‘Under surveillance’: The classroom apps Victorian schools should think twice about

Victorians schools are using edtech platforms to manage student behaviour, communicate with parents and monitor students’ online activity – but this is how some apps could threaten your child’s safety.

Victorian schools are using edtech platforms to manage student behaviour and communicate with parents, but experts have concerns.

School leaders are being urged to think twice before adopting new digital technologies into the classroom, after new research found some apps collected student data in ways that could jeopardise their privacy and wellbeing.

Victorian schools are using edtech platforms such as ClassDojo, GoGuardian and Zscaler to manage student behaviour, communicate with parents and monitor students’ online activity.

But despite reassurances user safety is the top priority for the companies behind these platforms, new international research has revealed such apps aren’t always transparent about the data they collect on students.

Experts say the rise in edtech was outpacing regulations in a way that could possibly be putting classrooms “under surveillance”.

The research team, which includes academics from the University of South Australia and the London School of Economics and Political Science, found the rise in edtech was outpacing regulations in a way that could possibly be putting classrooms “under surveillance”.

Consequently, researchers feared the data schools were uploading to these apps could potentially threaten student safety if it was to fall into the wrong hands.

University of South Australia edtech researcher and author Dr Jamie Manolev said text, photos, videos, location information and even facial recognition was among the student data such platforms collected.

“Certain products can expose sensitive information about students, such as sexual orientation, or gender identity information,” he said.

“When these products are used, it can certainly cause students to feel quite anxious and feel like they’ve got very little freedom, especially if they can sense that surveillance.”

One main app of concern was ClassDojo – a classroom management and communication platform that connects teachers and school administrators with students and their parents.

It was first launched as a behaviour management tool before it evolved into what experts described as a “school-based social media platform” that allows the school community to interact.

ClassDojo said it goes ‘above and beyond’ when it comes to students’ data privacy. Picture: ClassDojo

But despite more than 50 Victorian primary schools and hundreds of other schools globally using the platform, University of South Australia education experts – including Dr Manolev – have concerns associated with “student shaming, data privacy and family access equity”.

“(ClassDojo) uses and collects student data extensively … behaviour data in particular which can be quite sensitive in itself,” Dr Manolev said.

“Sometimes that data is used in very public ways and that can have a real impact on student wellbeing.”

Dr Manolev added such data could have repercussions on a child’s future employability and educational opportunities if it was to be misused.

“Edtech platforms do take data security seriously but educational data breaches aren’t uncommon,” he said.

A ClassDojo spokeswoman said the edtech platform helped teachers and families work together to support children and thus “framing that kind of connection as ‘spying’ was misleading”.

“When it comes to privacy, we don’t just meet the minimum legal standards; we go above and beyond,” she said.

“ClassDojo was built from day one to protect families and children, and our practices have been recognised by organisations like Common Sense Education, iKeepSafe, and the Future of Privacy Forum.”

Researchers feared the data schools were uploading to these apps could potentially threaten student safety if it was to fall into the wrong hands.

As for how teachers could ensure the apps they implemented in the classroom were trustworthy, Dr Manolev said schools should take advantage of new edtech toolkits such as the EdtechReflector when making decisions about which platforms to use.

“(Edtech toolkits) will certainly give schools an ability to understand what’s going on from a privacy perspective and the kind of data that’s being collected,” he said.

“They also look at the pedagogical aspects of these platforms which is just as important because we want to know the tools we’re using are pedagogically sound and are going to help educate our students.”

Originally published as ‘Under surveillance’: The classroom apps Victorian schools should think twice about