Working with Aula: How teachers navigate privacy uncertainties
研究丹麦公立学校平台Aula如何融入教师日常工作,发现该平台未能支持教师复杂工作实践,导致儿童隐私和数据保护出现漏洞。
Aula is a mandatory public school platform in Denmark with more than two million users. The idea behind Aula was to provide a shared space for communication and cooperation around children, both within the school/municipality setting and between teachers and parents, while adhering to the requirements of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. In this article we examine the incorporation of Aula in the daily practices of teachers, especially as they relate to children’s privacy and data protection. Based on qualitative interviews with nine teachers and four experts, and drawing on practice theory, platform theory, and theories on children’s privacy, we find that Aula – despite the intentions behind it – fails to support the complex nature of teachers’ work practices and, therefore, to provide a solid data protection framework for the children. As such, the teachers mainly view the platform as being conducive to their non-sensitive communication with parents and deploy a range of other digital tools to support, for instance, cooperation with colleagues. Consequently, gaps in children’s privacy and data protection arise.