EdTech and Ice Cream

ISTE Citizen

New Research about Data Collection

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Remember that post a couple weeks ago talking about how you’re responsible for the data of your friends and folks? Welp, some new research published this month provides some compelling findings.

Location, location, location!

When it comes to location data, even if you’ve turned off all location tracking on your own devices, our internet overlords can predict your movement through data mining. Whether using data from people you are socially tied to (95% accuracy) or data from strangers (85% accuracy), the researchers found significant information about your movement is available.

Data mining is the practice of searching through large amounts of computerized data to find useful patterns or trends.

When reading that definition, you might wonder about the word “useful.” Collecting and mining location data isn’t always nefarious. It has helped many during this Covidian Era by tracking how the virus moves across the globe. You’ve probably benefited by getting a local restaurant recommendation or seeing how many miles you walked this week. As an educator, you often work with Educational Data Mining (EDM) through standardized tests, student information systems, and edtech tools. But, when the end goal is selling us products, luring our attention, surveillance, and worse, we need protection.

You can help

Keeping up with big tech and big data is overwhelming. Talking about data with people who aren’t your colleagues might be unfamiliar. Students are impacted by data mining, but they rarely get to discuss it. We must make the invisible structures and technology around us a regular topic of consideration. With that goal in mind, there’s great news:

  • You’re an educator.
  • You have people who trust you.
  • Your sphere of influence is larger than you think.
  • You are skilled at making nebulous concepts feel concrete.
  • You know how to pique curiosity and hook people into conversations.
  • These are conversations you are capable of having, even if you aren’t a tech expert or up to date on all the tech news.

How could you open a conversation about data collection and mining?

  • What do students know about their data (in school and out)? Do they understand why it’s collected, how it’s used, and what decisions are made based on the mined data?
  • What kind of data do you think is being collected about you? How is it being gathered?
  • Ask students to share how they use location data (e.g. tracking on their phone that guardians can see, to find friends)?
  • Why might a school use data mining? How about Facebook? And a retail company?
  • Take a peek at this Data mining for kids entry over at Kiddle.

This research came out of the University of Rochester You can read more in the journal Nature Communications, where it is available to you under a CC Attribution License (so you can use it!). Did we make sure this research was peer-reviewed? Of course we did!

MERRIAM-WEBSTER. (N.D.). DATA MINING. IN MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM DICTIONARY. RETRIEVED APRIL 21, 2022, FROM HTTPS://WWW.MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM/DICTIONARY/DATA%20MINING

Image of ISTE Educator Standards arranged in a circle around the ISTE logo.

ISTE Standards for Educators

Learner 2.1.d. Stay current with research that supports improved student learning outcomes, including findings from the learning sciences.

Citizen 2.3.d. Model and promote management of personal data and digital identity to protect student data privacy.

You’re responsible for their data too. Not just yours.

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So, you have put the big pieces in place to keep your data safe online. You have a password manager (I use NordPass), have checked whether your accounts have been compromised through data breaches, and are feeling pretty good about your choices. Gold star for you! 

Did you know that when you give an app access to your contacts you are making their data available to that company? Did you get consent to share their info? Maybe you’re thinking, sure but if they never make an account then it’s no big deal. But what if…you’re putting their data at risk?

There are some common ways that we unintentionally share other people’s data. Let’s talk through a few! 

(Don’t) Sync your contacts

If you use your contacts robustly and include addresses, birthdays, and (as I do) food allergies, kids’ names and birthdays… then you have an extra layer of consideration. Even if your friend doesn’t put that info about themselves online, you have made it available. 

Erase metadata from photos

Are you posting images with metadata attached? Not sure? Odds are you’re sharing way more than just the picture. When you post a photo, apps (and humans) can access the metadata attached to the image? The Your Metadata is Showing episode of the Note to Self podcast changed how I post photos. There are many strategies, tools, settings, and apps for removing the EXIF / metadata from your photos so the image is no longer trackable by that info. A quick search for remove EXIF and your photo management tool (iPhoto, Google Photos, etc.) will provide options.  

Protect your face

Do you get consent before posting images of people? Facial recognition software (such as Clearview AI) scans social media for any faces it can get access to. Even people who don’t have social media accounts can be identified through these processes. Facial recognition AI is often used for nefarious purposes, like targeting arrests to punish civically engaged citizens. Laws and regulations haven’t come close to keeping up with (much less preventing) companies from using our faces in ways we haven’t agreed to and don’t want. You can learn more about the harms of AI from the Algorithmic Justice League.

The thing about all of this is that even if we don’t have total control over how data is collected and used, we can take steps to protect each other. I’m not proposing you stop sharing your life online. I just want you to think about who else is impacted by your choices. Like the signs outside of my local grocery store says, “my mask protects you, your mask protects me” we can all take care to notice what we’re sharing and make sure it’s what we think it is.

ISTE Standards for Educators
Citizen 2.3.d. Model and promote management of personal data and digital identity to protect student data privacy.

Research-based practice is critical to the ISTE Educator Standards. Learner 1c is “Stay current with research that supports improved student learning outcomes, including findings from the learning sciences.” So where to begin? You have a TON of options. I recommend starting with a topic that is in alignment with your professional learning goals. Check out some of the public Twitter chats (this list of chats recommended by ISTE is a great place to start). Then find topics that align to your professional goals. You might do a journal search and consider subscribing to one that fits your needs (also check with your school librarian to see if it is something that the school already subscribes to, or one they might consider adding to their library). Or you might find an expert on the topic and sign up for a webinar. You may also want to look at websites that collect and report on research-based practices. There is John Hattie’s Ranking of Effect Sizes where he looks at over 200 influences that are related to learning outcomes. You will definitely want to do a deeper dive into individual practices to understand the nuances of each influence. Robert Marzano has spent the last 50 years researching instructional strategies and collecting them in a meta-analysis database. Lastly, there is the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, where research studies are reviewed for their effectiveness and shared. Make sure that you too are moving “beyond the headline” to see what research went into a new practice - things like funding sources, sample sizes, and other implementation characteristics. Lastly, consider connecting with a colleague who has similar interests. Together, you can support each other when you start thinking about what a practice looks like in your classroom. Your partner is in the work with you and in the learning too!

ISTE Standards for Educators

Citizen 2.3.d. Model and promote management of personal data and digital identity to protect student data privacy.