Albuquerque Public Schools
Using Google Tools and Privacy
As we do our best to support the students of APS with online instructional opportunities Educational Technology needs to inform you about the tools we use.
We utilize Google for Education Suite which has several security and privacy policies in place. Google for Education Suite is FERPA and COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) compliant. APS owns all of our students’ data and it is housed within our APS domain.
We are, whenever possible, using many of the same online tools we employed in face to face schooling. However, we have also needed to utilize these tools in new ways and add tools we had not needed prior. Please be aware of the following:
Video Conferencing
Our use of video conferencing is new to many. We are using Google Meet for virtual instruction with our students. We need your help to ensure these tools are being used appropriately by students:
- Parents/guardians should be mindful about what family activities would potentially be heard/seen during the students’ use of video conferencing.
- Please have students dress appropriately when video conferencing and make sure that there are no distracting materials or backgrounds.
Recording conference sessions
We encourage teachers to record non-confidential video conferencing sessions and post them for students who cannot attend the live session and when there isn’t a 2 teacher/staff ratio per student or multiple students with 1 teacher (See NMPED guidelines for at-home learning). We want and need our faculty to be efficient and effective when covering material or providing reinforcement. Therefore, here are some guidelines about recordings:
- These recordings will not be publicly available, only shared within the Google Classroom, a similar section of the same class, or within the APS Google domain that requires a network account.
- Faculty will announce their intention to record the session giving students/parents/guardians the opportunity to turn off their camera and/or microphone if privacy is of concern. Get the APS permission to photograph students.
- Students/parents/guardians, should not take photos, screenshots, record any video, or audio, from these conference sessions. You do not have permissions to do so and it is a violation of our Student acceptable use policy: Student Acceptable Use of Technology Procedural Directive.
Privacy
- We have a privacy agreement with Google for Education Suite and further information about their privacy policy can be found here.
- The tools we use are vetted by our Application Review Committee for data privacy and safety. We will be adding new tools as needed and are mindful of this important aspect.
- Lastly, the same rules of conduct and behavior will apply in a virtual environment as apply in the classroom.
We appreciate your support during this challenging time and we are working very hard to keep our students engaged and supported. Please take a moment to thank your teachers–they are working harder/longer hours than they would if school were in session. We miss the sounds of students in the hallways and look forward to eventually returning to school.