2010 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act Rule Review
With the development of many great online tools for supporting student learning, I have become increasingly frustrated by interpretations of the current law that keep students under 13 from using these tools. We need to modernize the law so that students may access these tools, that may involve social networking, while providing effective instruction on how to use these tools safely and effectively. A great example of such a tool is Quizlet (Quizlet.com) that allows students to create flashcards and other study methods and provides means for doing so collaboratively. The current law restricts those under 13 from using this great tool. I could list an endless number of other examples, but suffice it to say, while we need to be careful in protecting our students, we should not be restrictive about their use of developing tools for learning that are both effective and highly motivational.