Attention Teaching Community!
Let’s talk about Zoombombing and technology safeguarding concerns.
The education industry is going through uncertain times and whilst we adapt and overcome a new set of daily challenges, there is no doubt that as educators, we are putting our student’s needs, privacy and security at the forefront of this crisis.
The team here at Teacherly: a combined force of former educators, senior leaders, and passionate education ambassadors, have compiled a list of some key safeguarding rules: from Tes, GulfNews, Twitter Staffroom, alongside some Teacherly Tips.
- Keep live streaming sessions secure:
In an unfortunate turn of events, students (or in some cases, strangers) are taking over virtual classrooms in what is now termed ‘Zoombombing!’. As live lessons are being delivered, teachers have noticed strangers hacking into video calls and sharing inappropriate content. A key rule in this situation is ensuring invitation URLs to live stream videos are kept secure, and sent directly to students/parents via email. They should not be shared publicly. In most cases, you can also add a password, which will create extra security.
Teacherly Tip: Joy Buckner, Head of Customer Success and Onboarding at Teacherly adds that “my favourite thing about Teacherly is that everything is housed exclusively within our platform so as a teacher you are in total control of who is joining your live sessions…In addition, you have the ability to mute all students and in case any questions arise, they can simply ‘raise hand’ or communicate via the chat feature.”
2. Conduct live stream sessions in a neutral background:
TES recommends that we make sure any recordings or live streams are conducted in a neutral background, where as much as possible, students should not be able to see or hear anything personal.
Teacherly Tip: Can’t find a neutral background or live streaming just isn’t for you and your school? Teacherly allows you to embed voice notes into your lessons, up to 10 minutes long! Explain a concept, discuss an idea or play a musical instrument without the hassle of videos.
3. Collaborate on lessons with small groups:
Gulf News UAE recently published an article detailing that some schools have implemented a strategy where, in the situation that a teacher is conducting a live session with a small group, it is best practice for another adult from the school to also be in the lesson, either as an active participant or a passive listener.
Teacherly Tip: Ashna Mahtani, Teacherly Education Outreach Manager advises that you can “make collaboration easy by using Teacherly! You can work together with other colleagues or departmental teams on lessons, share best practice and ‘Go Live’ with your lessons together. It’s important now more than ever that teachers come together and ensure they are not working in isolation…”
4. Individual conversations with students:
When appropriate, and in the situation where you are having to communicate with an individual student, it is recommended to use a parents/carers email address or phone number in order to ensure parents are aware of direct communication, and students are not exposed to your personal information.
Teacherly Tip: Teacherly houses the function for students to provide lesson feedback which is easily accessible for teachers. In addition, the platform also has the capability of direct communication from student to teacher, which will all be recorded on the platform.
5. Check privacy policies:
Simple but so important! If using any form of online communication or interaction between students, ensure it is suitable for their age group and that you have read or been communicated to about the privacy policy.
Teacherly Tip: Atif Mahmood, Founder and CEO of Teacherly, adds that “Teacherly is committed to protecting the privacy of every user’s information. We limit the type of data we collect and we only collect and analyse student data that we believe can improve learning outcomes. In addition, we implement an online safeguarding policy with each school using our platform.”
6. Ensure data is secure:
When working with data from students, colleagues or parents, such as email addresses or phone numbers, it is important to ensure these are stored securely with passwords and only relevant parties have access to such data. Similarly, it’s important that when using an online platform, student’s data such as email and login details are not shared amongst the group but kept private between students and parents.
Teacherly Tip: Daniyar Chambylov, Chief Technology Officer of Teacherly, asserts that like online banking, Teacherly uses encryption and technologies specifically designed to keep information secure and inaccessible to anyone else.
7. Be careful what you download:
Cybercriminals will try to trick you into downloading malware, it’s important to be aware of where you are downloading resources or applications from. As well as regularly communicating to your students the risks of the online world, giving them room to ask any questions they may have.
Teacherly Tip: Zeina Halawai, Teacherly Regional Manager discusses that “…with Teacherly, we will never prompt you or allow you to download any lessons, templates or resources, our platform is based 100% online and you can be guaranteed that we will not engage in any ‘phishing’ scams by sending you unsolicited emails asking for details or downloadable content”
In addition to these guidelines, Teacherly strongly recommends following your schools online safeguarding policy as well as telling students and children where they can go, and who they can talk to if they are worried about anything.
If you are interested in hearing more about how Teacherly can help you with your distance learning strategy please feel free to email me at ashna@teacherly.io
If you have any questions related to GDPR and safeguarding regarding Teacherly, you can get in touch with Claire Ashton at cashton@itgovernance.co.uk
