What Legal Issues in Education Technology Are School Leaders Most Concerned About?
The authors of the course text, Educational Leadership and Technology (Garland & Tejada, 2013) discuss such legal issues in technology as copyright, internet access for all students, protection of student data, and responsible social interactions.
They are clear about the role of the school leader in maintaining a culture that promotes responsible, legal use of education technology. “Principals are leaders in the collaborative effort of teachers and administrators, and parents in ensuring safe, ethical, and legal use of digital information and online resources by students in their schools” (p. 93).
In addition to the critical legal issues mentioned above, concerns regarding the legality of how schools use technology for instruction, data collection, communication, and collaboration surface regularly, and must be dealt with by school leaders. Some of these legal issues may have been discussed when you studied School Law, so you are familiar with the statutes that govern them.
Additional legal issues in the management of education technology include:
Freedom of speech
Harassment
Special education student access
Intellectual property
Assistive technology
Content filtering
Use of cell phones (students or teachers)
For this assignment (2 pages, plus references), select one of the following legal topics listed above. Then create a scenario, (all names and places are anonymous) that involves a potential violation of the laws governing this legal topic. The scenario should be no more than one page in length.
1 reference must be from the course text, Educational Leadership and Technology (Garland & Tejada, 2013)
On page 2 of the assignment, cite the statute/law that governs this issue and/or the school or district policy that addresses this scenario. Then provide your thoughts on how this scenario should be dealt with by the school principal.
