This is the fourth in a series of five briefs published by Office of Education Technology (OET) on the key considerations facing educational leaders as they work to build and sustain core digital infrastructure for learning. These briefs offer recommendations to complement the fundamental infrastructure considerations outlined in the 2017 OET…

Many districts struggle to access the cybersecurity expertise or other resources needed to secure their networks and data appropriately. This isn't because mitigation strategies don't exist. Often, the barrage of suggestions and warnings directed at school IT leaders are too overwhelming to navigate, are not properly scoped for educational…

The purpose of this brief is to provide school-level examples of how early college practitioners are collecting and using data to improve their practices. Examples three and four are school-level data from two early college partnerships: the MetroWest CPC (Framingham, Milford, Waltham), and Lawrence. The brief begins, however, with the national…

This article describes a 6-week module course called Just Google It! that the author developed and teaches each fall semester. Students who take the course explore personal data collection by private companies, search algorithms, identify implicit bias in the results, and learn the best recommended privacy and security practices. At the end of the…

This Proceedings document begins with the text of the keynote by Dr. Michelle Caswell, followed by seven papers, representing a sampling of the symposium presentations from the 2022 Digitizing Hidden Collections (DHC) Symposium, a capstone event for the Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives program. This program was funded by the…

The universe of objects containing microprocessors or embedded sensors capable of communicating and transmitting information across networks is called the Internet of Things, and it has enormous implications for community colleges. Already, many colleges are saving time and money by monitoring and controlling "smart building" features…

Most kids are very much aware that the Internet isn't, by and large, a private space. In fact, most teens have been hearing that message since elementary school. But despite being educated about these issues, many teens continue to engage in digital behaviors that imply that they really don't understand how public and permanent the Internet really…

Teacher use of social networking sites such as Facebook has presented some ethical dilemmas for policy makers. In this article, we argue that schools are justified in taking action against teachers when evidence emerges from social networking sites that teachers are (a) doing something that is illegal, (b) doing something that reflects badly on…

This publication highlights how state policies and guidance are supporting the transformation to personalized learning through digital instructional materials. Specifically, the report includes personalized learning approaches and the policies and processes around the selection, curation, procurement, professional learning and funding of digital…

The College of the Holy Cross offers a universal first-year program called Montserrat, in which first-year students participate in a living-learning experience anchored by a yearlong seminar course. The seminar courses are part of a thematic cluster of four to eight courses; students in the cluster live together in a common dormitory and…

As an associate registrar at Berklee College of Music, the author is responsible for ensuring the College's compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). In 2009 he was asked to be part of a team charged with assessing Berklee's conformity with a soon-to-be-enacted state regulation. The Massachusetts Department of…

There is considerable debate about young people's concern for privacy today, given their frequent use of social media to share information and other content about themselves and others. While researchers have investigated the online privacy practices of teens and emerging adults, relatively little is known about the attitudes and behaviors of…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Improving the Distribution of Teachers in Low-Performing High Schools": Alliance Brief and Event Examine…

University CIOs and their municipal counterparts will need to ensure that broadband systems provide plenty of bandwidth for hundreds of different devices used by thousands--and perhaps even millions--of users. Some university WiFi networks are already clogged with too many users. Moreover, universities must somehow provide wireless network access…

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 sets the basic standards for disclosure of data in educational records. The manner in which data are to be classified within the records is to be determined by local policy. This article describes the Massachusetts regulations on student data classification. (Author/GC)