-12 student database jazzes tech startups, spooks parents [4]
How three districts are tracking student data [5]
Education data: Privacy backlash begins [6]
States, districts take the next step in Big Data [7]
Three state approaches to student data privacy [8]
Student data privacy: The role of policy makers and schools [9]
Major ed data report reveals states’ improvements [10]
Three myths about school data privacy in the cloud [11]