Upcoming Events: A Snapshot of K-12 Cloud-Based Ed Tech & Student Privacy in Early 2014 (6/3); Ivan Sigal (6/10)

Framing the Law & Policy Picture: A Snapshot of K-12 Cloud-Based Ed Tech & Student Privacy in Early 2014

Tuesday, June 3, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

In conjunction with the June 3, 2014, release of our latest paper-- Framing the Law & Policy Picture: A Snapshot of K-12 Cloud-Based Ed Tech & Student Privacy in Early 2014-- the Berkman Center’s Student Privacy Initiative (SPI) team is pleased to present an overview of the rapid transformation underway in primary and secondary (K-12) education as school systems nationwide adopt cloud-based educational technologies (“ed tech”). Cloud-based ed tech facilitates educational innovation-- such as new connected learning frameworks-- but also poses privacy challenges as more and more potentially sensitive data about students goes into the cloud. Though there is often no bright line rule that can strike an ideal balance of the imperatives of protecting both student privacy and innovation, the SPI team will present several pragmatic recommendations to guide policy and decision-makers at the school district, local, state, and federal government levels as they consider cloud-based ed tech. We also look forward to discussing how such recommendations might evolve as both the student privacy and ed tech pictures continue to develop.

Leah A. Plunkett does research with the Student Privacy Initiative. Leah is also Associate Professor of Legal Skills & Director of Academic Success at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. Alicia Solow-Niederman joined the Berkman community in September 2011, beginning work as a research assistant for Professor Jonathan Zittrain before transitioning to her current position as project manager. Urs Gasser is the Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Ivan Sigal

Tuesday, June 10, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

Ivan Sigal will present at the Berkman Luncheon Series on topic TBA.

Ivan Sigal is the Executive Director of Global Voices, an online citizen media network that amplifies unheard stories and perspectives, originally founded at the Berkman Center. He designs and creates media projects around the world with a focus on networked communities, conflict, development, and humanitarian disasters. He was a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, writing about digital media technologies and their effect on conflict. He also held many positions over a 10-year period at Internews, working on dozens of media projects across the former Soviet Union and Asia, on topics such as conflict, transitional societies, humanitarian information, broadcast and Internet media infrastructure, and freedom of expression. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Cyberscholar Working Group at Yale

Weds, June 11, 4:00pm ET, Yale Information Society Project

The Cyberscholar Working Group is a forum for fellows and affiliates of MIT, Yale Law School Information Society Project, Columbia University, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University to discuss their ongoing research.. Each session is focused on the peer review and discussion of current projects submitted by a presenter. Meeting alternatively at Harvard, MIT, Yale, the working group aims to expand the shared knowledge of young scholars by bringing together these preeminent centers of thought on issues confronting the information age. Discussion sessions are designed to facilitate advancements in the individual research of presenters and in turn encourage exposure among the participants to the multi-disciplinary features of the issues addressed by their own work. This month's presentations include:

(1) "Five Algorithmic Cultures and Their Ontologies: A Performative Critique" with Esteve Sanz, Thomson Reuters Fellow at the Information Society Project of the Yale Law School; and (2) "Social Patterns of Digital Thanks, Acknowledgment, and Attribution" with Nathan Matias, a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab. more information on our website>

Book Talk: Judith Donath on The Social Machine

Online, interface designs fashion people's appearance, shape their communication and influence their behavior. Can we see another’s face or do we know each other only by name? Do our words disappear forever once they leave the screen or are they permanently archived, amassing a history of our views and reactions? Are we aware of how public or private our surroundings are? In this talk Judith Donath — Berkman Faculty Fellow and former director of the MIT Media Lab's Sociable Media Group — discusses some of these questions and more from her new book “The Social Machine." video/audio on our website>