Can you Turn on your Camera Please?

Mario Morais

Date: 05/11/21

COVID-19 turned bedrooms into classrooms for students across the country. Howard County Public School Systems turned to virtual learning to try and continue teaching students through various online platforms. With virtual learning came questions regarding equitable access to devices, extra support for students, and the impact on student-athletes competing in high school sports. However, one question that arguably crossed all students’ minds was: “Do I have to turn my camera on?” The thought of teachers and school administrators finally getting eyes to students’ homes was concerning for some. Students finally had to grapple with the thought of an invasion of their privacy.

With the need for school systems to ensure student safety came expanded power for teachers to monitor students online. Learning management systems like Canvas adapted to prevent cheating on online quizzes, Google Meet was introduced to create a virtual classroom space, and Howard County also purchased online management tools to monitor the students in these virtual environments.

Stephen Dolney, the HCPSS Acting Director of Strategy and Data Privacy, states that “we have a product that we’ve implemented during the pandemic for content filtering and classroom management called Lightspeed”. Lightspeed allows teachers to observe the Google Chrome browser on personal or county-owned Chromebooks. Macs and PCs are currently not affected, however, the ability for these devices to be affected in the future is possible. 

To put this tool in perspective, if students were in-person teachers could move throughout the classroom to monitor the activity of their students online. Lightspeed attempts to recreate that environment virtually. Now that this tool is in operation, any students on Chromebooks logged into their HCPSS account give teachers the ability to see the browser tab they’re on, and the additional tabs they have open. Lightspeed does not work past the Google Chrome browser. 

Tools like Lightspeed raise an important question about a student’s online privacy: Should teachers and administrators have the ability to monitor the activity of students’ personal spaces and devices? It seems to Howard County the answer is “yes”. Virtual learning has created an overwhelming narrative from Reservoir school administrators and HCPSS Central Office when it comes to student privacy: “We would rather air on the side of caution than us be wrong.” What has not been made clear is the line teachers and administrators should not cross, and that unknown is bound to raise future privacy concerns for parents and students alike.