- Security and Privacy Education 4 Kids (SPE4K)

Elementary School Parents and Teachers: We want to talk to YOU about your remote learning experiences

Image of school books, a tablet, apple, and smart speaker.

Photo by Thomas Kolnowski on Unsplash

Do you have a child currently enrolled in a US elementary school that participated in remote learning during the 2020-2021 school year? OR
Do you currently teach in a US elementary school and taught remotely during part or all of the 2020-2021 academic year?

If so, we invite you to participate in a research study jointly conducted by the University of Maryland’s iSchool and the University of Chicago!

What’s the study about?

We want to learn about potential privacy and security risks that come with remote learning. Our goal is to help children learn about privacy and security in order to better prepare them to navigate online experiences by learning.

What would I have to do to participate?

Complete a short survey that should take 5 minutes. This will cover some of the details of your experiences with remote learning.
Participate in a 60-minute interview through a video conferencing platform (e.g., Zoom). We’re talking to both parents and teachers about some of the challenges they’ve faced due to the transition to remote learning in 2020.

I’d like to participate. How do I sign up?

To participate, please fill out this contact form and we’ll be in touch if you qualify with a link to the survey and details on scheduling the interview. We’ll let you know within 3 – 4 business days.

What do I get out of it?

After completing the survey and interview, you will receive a $25 Amazon gift card via email.
You’ll have the chance to learn more about potential privacy and security issues related to remote learning and education more broadly.
With your help, we will use your input and experiences to help develop curriculum for elementary school children that develops foundational knowledge in how the internet works and how they can use technology safely while protecting their data.

Project Updates

March 2023: The team had two papers accepted — a document analysis of privacy/security research with kids over the last decade (IDC) and an analysis of the challenges teachers and parents faced during emergency remote learning in the first year of the pandemic (CSCW). These papers will be added to the Publications page once they are finalized.

July 2022: Undergrad researcher Shriya Bansal published a short analysis of 5000 Android apps, finding that none are focused on educating children about privacy and security. Read more here.

Dec 2021: We published a white paper summarizing challenges teachers at our partner schools have when it comes to curriculum and training on privacy and security. Read it here.

Sept 2021: SPE4K welcomes two new PhD students to the project: Elana Blinder at UMD and Kelly Wagman at UChicago.

May 2021: Congrats to Priya Kumar, who graduated from UMD with her PhD! Priya is joining Penn State as an Assistant Professor this fall.

Nov 2020: Check out our latest publication on enhancing privacy literacy for children, published (open access) in Media & Communication.

Jan 2020: We were awarded a NSF SaTC EDU grant to continue our research.

NSF Disclosure

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 1951688.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.