Educational Technologies and Student Data – Briefing for Libraries
The use of technology in education is growing, and a new class of technologies has emerged that relies on tracking and analysing vast amounts of student behavioural data to measure their activity, participation or wellbeing.
The position of libraries in educational ecosystems means that they may well, both directly and indirectly, come across these trends.
University and school libraries will be affected by the Edtech their institutions use. Both public and academic libraries can face pressure to use more performance tracking and learning analytics tools to benchmark their users’ progress and demonstrate performance.
It is worth libraries being conscious of the growing role of Edtech in the schools, colleges and universities that they serve. IFLA has produced this briefing to outline the key ethical and security concerns for libraries to consider, and suggest some ways for libraries to promote responsible and ethical use of Edtech.