📑 Vast amounts of data about our children are being harvested via apps used by schools. This is what is being collected and stored

Jamie Manolev, Anna Sullivan and Roger Slee explore the sensitive data collected on students, teachers and schools by educational apps. The authors document some of these points:

This data includes

• First and last names
• Student usernames
• Passwords
• Students’ age
• School names
• School addresses
• Photographs, videos, documents, drawings, or audio files
• Student class attendance data
• Feedback points
• IP addresses
• Browser details
• Clicks
• Referring URL’s
• Time spent on site
• Page views
• Teacher parent messages

Moreover, ClassDoJo says it ‘may also obtain information, including personal information, from third-party sources to update or supplement the information you provided or we collected automatically’.

This reminds me of Ben Williamson’s point about Class Dojo that sensitivity is produced over time:

The ‘sensitive information’ contained in ClassDojo is the behavioural record built up from teachers tapping reward points into the app.

I think that it needs to be noted that although there is a focus on ‘wellbeing’ the affordances of the application can be used in different ways. For example, Bianca Hewes has used it to monition 21st century learning.