There’s definite contradictions between the yawning maw of big data which wants to know every possible data point about everyone, and the requirements of protecting collected data from unauthorized use. Opinions on the extent of privacy practical in the digital cloud age differ, and collection of big data about ourselves has been ongoing since way before the internet.
One imagines there’s much more information about ourselves stored in huge databases than we actually know about ourselves. So to a certain extent a case can be made that the privacy train has left the station. OTOH, protecting privacy is still a goal of many, albeit very hard to accomplish reliably.
When it comes to online learning there’s a huge advantage to collecting big data on students to analyze and develop algorithms for sending real time next step chunks of learning programs and content. Among other benefits and aids to learning. But this doesn’t mean that “student information” will be as available to big data collectors as might be optimal for learning innovations.
Here’s a short story on how the politics of data collection for students is playing out today in the US.
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