Invasion of privacy, or powerful educational tool? Chromebooks coming home this fall

This fall, in the Palm Springs Unified School District, they are planning to significantly expand a program that will allow almost all of the students in the district to take home district-owned Chromebook computers.

The 16 thousand devices will be used to complete lessons from the classrooms.

Children are also allowed to use the computers to surf the web, explore personal interests, play games, and more.

At homes where students don’t have internet access, they’ll also be provided hotspot devices.

“The fact that they’ll have technology in the home, some for the first time ever, and the opportunity it brings to them on different levels, is wonderful,” said Will Carr, the Director of Technology Services for Palm Springs Unified School District.

Parents we spoke with are pleased with districts using technology to enhance the educational experience.

“For those maybe in the lower income, who can’t afford the electronics, and i understand they have the hot spot now, I think its great that every child is in the same position and they’re given an equal chance to succeed,” said Venessa Aguilar, whose daughter will enter sixth grade in the fall.

But, there are privacy advocates and some tech experts who say “beware”, raising questions like:

Who will have access to student data?

How will their personal information be protected?

Is it possible for a district to spy on students, by remotely activating a computer’s camera to take photos and video of students at home?

Matt Disher is a Palm Desert-based technology services provider and an expert on computer and internet security.

“For parents, I’d say get involved and understand what the students are going to be doing with those devices,” said Disher.

The district, and the state have taken steps aimed at alleviating concerns, when it comes to protecting students and their data, according to Carr.

“The hard part is how do we keep their data and information safe. Its not the hard part. But, its the most important right now,” said Carr.

Carr detailed a list of district practices and protocols.

The district uses web filtering technology called “Content Keeper” and “Go Guardian” to restrict student internet access to “inappropriate content”.

“If a student tries to hit a bunch of sites they shouldn’t, we can possibly see that, possibly hacker sites or adult content, we can intervene, and communicate with parents,” said Carr.

Also, Gaggle, a software program, is used to monitor and filter email, and student work completed online using Google Drive.

Gaggle allows administrators to receive notifications if a student types words like “bomb” or “suicide”.

“Thats great news to me. If they’re doing that kind of monitoring, where they’re monitoring for key words and alerts go off, that is excellent. We should be proud of them for doing that,” said Carr.

When it comes to student data, the district will record, and store for one year, browsing activity, student email logs and work completed in Google Drive.

Carr says this data is not shared with third party vendors or service providers.

“There is a reason why we put these things in place, because we care about our chidren so much, and we want to create an environment that is safe and secure,” said Carr.

The district does share somevdata with third party vendors, with Carr describing it as “extremely limited access”, including student ID, and a student’s first and last name.

In an effort aimed at protecting that information, the state passed a law in 2014.

Assembly Bill 1584 requires tech companies that access student data to maintain strict safeguards aimed at protecting that information.

Carr says the district enters contracts only with companies that are “compliant with the law”.

“School districts, they got a tough road ahead of them to keep on top of security, regardless of device, and the type of technology. Security is changing at a rapid rate,” said Disher.

Regarding a “bad operator” gaining control of a camera on a student’s chromebook, Carr says it would take a “very sophisticated” user to hack the district’s security layer.

For parents who do have that concern, he says the solution is to put a sticker, or some other cover over the student’s webcam when not in use.

We sent a list of ten questions regarding student’s use of “take home” computers to all three valley school districts.

Responses from Palm springs Unified School District and Desert Sands Unified School Distirct are listed below.

Coachella Valley Unified School District did not respond to our request for information.

That district provides iPads for student use at school and at home.