Class assignments involving students鈥� background鈥攍ike charting family trees or drawing on their cultural traditions鈥攈ave been a standby for generations. But tasks that call for extensive personal information from students can have unintended consequences for their privacy and well-being.
Such assignments can leave out students in complex family situations鈥攖hose in foster or adoption families, for example鈥攚ho don鈥檛 know, or don鈥檛 want to disclose information about their early years or extended family, 糖心动漫vlog say.
And as more classwork is submitted and given feedback online, students may unintentionally expose identifiable information.
Personal or cultural background can be 鈥渁 weirdly sensitive subject,鈥� noted Timothy McDonald, an assistant girls鈥� soccer coach in Texas, in an .
Cultural heritage projects at his daughter鈥檚 elementary school, for example, were intended to be fun but put pressure on students like his daughter, who did not have extensive ties to a specific background.
鈥淢y kid felt excluded, devalued and really had nothing to do or offer, and was made to feel that way by the teachers and staff during the assignments and activities at school,鈥� he said. 鈥淪he felt like she had no culture.鈥�
Natalie Keller, a special education teacher for the Batavia, N.Y. city school district, agreed that activities meant to be fun and an inclusive can backfire.
鈥淐an we stop?鈥� with class projects that require baby pictures, Keller begged. 鈥淪o many of my students don鈥檛 have baby pictures for a host of reasons,鈥� including her own child, she said.
Personal information can be unintentionally disclosed
Photos, keepsakes, and other personally identifiable submissions can also become a privacy liability for classes hosted on online platforms.
Schools are required to protect students鈥� grades and other education records under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. But when activities move online, personally identifiable information can be leaked via peer comments on shared documents, analysis of assignments, and students鈥� online reflections on their work, a 2020 found.
And often, student information stays online indefinitely.
鈥淔orty years ago, students鈥� records were kept in folders inside filing cabinets in schools,鈥� wrote Marc Alier, a professor of information technology at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Spain, and his colleagues in an of student privacy in 2021.
As more class activities are conducted, commented on, and kept in the cloud, students have a higher risk of 鈥渦nauthorized data access, unintentional unauthorized disclosure of information, and generation and storage of student information by third parties.鈥�
This doesn鈥檛 mean teachers should throw out assignments that help students learn to explore oral history or records. But 糖心动漫vlog should focus on the skills and products they want students to achieve in an assignment, rather than the extent of personal information they share, said Bo Chang, a professor of community education at Ball State and the author of the 2020 study.
Shannon James, a teacher at BASIS charter school in Scottsdale, Ariz., has made some of those modifications. While she still assigns a family tree project for students in her Spanish class, she gave them the option of researching 鈥渢he family tree of a fictional character, celebrity, or historical figure instead of their own family,鈥� she said in the EdWeek social media discussion.
Dalia Angrand Boisrond, a language and literature teacher at the Boerum Hill School for International Studies in Brooklyn, N.Y., agreed.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important to give options and not completely shy away from assignments like family interviews or trees,鈥� she said. 鈥淧rovide real, authentic choices (not an add-on alternative), and a lot of drama can be avoided.鈥�
