There's too much disconnect between being concerned about what kids access on the internet with no parental oversight...while there is no concern from these same school districts about the release of student data without parental permission or knowledge. Data will be given to agencies/researchers and the student/parent will be oblivious to who has access or how it will be used.
FERPA regulations were revised by Arne Duncan (not Congress) and educational state agencies and school districts just follow along with these illegal revisions. These same educational agencies furrow their brows on what information students can access via the Internet at school because they need to be protected from questionable websites. From edtechmagazine.com and Why Portage Schools Filters Blue Coat:
When deciding what to filter, the IT department considers two questions: 1) Is there a relevant educational need for the site? and 2) Does the site potentially expose students to inappropriate material?
Why even worry about what students are accessing when we don't give a whit or sufficient legal protection for student data retrieval and use?
Open up the Internet spigot full blast and let students access the Internet. It's similar to how federal/state agencies and private researchers are accessing student data for tracking purposes.
Why are we worried about what students are reading on the Internet but not where their data is being transmitted and being used for? Why the double standard? Shouldn't we be concerned if this data is being used for other purposes than "relevant educational need" (and who decides the definition of relevant and educational need) and does this data sharing "potentially expose students to inappropriate" use of their data?
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