Digital Rights

     As we continue to live in a world that is centered around technology, consumers, educators, and students must know their digital rights. This is especially important in the classroom, as many teachers and students frequently use technology; thus, it is even more important that those individuals know their digital rights. Digital rights are certain rights that an individual has when it comes to accessing technology and information that may exist in the technological world (Mulder, 2023). However, digital rights also include the protection of personal information and privacy that occur when one participates in the digital world. 

    When we look at digital rights from the educational perspective, students and teachers must be aware of the privacy that they are mandated to have. Teachers and the school district contain massive amounts of information that they store digitally, unlike 40 years ago when that information would be stored in a file folder. Information about the student, including their health information, grades, home life information, referrals, and many other confidential pieces of information, is stored. However, with any online platform, there is the risk of that information being leaked or even shared without consent. The same is true for any information that is stored on apps like Facebook or information that is shared at the doctor's office. Luckily, some laws and acts do protect people from the misuse of digital information as mentioned above. FERPA is one act that is enacted in schools that protects students' and families' privacy and the divulgence of information. Outside of education, various acts like the California Consumer Privacy Act protect our data from being leaked or shared (Zwier, 2020).

    Again, focusing on digital rights, teachers must be trained and properly use educational technology fairly and honestly. With the uptick of teachers using digital grading platforms and creation systems (such as ChatGPT), teachers must either monitor these systems for errors or eliminate them from use (Busuioc, 2020). Additionally, some teachers and students are still struggling to implement technology within the classroom. School staff must be looking for resources to offer technology to students. There is a divide between students who have regular access to technology and students who do not have access to technology. 

    Moving forward, it is critical to teach about digital rights in conjunction with teaching about technology. Students must be aware of and learn about the rights that they have in the digital world. Additionally, teachers and individuals who use technology must be aware of the impact of their choices in the digital world and make ethical choices when using technology. 

References:

Busuioc, M. (2020). Accountable artificial intelligence: Holding algorithms to account. Public Administration Review, 81(5), 825–836. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13293 

Mulder, V., Mermoud, A., Lenders, V., & Tellenbach, B. (2023). Trends in Data Protection and Encryption Technologies. Springer. 

Zwier, D. (2020). Regulating data privacy and use: A key to modern national security? University of Pittsburgh Law Review, 81(2). https://doi.org/10.5195/lawreview.2019.681