Rodriguez-Triana, Martinez-Mones and Villagra-Sobrino
Based on previous studies into LA in higher education. Little awareness previously paid to data privacy and ethical issues (“because the data was already there and available”). A recognition that automatic data (VLE) is not enough. Always need a personal layer added by the teacher to contextualise and make data set complete.
In following this up, developed a pilot study in a primary school context using blogging tool. Teacher able to identify who is accessing and when (when the pupils are at home). Pupils not aware and cannot see this overview of their access. Parents were offered an explanation of the project and supplied ‘informed consent’.
Main issues were related to data ownership stake and control. Interesting distinction that younger students automatically need greater protection than older students. Permissions granted from parents/headteacher (“more hassle”). In fact, parents created dummy accounts on behalf of their children as pupils were minors and denied permissions to use the software tools. Data shared with teacher but not with families as it was felt that parents would not understand. Question then around whether parents were able to provide truly informed consent. Interesting.
