Abstract:

Data in vast almost unthinkable amounts are being collected, synthesized and sold without the knowledge of consumers, including educational institutions, educators and students. Data are captured from smart devices and applications chosen by schools that then share students' and faculty's personally private information without their knowledge. Many personal elements of life are being shared online without the consumer or the student's understanding of how digital data are a form of currency that is highly sought. The implications of this sharing of personal information in education need to be more fully explored. Educational leaders and students have a right to know how digital surveillance and data sharing work in global commerce.

Digital privacy - the right to keep one's personal information private - is a term that is somewhat contested and fairly contextualized. Different countries take different policy approaches to the protection of digital traffic that crosses international lines on a daily basis. Yet, research indicates that there are significant policy gaps in safety nets designed to keep personal information private. In addition, consent has become conflated with convenience. Research indicates that digital participants, including educators, are not aware of how their personal information has been sold or compromised. How educators and students in K-12 and post-secondary institutions come to acquire the skills to protect their digital privacy is an area that has had Insufficient investigation because the study of digital privacy policy and skills is in its infancy.

More critical and interdisciplinary approaches are needed to study the acquisition and significance of digital privacy skills. In this study, the authors report on the key conceptual understandings, critical policy analysis framework and research that supported the design of a digital privacy course that was offered in one university in Canada. The course was created through the collaboration of faculty and graduate students who had expertise in education policy, digital literacy and cyber-security. The course employs student-centered pedagogy and is accompanied by an in-depth investigation of digital privacy in the form of an e-text. The authors report here on the course design, the significance of the course, and how the digital privacy course was received by the inaugural class of graduate students.

Keywords:

Digital privacy, critical policy analysis, digital technologies in education, student-centered pedagogy.