EdTech as we know it would be almost impossible without the science and best practices of data management. In this episode, Susan Bearden, the Director of Digital Programs for InnovateEDU and the leader of Project Unicorn, sits down with Elana Leoni, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, to talk about data interoperability, how EdTech is playing catch-up with other data-driven industries, cybersecurity, and the deep value of lifelong learning. Here are a few of our favorite moments from this conversation.
Efficient Data Sharing Requires Agreed-Upon Standards.
Data interoperability may be a difficult term to pronounce, but Susan assures us it's a simple, necessary concept.
"[Data interoperability] is the seamless, secure, and controlled exchange of data between applications. In education, the goal of interoperability is to focus on better informing instruction and driving student-centered learning environments."
Interoperability means an agreed-upon standard that allows a wide range of devices or systems to interact. That's why Bluetooth works wherever you find a Wi-Fi signal, why you can use any ATM regardless of where you bank, and why you can book the same flight through many different travel apps. EdTech is about 20 years behind other industries in terms of data interoperability, Susan tells us, because education tools tend to be siloed. That's why, through her work at Project Unicorn, she seeks to enable classroom situations like these:
"Say that you have curriculum tools and you want to be able to assign them. Or you want to be able to integrate them into your particular learning management system. Or the ability to automatically roster different EdTech tools so that teachers don't have to manually upload rosters and make changes to class rosters every time they get a new student into their classroom."
At district and state levels, interoperability is critical for data storage and analysis – and essential to any data security strategy.
Data Breaches Are An Ongoing Threat.
Student data security became a headline issue in August whenin a cyberattack. Susan explains:
"It was so consequential, not just because of the data breach itself, but because Illuminate had attested to the district that they had certain data security protocols in place. It turned out that they did not have all of their data encrypted, which was how this breach was able to happen."
This cautionary lesson for EdTech is also a wakeup call for schools to scrutinize their contracts with service providers when determining the security of an EdTech tool. Susan recommends the Student Data Privacy Consortium and its free database as a good starting point.
"If you say, 'I don't know what kinds of questions I can ask,' you can search the database and you can see, 'This neighboring district signed a contract with this vendor. Here's the language that they used.' Districts, even if you are not yet required by law to sign contracts with all of the tools that you use, it's considered best practice. Eventually, I think it's going to become standard practice."
For educators who don't have time for a deep dive into the fine print of a service contract, Susan recommends the product evaluations available through Common Sense Media and Student Privacy Compass.
EdTech Must Stand For Data Security.
In the interest of earning and keeping their clients' trust, Susan urges EdTech companies to check the language on their websites for how they represent their security features. She also stresses that sales reps educate themselves about student data privacy.
"Make sure that you are familiar with your company's privacy policy and your terms of service. Make sure that you can answer those questions honestly and truthfully. You don't have to be a lawyer, but you should know the basics so that you can answer questions and really better represent your product."
Here's the full transcript of Susan's podcast episode.
What We Talked About
Use this to jump to parts of the conversation you want to listen to more closely.
[00:49] Introducing Susan Bearden
[05:52] What led Susan to a career in K-12 education
"I view being an IT director, or working in a K-12 IT department, as a service role. We are there to help everyone else do their jobs better. That includes teaching."
[10:45] Data interoperability: what it is, what it isn't, why it matters
"At Project Unicorn, we promote and support the use of open data standards, which makes it easier for educators to access and make use of their data. Because I think education is probably 20 years behind other industries."
"If you can't get data out of a system, and if it's in one format and then you want to get it into another system and that's in a different format, that just creates a whole lot of extra work, a lot of extra time. We all know that everybody who's working in education already has a full-time job."
"How many times would it be helpful if teachers could look at all of their student assessment data and their attendance data and their behavior data? If they were able to look at it in a single location without having to go hunting down and logging into multiple systems to try and draw conclusions or to get a picture of the whole child, that's really what it's about."
[20:26] Data interoperability and the EdTech industry
"Imagine that you had to do multi factor authentication and you didn't have single sign-on in place. Now you're taking the 86 classroom tools, already you have problems with passwords, and then you're adding multi factor authentication onto that? Mind blown. I don't even want to think about that."
"We also view [data interoperability] as an equity issue... It's still a challenge for a lot of districts. The average district in the United States, I think is 3000 students. They're not going to have a very big IT team. You still have those schools where the IT director is also the PE teacher and also coaches track after school."
[25:02] Data privacy and cybersecurity in schools
"I think we're going to be seeing some significant movement in Washington with regard to updating FERPA and with cybersecurity requirements. It's not just schools that are at risk for being hacked or being victims of ransomware attacks. Vendors are also at risk."
"It's important that sales and marketing people really understand exactly what your product does and doesn't do with regards to protecting student data privacy and cybersecurity."
[30:10] Resources for educators to learn about EdTech product security
"You can't expect teachers to be privacy experts. That's why you should rely on some other folks who've done some of this work for you."
[38:54] Susan's words for educators and EdTech providers at the beginning of the school year
"To the EdTech service providers, I would ask you to make sure that you are aware of the challenges that educators have been facing for the past two years and be thoughtful and intentional in the marketing of your products."
"We want [our students] to become lifelong learners. By modeling that ourselves, as whether that's in our roles as parents, as educators, as education technology professionals, I think that commitment to lifelong learning is really important."
[43:14] How people can get in touch with Susan
[44:22] How Susan stays inspired
"You need to set boundaries between your work and your personal life, because there's always more work to be done. It doesn't matter what your job is."
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Terms
• Data interoperability, Project Unicorn's description of this necessary feature in digital apps and communication
• Findings from COSN's EdTech Leadership Survey Report, 2021, Susan refers to this source when discussing how schools are adopting single sign-on procedures
Student Data Privacy
Illuminate Education data breach, Susan and Elana discuss this recent failure of an EdTech provider to adequately secure its student data
Common Sense Media, a watchdog organization monitoring safe and age-appropriate media content; Susan recommends their ratings for EdTech product data security
Student Privacy Compass, the online resource formerly known as FERPA|Sherpa; Susan recommends their ratings for EdTech product data security
Online Learning Products Enabled Surveillance of Children, an article Elana mentions from Human Rights Watch about all of the EdTech companies on the watch list
Students Not Products, a report from Human Rights watch that examined EdTech products on how they handled student data.
Data Security and Standards Organizations
Access 4 Learning, a global community addressing data interoperability and data privacy; Susan lists this group as another important data standards body
CoSN (Consortium for School Network), a membership organization designed to meet the needs of K12 education technology leaders; Susan previously served as its Chief Innovation Officer
FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), a federal law protecting the privacy of student education records; Susan mentions this as one of the cornerstones of educational data security
Future of Privacy Forum, a non-profit serving as a catalyst for privacy leadership and scholarship; Susan mentions them as the originator of the Student Privacy Pledge
Student Privacy Pledge, a voluntary but legally binding industry pledge to safeguard student privacy regarding the collection, maintenance, and use of student personal information; Susan describes how the Illuminate data breach violated this agreement
Student Data Privacy Consortium, a collaborative of schools, districts, state agencies, policy makers, trade organizations, and marketplace providers addressing solutions to data privacy concerns; Susan mentions them as the originator of the National Data Privacy Agreement
Office of Educational Technology, the U.S. Department of Education's division for EdTech; Susan previously served as a Senior Fellow
National Data Privacy Agreement, an agreement addressing common student data privacy concerns and streamlining the related contracting processes; Susan describes this as a necessary tool for protecting student data
All Things Susan Bearden
InnovateEDU, a non-profit working to eliminate the opportunity gap by accelerating innovation in standards-aligned, next-generation learning models and tools; Susan serves as Director of Digital Programs
Project Unicorn: Website | Twitter; Susan leads this InnovateEDU initiative to improve data interoperability within K-12 education
Digital Citizenship: A Community-Based Approach by Susan Bearden
EdTech K-12 Magazine's top 30 K-12 IT influencers for 2022, Susan is proud to be named to this list
Possible webinar link
Elana Leoni, Host
Elana Leoni has dedicated the majority of her career to improving K-12 education. Prior to founding LCG, she spent eight years leading the marketing and community strategy for the George Lucas Educational Foundation where she grew Edutopia’s social media presence exponentially to reach over 20 million education change-makers every month.
Susan Bearden, Guest
Susan M. Bearden, CETL, is the Director of Digital Programs for InnovateEDU, where she leads Project Unicorn, a collaboration of 16 organizations seeking to support and promote the use of data interoperability in K-12 education. A former teacher and K-12 technology leader, she previously served as the Chief Innovation Officer for CoSN and as a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. The author of Digital Citizenship: A Community-Based Approach, Susan is passionate about facilitating best practices in education technology in support of innovative teaching and learning. She was named one of EdTech K12 Magazine’s Top 30 K12 IT Influencers for 2022.
About All Things Marketing and Education
What if marketing was judged solely by the level of value it brings to its audience? Welcome to All Things Marketing and Education, a podcast that lives at the intersection of marketing and you guessed it, education. Each week, Elana Leoni, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, highlights innovative social media marketing, community-building, and content marketing strategies that can significantly increase reach, relationships, and revenue.
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