Promoting Innovation and Protecting Privacy in the Classroom

Student data can help personalize a single student’s learning experience to deliver better outcomes across populations. But that data is also sensitive; it will be important that it remains under student and parent control to the extent possible, and not used for purposes inconsistent with the educational mission.

That is why, as we carry forward the Big Data Report’s mandate to consider the intersection of big data, education, and privacy, we are also looking beyond Washington to some of the exciting efforts by the public on this issue. Personalized, digital learning need not come at the expense of privacy protections, and steps like these are an important start toward creating the confidence students, teachers, and parents need to take the greatest advantage of these new tools.

[Dipayan Ghosh is with the division of the Chief Technology Officer at the Office of Science and Technology Policy]