Jason Schultz – Young People and Online Learning: Maximizing Engagement, Minimizing Privacy Risks

How do we promote youth interest in online learning experiences while at the same time navigating concerns about privacy?

Key Questions and Comments:

• (09:16) What does the research tell us? What are those benefits, what are those learning opportunities?
• (10:10) What are our options? What’s on the table? What should we be thinking about and what is the right approach? What do kids, and parents, and everyone need to know; what do we need to learn; what competencies do we need to help navigate this and help [youth] navigate this?
• (12:32) How do [regulatory bodies and the public] get on the same page again? How do we try and work together–as opposed to at odds?
• (16:54) Anyone in the Hangout want to perhaps talk a bit about what the research is offering us in terms of better understanding of the kinds of learning opportunities that the online world is providing to people?
• (24:30) What is your response or assessment of the nature of the public discussion, both in terms of media and amongst regulators about how we are addressing these issues of risk, privacy and safety as it relates to young people? And what would you say is missing from this conversation?
• (29:51) One of our big questions at CDT has been: why not apply [the Fair Information Practice principles] to all users? What are the privacy protections that people are talking about and advocating for children that we wouldn’t want for people who are 13, and 30, and 60?
• (30:57) It’s hard to pick an age like 13 and make that the cut-off. One of the concerns I have in thinking about this from a regulatory point of view: should we be using demographic characteristics at all?
• (37:15) Are [children] just passive recipients or consumers? Are we going to see our children as just consumers of media the way we were or are we going to see them as ‘active, creative social agents’?
• (39:13) Anyone want to say a bit about what we know about how different stakeholders are engaging this issue?
• (43:51) “I’m thinking of offering an open, online course for students (international) for credit. What kinds of privacy concerns do you encourage me to consider?”
• (49:02) When you ask children or adults or whoever, how do we get a good conversation going about ‘what are their concerns’? Or, if they’re a parent, what are the concerns they’re thinking about for their children?

View the Conversation
During the broadcast, the conversation also took place on Twitter using the hashtag #connectedlearning.

Guests for this webinar included:

• Anne Collier
• Jacqueline Vickery
• Kevin Bankston
• Emma Llanso
• Renee Hobbs
• S. Craig Watkins
• Jason Schultz: Jason Schultz is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also Co-Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the UC Berkeley School of Law. Jason has presented at many legal and academic conferences and is a regular contributor to news reports on intellectual property, privacy, and technology matters; his writing primarily focuses on the ongoing struggle to balance intellectual property regimes with the public interest in free expression, access to knowledge, and innovation in light of new technologies and the challenges they pose. You can also follow him on Twitter at @lawgeek

Resources for this webinar:

• The Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA)
• ‘Why parents help their children like to Facebook’ – joint study on unintended consequences of COPPA
• Consequences/drawbacks of the Children’s Television Act of 1990
• Overview of the MacArthur Foundation-funded ‘Digital Youth Project’
• The Digital Media & Learning Research Hub’s Connected Learning Research Network
  • The CLRN’s “Digital Edge” project
• The GoodPlay Project: exploring the ethical character of young people’s digital media activities