COPPA doesn’t impact my school as we are a high school. Most, if not all, students have any social media account they want. They can access it on their phones, however, the school has chosen to block specific social media sites on their Chromebook while connected to the school’s WiFi. I can understand Danah Boyd’s point about teaching students to lie, however, I think that ultimately parents and students need to discuss social media usage and agree to an age when it would be appropriate to create accounts. It may be wishful thinking, but I do believe parents have huge influence on their children and can guide them to make good choices.
I don’t think students are aware of the federal mandates that exist, as I often hear them complain about content that is blocked. They feel like they are “in prison” or being treated “like a child.” They do not understand that CIPA exists to protect them, they just believe the school blocks sites to keep their lives “miserable.” I know that their devices continue to have CIPAfilters present when they are at home and their activity can be monitored. My school also uses Gaggle to help monitor for keywords (i.e. suicide, swear words) on Google Docs or any accounts that are associated with their school email address.
Today’s school environment is much different and schools need to do everything they can to keep students safe and also to protect themselves. When giving students devices for educational purposes, it is important to ensure students are using them appropriately.
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| A Teacher’s Guide to CIPA Source: Newton-Conover City Schools |
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| A Teacher’s Guide to COPPA Source: Newton-Conover City Schools |
It's funny you mention that your CIPA filter blocks things that are appropriate for school when they shouldn't. I find this happens from time to time for many teachers, and it just happened to me today as well. I was searching for "Wicked" to try and gather some images from the musical for the art teacher, but when searching Google for the word "wicked" on my iPad, I got a non-compliance warning screen. It turns out that IT had to update the Apple web filter on all district iPads so that "wicked" wouldn't be blocked anymore. Frustrating, because the only connection I could make would be wicked -> wicked witch -> Snow White -> poison apple -> Apple is bad? I know that's a stretch...
ReplyDeleteThe infographics you shared are great! More teachers need to be familiar with CIPA/COPPA and these are a good start.
ReplyDeleteGaggle sounds like an interesting platform for filtering and monitoring content. I'll have to mention it to our school tech team.
ReplyDeleteLove the infographics! As someone whose students are effected by COPPA, I definitely see them break this rule all the time. Tons of them are on Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. Many of them under 13. Is there a way to stop this? Well, currently not. Lets be honest- you can make up a birthday to get on these websites! I agree with Boyd that COPPA does sort of teach students to lie!
ReplyDeleteAmy, I really liked your visuals. Thanks for sharing those. I love when things are organized in a quick, fun to read fashion. I think both your images did that. I have never heard of Gaggle, but it is definitely something I'd like to look into. Thanks for providing that resource! I think my students could benefit from that as well.
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