Student Privacy with Digital Resources

Maintaining student privacy is a must with our digital learning resources.  Working in a 1:1 environment, where every student is issued a school device, we can avoid 'shared' classes, where privacy can be compromised.

Our students frequently use online digital resources such as Seesaw, Freckle, Google Classroom, and EPIC.   Each of these resource allows the ability students to use a 'Class Code'.   Below, I have a little description of how a class code is used with each.

Depending on the resource, it can be a significant privacy breach if students can easily log in to their peers' accounts.  It is often best practice to avoid using a 'class code' for student accounts. 

Freckle

Classes and rosters are synced daily with Infinite Campus.  It is permissible for a teacher to manually build their own 'class' with rostered students, but not necessary.

A Class Code is available for a teacher-created class.  All students can log into their account using  ClassLink, making the class code unnecessary.  Freckle does not allow a teacher to reset a Class Code.  Once a Class Code has been compromised, there is no other  alternative than to delete the class.  

 If a teacher-created class is deleted, it will not affect student accounts or their work.  For our District, the Class Code never needs to be shared out.  Freckle is available through ClassLink with no separate sign-in necessary.  It is recommended to use use ClassLink instead of the website or application.

If a Class Code was shared out, it is recommended to remove, or delete, that class.   As long as the students listed somewhere in one of the "Managed by ClassLink" classes, no student data will be deleted.  It is permissible for a teacher to create a class in Freckle, but the Class Code should not be shared out.

Seesaw

 For our District, in the Class  Settings,  the Student sign in mode should always be set to '1:1 Devices'.  If it is set to 'Shared  Devices', it should be changed right away.  However, doing so will require students in that class to sign back in.

For younger students, Home Learning Codes are available to sign in through the Seesaw iPad App.  Older students may either use the Home Learning Code OR their school Google credentials to log in.

Beginning with the  21-22 school year, Seesaw classes and accounts will be synced with our student information system, Infinite Campus.   It will be available then through ClassLink, so no separate sign-in will be necessary.  

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a basic learning management system.  Here, the Class Code is for enrollment purposes only.  It does not impact students' privacy.  Their login is with  a unique username and  password.

Google Classroom is age appropriate for middle and  high school students, and at an introductory level for third and fourth grade students, where they are first introduced to using email. 

EPIC     

This is a popular digital ELA resource for our younger learners.  The free version only only allows for a shared Class Code.  Students and teachers can log in on the website at this link or use the iPad App.

EPIC School can only be used between 7:00am and 4:00pm, and presumes that there will be some level of adult supervision.   With the Class Code,  any student 'can'  log  in as any other student, so good supervision is a must. Without good supervision, it would be best to avoid using this resource.

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Advertisements and In-App Purchases are generally a deal-breaker for selecting digital resources.    It is  best practice to avoid apps that have these.  Also, because we need to be compliant by COPPA, FERPA, and SOPIPA, we need to check to resources' privacy policy for a statement that explicitly states that account data will not be shared with outside third parties.

 

 

For Teachers: Sharing Files using ClassLink

 Teachers have several ways  to quickly share files to  student iPads  that  can be downloaded  and opened.

This can include using Air Drop,  Google Drive, or iCloud.   However, for younger learners this can be a difficult workflow and a barrier to learning.  Below are directions to setting up a shared folder for your students using ClassLink, as another option.   Please let me  know as you  would like to learn  more.   

Click here to view Student Directions.  I would strongly recommend signing in as a student on your  iPad to go through their workflow, once you are set up here.

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The directions below are for a Teacher sharing files in a Shared Folder from their laptop.

	Visit launchpad.classlink.com  and sign in to your teacher account with your Google credentials.
	Click on the 3 lines in the upper left  corner of your screen and select My Files. OR Click on the My Files icon at the very  bottom of the screen.
	Click on the Shared folder.
	From here, you can create  a folder to share with students.  All files in this folder may be opened or downloaded by students. These are not collaborative files, meaning that everyone  will have their own  copy. IF  Your Shared Class  Folder has already been created, you may skip this step.
	Once you are 'in' the folder, you can either drag-and-drop in files  OR     Select Upload Files at  the top of your screen
	Right-click  on the folder to add students or other teachers. Students will normally have  Read-Only access. Teachers will normally have Full Access. See screenshot below.

Here is an example of what My Files may look like for a teacher.

For Students: Sharing Files with ClassLink

 Students:  

These directions show how to download and open a file that a teacher shares with you  on ClassLink.
These directions are for iPad only.

	Sign in to your ClassLink account. Grades K-4 can use a Quickcard. Grades 3-12 can use their school Google account.
	Tap on the 3 lines in the upper left  corner.
	Tap on My Files
	Tap on ClassLink Drive
	Tap on Shared We want  to download and open a file that your teacher has shared with you.
	Tap on  your teacher's shared Class Folder
1. Tap on the file  name to open in Preview mode 2.  Tap on the ... in the upper right corner 3.  Select  Open  In  ..... Keynote	OR 1. Tap on the ⌄ symbol in the upper right corner. 2. Tap on  Open In .... Keynote
	Choose Keynote,         or whatever appropriate app is needed.
	An extra tip - When using Keynote, tap on Edit to make changes to the slides.    You only need to  go  through these steps once.    If you  repeat them you will get  another new copy.

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Here is a map of all of the steps shown  above: