In future (digital or digitally-enhanced) classrooms, robust privacy and security measures will be crucial, not just to protect sensitive student data, but also to foster trust and a sense of safety essential for open exploration and collaboration within the digital learning environment. This foundation of trust will unlock the full potential of technology-driven learning, empowering students to become responsible digital citizens.
Read further for more information, media, real-life examples, and thought-provoking questions regarding this crucial future classroom trend.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is allowing classrooms of the future to become fast and adaptive. However, concerns for students' privacy in the classroom of the future are a growing concern. As stated in the 2023 Horizon Report, as artificial intelligence and its use of data has grown in learning and the classroom, machine learning has become increasingly prevalent in analyzing and using student data (2023). In a classroom of the future, the digital privacy of the students and one's own needs to be thought about and planned for.
Discussion Question:
Using systems like Google Classroom, ChatGPT, or Teams means that student data will be collected by these large corporations. In your opinion, is using these tools worth the reduction in privacy for the students? Is it worth it for you personally?
Present day example:
"In the spring of 2022 EDUCAUSE surveyed 820 U.S. undergraduate students to better understand students’ experiences with institutional policies and practices around data privacy and security, how those experiences impact their trust in the institution, and what equity issues exist."
As classrooms of the future become more digital, so does the need for more security. Nick Espinosa, Chief Information Officer for BSSi2 LLC and consultant of Fortune 100 companies, shares the importance of being secure online in this video. The 2023 Horizon Report shares the importance of being secure online with the increasing presence of new artificial intelligence tools being used (2023).
Discussion Question:
To what level does the classroom of the future need to invest in security?
Present day example:
"As forward-thinking enterprises embrace generative AI technologies to boost the effectiveness of work operations and results, they must also consider emerging security threats. According to the results of a recent Salesforce survey, 71% of 500 senior IT leaders postulate that generative AI is likely to “introduce new security risks to data"