surveillance (but not accountability) in school acceptable use policies

It’s that time of year (again) for signing the acceptable use policy for kiddo’s school, and I’m again grumpy about a lot of the details in here. Some of these details are me being a nitpicky academic, like the use of the word “technology” to refer to digital technologies alone. Others strike me as more serious, though.

Let’s take a look at this paragraph, listed under a “Roles and Responsibilities of Parents/Guardians” header:

The District expects parents/guardians to partner with us in teaching students to use available technology safely and appropriately. Although FCPS devices are monitored and every effort is made to prevent inappropriate use, it’s impossible to block all unsuitable content. Parents are accountable for overseeing what students access through any non-District wireless or cellular connection, as these are not maintained by the District. Parents are responsible for monitoring student activity on FCPS devices when used outside of class. The District is not liable for any damage or loss resulting from the use of personal devices in the school setting.

I’m struck by the juxtaposition of “we are monitoring what your kids are up to” and “it’s up to you to make sure that your kid doesn’t access anything bad online.” Now, reading the paragraph again (and with an effort to be more charitable), I recognize that there are some distinctions here between using school devices on school networks, using school devices at home, and using personal devices at school. At the same time, though, the frank admission that the district is surveilling my kid accompanied with a) an admission that that’s not going to prevent everything and b) a plea for me to get involved in this surveillance really rubs me the wrong way.

Here’s another fun passage, under “Roles and Responsibilities of Students”:

All communications, data and files stored or transmitted via the District network are considered property of Fayette County Public Schools and may be reviewed and/or removed. Within reason and legal guidelines, freedom of speech and access to information shall be honored.

Look, I’m not going to encourage my kid to use the school Wi-Fi to do non-school tasks, but I don’t love the way that FCPS is giving itself permission to review everything and anything done over the school network. I’m also struck by how much wiggle room there is in “reason and legal guidelines,” especially in a state like Kentucky, whose lawmakers seem pretty keen to restrict student access to information for culture wars reasons.

AUPs suck, and the state of educational technology in K-12 schools is pretty sucky, too. I’m still going to sign the damn document, because I don’t know that there’s any practical way around this, but I wish I were doing more to resist all of this.

Now onto the Chromebook User Agreement, where I can think about just how much influence a company like Google has in my kid’s public school. 🎉🎉🎉

• macro
• Relationships
• parenting
• edtech
• surveillance
• privacy
• Kentucky
• Kentucky General Assembly
• Chromebooks
• Google