Source: Digital Access Key Image; Morgue File; http://mrg.bz/xJqkIW; Child At Computer Image; Morgue File; http://mrg.bz/0sg9VG; Teens on Phones Image; Morgue File; http://mrg.bz/Fd3V6P; Meeting Image; Morgue File; http://mrg.bz/Xx54up
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you are having an absolutely wonderful day. Today, we are going to learn a little more about COPPA, which is the Children's Online Privacy Prevention Act and, specifically, focus in on why teachers need to understand it. For today's lesson, I've chosen a quote by Nelson Mandela, which states "safety and security don't just happen. They are the result of a collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
I think this is an absolutely lovely quote. And although I'm not sure it was originally intended this way, I think that it can really apply to some of the potential pitfalls that technology can present for our children and why acts and laws like COPPA are so important. So by the end of today's lesson, you should be able to explain what COPPA is and describe why teachers really need to understand COPPA.
So, first of all, what is COPPA? Well, COPPA stands for the Children's Online Privacy Prevention Act. Now this was originally passed by Congress in 1998, but it didn't take effect until the year 2000. It was initially designed in order to help issue regulations concerning children being online and their privacy as they were interacting online.
At about this time was when really a lot of technology was getting integrated into the schools, and it was becoming more and more common in households. So children were beginning to get online, were starting to just peek in various social networking and e-mailing, checking out different websites, can input their information. And it was pretty clear that there needed to be a way in order to protect our children.
Now this act was amended by the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, in 2012. The goal of which was to account for different evolving technologies. The laws needed to reflect the many different ways that children and youth were now beginning to interact online.
Obviously, it wasn't just with a hard wired computer at home anymore or at school, but all of the various different ways kids could get online and what kind of new information they were now able to share. Now let's take a look at why teachers need to understand COPPA. Well, first and foremost, it's really important for teachers to be able to advocate for ways to adjust policies and really support student learning.
So for example, there are many districts across the country that really struggle with implementing technology consistently. Not all schools are lucky enough to have technology supervisors or people whose job it is to specifically work with various technologies in the school. If the district is having trouble implementing this, then it's really important for us as teachers to be able to understand COPPA so that we can help aid the district in developing various policies that do align with it.
It's also really important for teachers to understand COPPA so that we know the limits of the law, why things can or cannot be done. It's really difficult and frustrating when we as teachers can't access certain resources online. But understanding that if we can't access that that it's because of the COPPA requirements, this really helps bring all of it back into perspective, that we need to be ensuring that we are not mistakenly putting our students in an unsafe situation but that really we're helping them, beginning with the limits of the law.
Finally, it's important that teachers understand COPPA so that we can find ways to meet those objectives within the limits of COPPA. The better you'll understand the system that you're working in, the better you can expand your own resources so that you can still achieve the same educational goals without necessarily using some of these elements that could put students at risk, asking yourself as you're working and creating a learning experience what can I do instructional within the limits of COPPA that can still give me the same result with my students, help my students meet the same objectives.
Now that we've reached the end of the lesson, you should be able to briefly explain what COPPA is. And you should be able to describe why it's really important for teachers to understand COPPA and how we can use it to affect what we're doing in the school. Now I would like to take just a moment for reflection. As you reflect on the information of how teachers can use COPPA, what are the challenges you foresee if you start implementing these requirements into your teaching? Feel free to pause this video for just a moment as you reflect on this question.
For more information on how to apply what you've learned in this video, please view the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. The additional resources section includes hyperlinks useful for applications of the course material, including a brief description of each resource. That's all we have for now, but I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
(00:00-00:54) Intro
(00:55-01:06) Objectives
(01:07-02:32) What is COPPA?
(02:33-04:37) Why Teachers Need to Understand COPPA
(04:38-04:58) Review
(04:59-05:41) Reflection
CIPA, COPPA, FERPA, Oh My!
This blog post from Inside the Classroom Outside the Box! contains an overview of each law and resources for teachers. Scroll down the page to find an editable permission slip that you can give to your students when you want them to use a new web application in your class.
https://insidetheclassroomoutsidethebox.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/cipa-coppa-ferpa-oh-my/