Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 4 Protecting Student Data Privacy
16 Plays8 months ago
Summary
In this episode, I explore the concept of stewardship regarding our students' data, particularly in the context of AI tools. I raise critical questions about how we, as Christian educators, can protect the sacredness of our classrooms and the privacy of our students in an increasingly data-driven world. I encourage you to reflect on these issues and consider the implications of our data practices. Your thoughts and actions on this matter are essential as we navigate these challenges together.
Common Sense Media’s AI Privacy Evaluator Tool
https://privacy.commonsense.org/evaluations/_
Prompt to Evaluate AI Tools
You are an AI ethics advisor to a Christian school. Ask me five questions to help determine whether this AI tool respects student privacy, models honesty, and aligns with biblical principles of stewardship and neighbor love. After I answer, summarize my responses into a one-paragraph ‘Stewardship Statement’ for our faculty handbook.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Importance of Stewardship
00:00:00
Speaker
Has it ever occurred to you that what you do with your students' data is actually a stewardship issue? What does stewardship look like when student data lives in a cloud?
00:00:11
Speaker
And how do we as Christian educators protect what's sacred when AI tools want to know everything about our classrooms and about our students? If you have ever asked that question or you want to find some answers or begin to explore those questions, then you are in the right place.
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to the Christian Educators ai Guide Podcast.
Data as Sacred Trust & Ethical Stewardship
00:00:50
Speaker
Welcome to the Christian Educators AI God podcast where we help Christian educators redeem AI for their teaching. I'm your host Rob Almey and today we are talking about student data privacy.
00:01:03
Speaker
In this episode we'll explore how to protect what's sacred. How do we safeguard a sacred trust that has been given to us as Christian educators? And how do we model ethical stewardship in a world that runs on our data?
00:01:18
Speaker
But before we dive into today's big question, let's start, as we always do, with what's happening right now in the world of AI. Let's turn to some AI news.
00:01:33
Speaker
In general AI news, the European Union and the United States are both pushing forward with new AI regulations that require companies to be transparent about how data is used to train their models.
Data Transparency & Biblical Principles
00:01:45
Speaker
Major tech firms are responding by publishing data transparency reports that show what information is collected and how long it is stored. For us as Christian educators, these laws are highlighting the biblical principle of honesty and accountability in all that we do. It's a good moment to review our own policies.
00:02:07
Speaker
This news can cause us to take a look at our own policies and our school and ask the very important question. For us as Christian educators or if we're school administrators, could I explain to a parent exactly where their child's data goes when we use AI?
Practical Steps for Educators
00:02:29
Speaker
That's a really great great question.
00:02:34
Speaker
Proverbs 12.22 reminds us that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. but those who deal faithfully are his delight.
00:02:46
Speaker
Faithful transparency in the age of AI is something that pleases God, I believe, and builds trust in our communities. And so this story and AI news sets the stage perfectly for us to move into our main conversation for today and to our big question for today having to do with data privacy.
00:03:16
Speaker
Our big question for today is, how can Christian schools protect student privacy and model ethical stewardship when using AI tools?
00:03:29
Speaker
As we consider this big question for today, I want to share with you three practical moves to that we can begin to take this week that will help us to be good stewards of the information that has been entrusted to us, that is the information of our students.
00:03:51
Speaker
The first... thing that we can think about when we think about students' data privacy has to do with viewing student information as a gift that's been given to us as educators that we should steward.
00:04:06
Speaker
Now, we don't use that word steward too much anymore in our everyday language. It's kind of an old word to talk about stewardship, but to be a steward of something means that you have been entrusted with it, that you are to take care of it. We often talk about that in church life having to do with our finances, and that's part of it, as our as is our talents.
00:04:27
Speaker
But in the context that we're talking about, AI and Christian education, we are talking about how it is that we take care
Real Students Behind Data
00:04:35
Speaker
ourselves. our students data whether that be demographic information about our student or even work that our student has done we have to think critically we have to think with wisdom and discernment when it comes to student data and when it comes to ai that every record every grade book entry every login represents a person
00:05:00
Speaker
These numbers represent a person that's made in the image of God. We're back to that Imago Dei like we talked about in last episode. Data is not just numbers. That data represents people.
00:05:13
Speaker
You know, I was a pastor for 25 years twenty five years And as pastors and churches often do, we often focus on the number of people that are in church, the numbers, if you will.
00:05:26
Speaker
And sometimes people would come and they rightfully so and and well-meaning and say, well, it's not all about the numbers. To which part of me would respond, but it is about the numbers because those numbers represent people.
00:05:40
Speaker
Numbers in church represent the number of people that are hearing the gospel. When it comes to the numbers that we have, As Christian educators, when it comes to our students' data, represent our students.
00:05:55
Speaker
They represent people. They represent our students who are created in the image of God. Luke 16.10 tells us, He who is faithful and very in a very little thing is faithful also in much.
00:06:10
Speaker
And he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. We have been given a sacred trust as educators.
00:06:22
Speaker
And part of that trust means that it's incumbent upon us to take care of the data of our students. Faithfulness in small digital details is spiritual faithfulness.
00:06:36
Speaker
So I want to encourage you as Christian educator to guard student information as you would if you had a child in your care.
Transparency with AI & Data Usage
00:06:49
Speaker
Second piece of this that I want to speak with you about has to do with partnering with transparency, about being transparent. You know, only use AI tools that you can clearly explain to parents and students.
00:07:07
Speaker
If you have no idea as a Christian educator where the data goes that you are sharing in an AI tool, then it doesn't meet the steward standard of Christian stewardship. It's as simple as that. If you can't explain to parents and students where their information is going for their students, if you can't describe where that data goes, it doesn't meet the standard of Christian stewardship.
00:07:31
Speaker
A real example, one Christian school evaluated an AI grading program and learned that this grading program stored student essays on foreign servers and used
00:07:46
Speaker
that material for training, for training of its program, for training of its bot. So that school chose not to use it. And in doing so, they were teaching integrity in action, being transparent.
00:08:01
Speaker
As we've already heard from Proverbs 12, 22, lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal faithfully are his delight. And when we talk about dealing faithfully with students' data, we must exhibit transparency. We must be able to tell where data is going.
Evaluating AI Tools for Privacy
00:08:22
Speaker
That brings us to ah the third thing that we wanna talk about as it pertains to this whole big issue about data privacy and our students. And that is that when it comes to data privacy, when it comes to how we use data in general, we must model digital fairness to others.
00:08:39
Speaker
You know, we have been taught as followers of Jesus and we rightfully teach our students to love your neighbor, love your neighbor as you love yourself. That not only applies to a r human relationships, it certainly does, but it also applies to our digital footprints.
00:08:57
Speaker
And so it's necessary for us to respect receiving consent from those that are under our care from their parents when it comes to sharing any data.
00:09:11
Speaker
That represents, in the digital world, crediting sources that we have drawn from to the best of our ability and not taking credit for something that we didn't create. It means avoiding sharing content without permission.
00:09:26
Speaker
That's how we model digital fairness to others. Matthew 7, 12 tells us, And everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you. For this is the law and the prophets.
00:09:41
Speaker
That's what Jesus said sum up the law and the prophets. We call it the golden rule. And so as we talk about how we handle data, and specifically the data of our students, we might turn to the golden rule so that we might handle data ethically, especially in this digital age, especially into this age of ai But how do we do that?
00:10:06
Speaker
Are there any tools that are available to help us? Well, now that we've considered these principles for handling student data and handling it in a way that is ethical and biblical, let's take a look at a practical resource that can help you put these principles into action as we move into talking about our feature tool and resource for this episode.
00:10:36
Speaker
Today's featured resource is the Common Sense Education Privacy Evaluation Guide. This is an awesome resource that's put out by our friends at Common Sense Education. It's a free resource that walks teachers and administrators through how to vet apps and AI tools for privacy and data security before using them in class.
00:10:57
Speaker
And so if you just head over to Common Sense Education, you'll find their privacy evaluation guide. There is also a searchable database where you can search different tools that are out there.
00:11:11
Speaker
will be important before you use a tool to know what their data privacy policy is. You'll, of course, mar rely on your IT department at your school that has hopefully vetted some tools maybe and have already looked at that.
00:11:24
Speaker
But if you are unsure, then you need to do your research. And if you're still unsure, then it's probably the best bet not to even use that tool. But the Common Sense Education Privacy Evaluation Guide can help you go a long way to evaluating different tools.
Discipleship & Data Compliance
00:11:44
Speaker
As we evaluate these tools, ask yourselves, does this tool collect more data than necessary? If you're using a tool, you might ask, can I see its privacy policy?
00:11:57
Speaker
Would I be able to explain it to a parent? Does it serve the mission of formation and not just efficiency is another great question to ask.
00:12:09
Speaker
You know, we have all kind of mindlessly clicked through, you know, the privacy policies that these apps, these tools, these programs put out. And we just make that little click and then we hit submit and we go on with our lives.
00:12:23
Speaker
But instead of doing that as an educator, we are called to a higher principle. Maybe here's where you use the AI, you know, because you copy and paste that whole thing. privacy policy and put it in to your favorite LLM, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, whatever it might be.
00:12:39
Speaker
And you ask it for a summary. You ask it, is it safe?
00:12:44
Speaker
And it can help you to evaluate that particular resource. When you review AI through the lens of stewardship, when you recognize that we've been given stewardship over our students' data,
00:12:59
Speaker
then issues of compliance really become issues of discipleship. Issues of compliance become issues of discipleship.
00:13:11
Speaker
Speaking of tools, let's shift to something interactive, our quick tip and prompt of the week that will help you i will help you apply what you have learned in this episode right away.
00:13:29
Speaker
So for our prompt of the week, here's a prompt that you can use to evaluate any i AI tool biblically and ethically. Again, go to your favorite LLM and use this prompt.
00:13:40
Speaker
You're an AI ethics advisor to a Christian school. Ask me five questions to help determine whether this AI tool respects student privacy, models honesty, and aligns with biblical principles of stewardship and neighbor love.
Conclusion & Call to Action
00:13:59
Speaker
After I answer, summarize my response into a one-paragraph stewardship statement for our faculty handbook. This simple exercise turns policy writing into spiritual formation.
00:14:14
Speaker
So again, let's redeem the AI for what it's good at. Let it help us to evaluate these tools and how they can help us protect student data and provide the appropriate amount of privacy.
00:14:29
Speaker
I'll go ahead and include that prompt in the show notes so that you'll have it so that you don't have to feverishly copy it down. Well, we have carved... an important topic today, one that requires wisdom beyond our understanding.
00:14:49
Speaker
So it's appropriate, as we do with our episodes here at the Christian Educators AI Guide podcast, to have a word of prayer as we begin to close out this episode.
00:14:59
Speaker
So I would invite you to join your heart with mine and let us go to the Lord in prayer. Let's pray.
00:15:09
Speaker
Father God, thank you for entrusting us with the students that you have given to us, the students that you have fearfully and wonderfully made as your image bearers, as your word testifies.
00:15:23
Speaker
Give us discernment to guard their privacy and wisdom.
00:15:28
Speaker
Give us knowledge and wisdom to use technology faithfully. Teach us to to be transparent in our own dealings with technology. Teach us to be honest and compassionate in all that we do online.
00:15:44
Speaker
May every click and every line of code, every prompt reflect your truth in love. In the sweet and precious name of Jesus, our Savior, we pray.
00:15:59
Speaker
Amen.
00:16:02
Speaker
If this episode encouraged you, i want to encourage you to leave a rating and review wherever it is that you listen to your podcast. Subscribe and share it with a colleague who cares deeply about these issues, about protecting students, redeeming technology for God's glory. I hope that you will tune in the next time.
00:16:20
Speaker
for the Christian Educators AI Guide podcast. But until next time, go and redeem AI for education. Go and redeem AI for the furtherance of the gospel. And may you go in God's peace.