This has been an exciting week where several persons raised concerns about privacy and security. This is a topic with a constant presence in the social media conversation. Additionally is the Surgeons General’s report I wrote about earlier this week. Much can be done about privacy and security on the end of the companies and the users. These discussions took me back to my Learning and Web Analytics course where we discussed who was truly responsible for privacy and security.
Social media companies have a responsibility to protect their users’ data. It is incumbent on these organizations to ensure that the data they collect is used in the ways stipulated in their privacy policy. At the same time, users need to be aware of what these privacy and security policies say. This goes into data literacy. There is a need to increase data literacy in education, and this is needed before we move our students into this online arena. Teachers need to become more data literate, as well as, students.
In reality, our students are already part of the Web 2.0 landscape, for instance, the discussion boards we write on weekly in Canvas. How much do we, as educators, understand the implications of the collected data about our students? Can we explain it to our students, and should they be able to opt-out? How can we create an environment where students can be produsers without worrying about privacy and security? I am hoping to create such as space when using applications to create OER content.