Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Free software programs a risk to students' privacy - EdTech industry body

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

According to this Radio New Zealand (RNZ) article, "The Education Technology Association (EdTechNZ) said... It said many schools were using free and under-maintained programs, because they could not afford better and did not know enough about the risks." The article is obviously promoting the local New Zealand software industry, but it's doing so in such a way as to confuse 'free' software such as Twitter and Facebook' with 'free' software such as Mastodon and WordPress, and by suggesting (falsely, in my view) that free software carries privacy risks that commercial software does not. Says Dave Lane, quite accurately, " It's a confusing message, unfortunately, and will almost certainly scare any edTech procurement people into the hands of high priced but still proprietary and possibly surveillance capitalist options, because they just don't understand this stuff."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 23, 2024 3:11 p.m.

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