Neil Anderson Responds to Student Privacy Concerns

Neil Anderson from the Association for Media Literacy sent a very thoughtful response to my concerns about A Student's Rights to Privacy in the Age of Digital Learning

Hi Heidi

I was reflecting on the York conference and thought about your question re: commodification. Then I read your slides. I realized that commodification is integral to your concerns about student privacy.

It involves student privacy and a larger issue. Specifically, Facebook has commodified the like button, using the numbers to promote or sell. When people solicit likes, they are requesting a currency from us similar to asking for $ donations, and likes become real $ for Facebook.

The challenge since the WWW bubble burst has been to monetize what we do online. Facebook has done this brilliantly because it has engineered a system where the 1 billion users generate content, likes and market. Then FB sells data and messages inserted into timelines to corporations.

Where this intersects with your concerns is the point where Rogers, Intel, Microsoft, Apple, etc. solicit school liaisons and participation, then use that interaction to leverage further sales. That is the point at which some student work becomes commodified, and for the gain of the corporations rather than the students.

This is not a new phenom. Companies who invite students to colour pictures, then put them on the restaurant walls are doing the same thing, but the difference is the scale. Apple has actively courted education since its inception in similar ways.

What teachers and students have to discuss is how comfortable they feel as participants in these marketing campaigns. If they wanted, they could use Unix machines and public domain software. That would be making a political statement just as
is using Apple gear.

We have to concede that we are part of an economic system in which Apple and others deserve to have a revenue stream, and musthave one to sustain their efforts. What you are highlighting is the degree to which rights and privacy are compromised in those transactions.

The Quebec students who made the 'eagle snatches baby' hoax video used their Youtube profits to fund the purchase of more equipment for their school. Teachers maybe should negotiate royalties with Rogers, etc. that would help fund educational activities.

I.e., we need more thoughtfulness, transparency and respect between and from corporations that would use student work to leverage sales.