DCPS Bans Zoom

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This guidance was not sent directly to teachers and many might still have never received it. At our school it as only sent to ALT members.

Then that’s on school leadership. I’m a teacher and I received it from my principal.

So what if it's "on" school leadership? That sounds like good leadership, actually. School was canceled on the 13th, teachers met to plan on the 16th, distance learning starts on the 24th and this guidance came on the 23rd to some people... after teachers had been planning all "spring break" about what to do.

It's a disrespectful ask by the 23rd and bordering misconduct to now say switch over for reasoning that is murky at best and doesn't even work at worst.

Good leadership exposes you to liability for using an unsecured network? It sounds like you are just salty over having to learn something new. They just gave a week to change. If your leadership had given you the correct info when they got it you would have had two weeks. Or could have changed in a day like I did (and I had literally never heard of Teams before this). Teams is NOT hard.

For many people it's not learning something new, it's learning yet another new platform at a time when everything is new.

And even setting aside how easy Teams is, it isn't as conducive for live classes since it doesn't have break out rooms like Zoom.

DO

Both Teams and Zoom were new to me. It makes more sense to learn just one platform, and Teams is the one that the school is using to send assignments, etc. Why would I also want to learn Zoom? And I have yet to see live teaching. We get recorded videos of our teachers teaching.

Teams is better because you can record and keep the video of the call. So any kid who misses it can still watch it. You can also post messages and assignments all in one space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This guidance was not sent directly to teachers and many might still have never received it. At our school it as only sent to ALT members.

Then that’s on school leadership. I’m a teacher and I received it from my principal.

So what if it's "on" school leadership? That sounds like good leadership, actually. School was canceled on the 13th, teachers met to plan on the 16th, distance learning starts on the 24th and this guidance came on the 23rd to some people... after teachers had been planning all "spring break" about what to do.

It's a disrespectful ask by the 23rd and bordering misconduct to now say switch over for reasoning that is murky at best and doesn't even work at worst.

Good leadership exposes you to liability for using an unsecured network? It sounds like you are just salty over having to learn something new. They just gave a week to change. If your leadership had given you the correct info when they got it you would have had two weeks. Or could have changed in a day like I did (and I had literally never heard of Teams before this). Teams is NOT hard.

For many people it's not learning something new, it's learning yet another new platform at a time when everything is new.

And even setting aside how easy Teams is, it isn't as conducive for live classes since it doesn't have break out rooms like Zoom.

DO

How many teachers are doing break out rooms? No teacher in my school is doing that. We don't even have live classes.

The teacher for one of my two children uses Zoom breakout rooms everyday. It’s her favorite part of the class meeting.

[Anonymous]

I’m beginning to think people are just making things up about their teachers in zoom and trolling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My federal government laptop will not connect to Zoom. There are clearly security holes and the Feds are blocking access.

Zoom is weird in that it launches a .exe file when you launch a session from a laptop or desktop computer. It's not a normal streaming video.

There are also rumors of connections between the company and the Chinese government.

State Department just announced we can use zoom, FWIW. Teams is bordering on unusable it’s so clunky for group calls.

[Anonymous]

So to be clear- zoom is cool for the state department, but no preschool read alouds?

[Anonymous]

You can record with zoom. There is an education version that maybe DCPS won’t pay for?

[Anonymous]

Our teacher already has scheduled the Zoom morning meeting for Friday, this one password-protected unlike the previous meetings. So if DCPS has banned Zoom, the teacher either is ignoring the order (or the school is ignoring it) or such a ban does not actually exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My federal government laptop will not connect to Zoom. There are clearly security holes and the Feds are blocking access.

Zoom is weird in that it launches a .exe file when you launch a session from a laptop or desktop computer. It's not a normal streaming video.

There are also rumors of connections between the company and the Chinese government.

State Department just announced we can use zoom, FWIW. Teams is bordering on unusable it’s so clunky for group calls.

Plus dumping money into the microsoft monopoly really isn't great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My federal government laptop will not connect to Zoom. There are clearly security holes and the Feds are blocking access.

Given that everyone hates IT people, and government IT people are some of the worst, don't use your experience with government IT policy to inform your technical knowledge. Please. For 75% of the government IT people I know, if they make a decision probably the best thing to do is the opposite, because their decision is informed more by 'relying on guidance' than any independent thought. (Some gov't IT people are good.)

Zoom is weird in that it launches a .exe file when you launch a session from a laptop or desktop computer. It's not a normal streaming video.

Zoom has some potential security issues, one of which is that it streams data to Facebook, and another is that they don't use end-to-end encryption, so they can mine your video streams for data they can sell. (in principle this is possible; unclear if they do it.)

But 'launching an .exe file' isn't the problem; all that means is that it uses a desktop client application. Which is totally fine and actually the reason the app is better than many in-browser apps like WebEx.

[Anonymous]

Zoom today apologized for its security and privacy problems:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/tech/zoom-ceo-apology-privacy/index.html

[Anonymous]

Question: Has anyone actually read Zoom’s fine print privacy policy?

The larger issue here that everyone seems to be overlooking is Zoom and other ed tech programs are neither private nor secure; they collect and share children’s personal data, sell data for targeted advertising often without our knowledge or consent — this violates FERPA and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint with the FTC that Zoom has committed unfair and deceptive practices .

It may not be an issue if DCPS had a written contract with Zoom that explicitly states the company will not use student data for any purpose beyond the company's stated function... However, right now DCPS does not have a written contract with Zoom.

A broader issue is that DCPS school admins and teachers are utilizing unvetted free tech products and are directly implementing these products to their single sign-on platforms for students, without giving parents proper notice or getting their consent, and usually without a choice to opt out of such privacy-invading technology. Students and their parents have a right to know how their data is being used and schools should not solely rely on a companies data privacy policies. DCPS have proven time and time again that they do not take student data protection and privacy seriously, and seemingly careless and clueless about how problematic this is — the investigative burden of Ed tech and data privacy seems to fall on the shoulders of the (woke) teachers, parents and students.

DCPS administrators, teachers, and PARENTS need to understand by using some of these free services they may be potentially giving students (and their parents) sensitive information away, and many of these services and technologies retain and store the invasive data they gather about students (and their parents). This data can tell detailed stories about a student’s life and contain extremely sensitive information that can cause serious harm if there is a data leak (which seems to have already occurred today at a certain DCPS Highschool). DCPS should also provide students and parents with better transparency and assurances with regards to how data is collected, used, stored, and protected. Our data is apart of our identities and is a form of ‘social currency’

For all teachers that are having a fit over the Zoom ban — you should not prioritize your own convenience over students' privacy. Consider researching a videoconferencing platform called ’Jitsi’ , which is currently recommended by privacy advocates; it’s free, open source and doesn’t require you make an account first.

Links:
https://www.epic.org/privacy/ftc/zoom/EPIC-FTC-Complaint-In-re-Zoom-7-19.pdf
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/03/20/schooling-rapidly-moves-online-across-country-concerns-rise-about-student-data-privacy/

[Anonymous]

Question: Has anyone actually read Zoom’s fine print privacy policy?

The larger issue here that everyone seems to be overlooking is Zoom and other ed tech programs are neither private nor secure; they collect and share children’s personal data, sell data for targeted advertising often without our knowledge or consent — this violates FERPA and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint with the FTC that Zoom has committed unfair and deceptive practices .

It may not be an issue if DCPS had a written contract with Zoom that explicitly states the company will not use student data for any purpose beyond the company's stated function... However, right now DCPS does not have a written contract with Zoom.

A broader issue is that DCPS school admins and teachers are utilizing unvetted free tech products and are directly implementing these products to their single sign-on platforms for students, without giving parents proper notice or getting their consent, and usually without a choice to opt out of such privacy-invading technology. Students and their parents have a right to know how their data is being used and schools should not solely rely on a companies data privacy policies. DCPS have proven time and time again that they do not take student data protection and privacy seriously, and seemingly careless and clueless about how problematic this is — the investigative burden of Ed tech and data privacy seems to fall on the shoulders of the (woke) teachers, parents and students.

DCPS administrators, teachers, and PARENTS need to understand by using some of these free services they may be potentially giving students (and their parents) sensitive information away, and many of these services and technologies retain and store the invasive data they gather about students (and their parents). This data can tell detailed stories about a student’s life and contain extremely sensitive information that can cause serious harm if there is a data leak (which seems to have already occurred today at a certain DCPS Highschool). DCPS should also provide students and parents with better transparency and assurances with regards to how data is collected, used, stored, and protected. Our data is apart of our identities and is a form of ‘social currency’

For all teachers that are having a fit over the Zoom ban — you should not prioritize your own convenience over students' privacy. Consider researching a videoconferencing platform called ’Jitsi’ , which is currently recommended by privacy advocates; it’s free, open source and doesn’t require you make an account first.

Links:
https://www.epic.org/privacy/ftc/zoom/EPIC-FTC-Complaint-In-re-Zoom-7-19.pdf
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/03/2...se-about-student-data-privacy/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m beginning to think people are just making things up about their teachers in zoom and trolling

It is definitely not made up. Many teachers are (were?) using Zoom for live lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question: Has anyone actually read Zoom’s fine print privacy policy?

The larger issue here that everyone seems to be overlooking is Zoom and other ed tech programs are neither private nor secure; they collect and share children’s personal data, sell data for targeted advertising often without our knowledge or consent — this violates FERPA and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint with the FTC that Zoom has committed unfair and deceptive practices .

It may not be an issue if DCPS had a written contract with Zoom that explicitly states the company will not use student data for any purpose beyond the company's stated function... However, right now DCPS does not have a written contract with Zoom.

A broader issue is that DCPS school admins and teachers are utilizing unvetted free tech products and are directly implementing these products to their single sign-on platforms for students, without giving parents proper notice or getting their consent, and usually without a choice to opt out of such privacy-invading technology. Students and their parents have a right to know how their data is being used and schools should not solely rely on a companies data privacy policies. DCPS have proven time and time again that they do not take student data protection and privacy seriously, and seemingly careless and clueless about how problematic this is — the investigative burden of Ed tech and data privacy seems to fall on the shoulders of the (woke) teachers, parents and students.

DCPS administrators, teachers, and PARENTS need to understand by using some of these free services they may be potentially giving students (and their parents) sensitive information away, and many of these services and technologies retain and store the invasive data they gather about students (and their parents). This data can tell detailed stories about a student’s life and contain extremely sensitive information that can cause serious harm if there is a data leak (which seems to have already occurred today at a certain DCPS Highschool). DCPS should also provide students and parents with better transparency and assurances with regards to how data is collected, used, stored, and protected. Our data is apart of our identities and is a form of ‘social currency’

For all teachers that are having a fit over the Zoom ban — you should not prioritize your own convenience over students' privacy. Consider researching a videoconferencing platform called ’Jitsi’ , which is currently recommended by privacy advocates; it’s free, open source and doesn’t require you make an account first.

Links:
https://www.epic.org/privacy/ftc/zoom/EPIC-FTC-Complaint-In-re-Zoom-7-19.pdf
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/03/2...se-about-student-data-privacy/

This is useful information, thank you. Teachers probably don't have a bunch of time to read the fine print and research various live teaching platforms given they had to teacher themselves various platforms just to start connecting with students. And no one wants to infringe upon security of students but when teachers are being told 'you are being paid so you have to teach all day' you bet they are just trying to do the best they can given conflicting messages from every direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This guidance was not sent directly to teachers and many might still have never received it. At our school it as only sent to ALT members.

Then that’s on school leadership. I’m a teacher and I received it from my principal.

So what if it's "on" school leadership? That sounds like good leadership, actually. School was canceled on the 13th, teachers met to plan on the 16th, distance learning starts on the 24th and this guidance came on the 23rd to some people... after teachers had been planning all "spring break" about what to do.

It's a disrespectful ask by the 23rd and bordering misconduct to now say switch over for reasoning that is murky at best and doesn't even work at worst.

Good leadership exposes you to liability for using an unsecured network? It sounds like you are just salty over having to learn something new. They just gave a week to change. If your leadership had given you the correct info when they got it you would have had two weeks. Or could have changed in a day like I did (and I had literally never heard of Teams before this). Teams is NOT hard.

For many people it's not learning something new, it's learning yet another new platform at a time when everything is new.

And even setting aside how easy Teams is, it isn't as conducive for live classes since it doesn't have break out rooms like Zoom.

DO

Both Teams and Zoom were new to me. It makes more sense to learn just one platform, and Teams is the one that the school is using to send assignments, etc. Why would I also want to learn Zoom? And I have yet to see live teaching. We get recorded videos of our teachers teaching.

Teams is better because you can record and keep the video of the call. So any kid who misses it can still watch it. You can also post messages and assignments all in one space.

No, no one should be recording. That's a privacy violation and should not be done. Teachers on my son's calls specifically tell them not to record. Luckily it's easy to tell who is doing it.