High hopes are held for the advances of big data, learning analytics and AI to benefit children’s education. To ensure these serve children’s interests, our review of policy and practice in combination with new school-centred user research will generate recommendations for child-rights-respecting data governance mechanisms that can unlock the potential of education data.
Publications
The Digital Futures Commission (DFC) held an expert roundtable discussion to discuss current governance and practice in processing children’s education data. This report presents the range of views expressed at the roundtable together with participants’ recommendations and useful sources. It offers an insight into our unfolding work on beneficial uses of children’s education data and reflects work in progress. We warmly thank all the experts who gave their time to participate in the roundtable. The discussion will shape the DFC’s ongoing research on governance gaps and stakeholder responsibilities and contribute to a blueprint for education data governance in 2022.
Governance of data for children’s learning in the UK state schools reports on significant regulatory and implementation gaps in data processing in education contexts. To bridge these gaps, the report identifies potential governance and oversight options for discussion. These options range from EdTech procurement rules for schools, legally binding (EdTech) sector-specific guidance, and codes of practice and standards.
Blogs
Can data-driven education be responsible, lawful and rights-respecting?
By Kruakae Pothong, Ayça Atabey and Sonia Livingstone The volume and types of data, as well as the purposes of data processing in educational contexts, have expanded well beyond the initial purposes of evaluating schools’ performance, »
Balancing interests in EdTech: When is the lawful basis of “legitimate interests” justified?
By Ayca Atabey As of September 2, 2021, all organisations that provide online services that are likely to be accessed by children must comply with »
Navigating education data governance in the UK state schools: A continued conversation
By Emma Day The Digital Futures Commission report on education data governance set out a child rights-based analysis of the use of EdTech in UK »
Bridging data governance gaps to realise child- rights-respecting learning futures
By Baroness Beeban Kidron When I first introduced the Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) into the Data Protection Bill in 2018, I had no idea »
The education data governance vacuum: why it matters and what to do about it
By Emma Day What are the necessary steps required to secure the future of children’s data-driven learning? Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE and Professor Sonia Livingstone »
Crucial steps needed for child rights-respecting data governance for children’s learning
By Kruakae Pothong and Sonia Livingstone The rise in data-driven education is marked by polarised discourses of hopes for the beneficial uses of data about »