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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 21 2020, @09:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the my-schoolboard-sucks... dept.

Some local schoolboards have already rolled out full remote learning curricula, starting Monday (seems to me there have been plans in the works for years to make something like this happen this fast.) Others appear flat-footed and clueless. We did some homeschooling with our kids a couple of years ago, and the one website that really clicked with us was (shameless plug) https://ixl.com .

I know we had a Soylent story just over a week ago asking for alternatives to the ubiquitous (and well deserved first place recommendation) Khan. Now that it's a little less abstract, and looking more certain that the kids won't be returning to physical school buildings until the fall... what do you look for in online learning services?

Our criteria were: easy for the kids to self-learn the material as presented, easy to track progress and identify areas where extra instruction might help, clear documentation of subjects covered and relative mastery of each, easy for kids to self-select appropriate subject areas to study, reasonable cost.

Khan certainly presents material clearly, and the cost can't be beat, but we found IXL to be superior in the other areas, and when you think about the tremendous number of hours invested by you and your kids in the learning system, the cost isn't really significant ($20/month for one, $24 for two).

Has anybody else taken a serious plunge into online learning and found something "better than Khan" for your purposes?

[Ed. addition follows. --martyb]

See our previous story: Student Privacy Laws Still Apply if Coronavirus Just Closed Your School and take a close look at future provider's security and privacy practices. From the article linked to in the previous story https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/watch-out-for-privacy-pitfalls-if-your-school-is-suddenly-online-only/:

Usually educational organizations—colleges, universities, or local K-12 districts—have agreements in place with certain dedicated educational software vendors such as Blackboard or Canvas to use their tools. Compliance with FERPA is ideally part of those agreements, although adherence can be somewhat hit and miss. But when everyone is suddenly scrambling for new tools as best they can in response to a pandemic, privacy considerations may fall by the wayside.

Software platforms allowing videoconferencing, recording, and screen sharing have all seen a massive spike in use in recent weeks. Microsoft, Google, Slack, and Zoom are all offering discounts or extra features to businesses, groups, and individuals to help with the everything from home era in which we (hopefully temporarily) find ourselves. Not all of those tools, many of which are designed for enterprise use, are necessarily going to be compliant with educational regulations.

Google, in particular, has been in hot water before. Neither schools nor individuals can sue for FERPA violations, as the Electronic Privacy Information Center explains, but both states and individuals have filed suit under different statutes alleging related violations.

In 2013, a group of students sued Google over its "creepy" data-mining from Google Apps for Education tools. Google ended the practice in 2014, only to be sued again in 2016 by a group of current and former university students alleging their data was collected and retained from their Google academic accounts in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Neither are all the lawsuits in the past. Just last month, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas filed suit against Google. That suit alleges the company's collection and use of data from schoolchildren in New Mexico violates both the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act.


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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @11:03PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @11:03PM (#973961)

    Why isn't anyone calling it "Chinese flu"? SJW fodder?

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @11:22PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @11:22PM (#973965)

    GOP Flu

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @09:00AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @09:00AM (#974068)

      The "Trump Plague"? The "Donald Virus"? Or a great opportunity for Republican Senators to dump stocks and make a killing?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @02:20PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @02:20PM (#974135)

        There is another wealth inequality factor. They are making million dollar market moves while i consider a $3000 move big. They have market advisors who keep an eye on things, I have to be content with buy and hold with a sluggish mutual fund. And yet I’m still better off than all those people with no IRA.