Student Data Privacy Consortium supports Chromebook App Hub providing transparency for developers

WASHINGTON - March 5, 2019 - PRLog -- The Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC), a Special Interest Group of the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, is thrilled to support Google for Education's announcement of their Chromebook App Hub Project during SXSW Edu this week.  This online resource has been developed to help educators, administrators and developers work together, and delivers a comprehensive view of all apps that meet the learning goals and policies of their school districts.

Working closely with the Chromebook App Hub team, the SDPC sees the App Hub as a great way to assist developers in considering the student privacy implications of their products in use with learners. While applications may be published in the App Hub, schools still need to consider their local resource approval process before using an application in the classroom which is where the SDPC can help.

The SDPC has been designed to address the day-to-day, real-world multi-faceted issues that schools, states, territories and vendors face when protecting learner information. The SDPC's vision is to develop common activities, artifacts, templates, tools and effective practices that can be leveraged through a unique collaborative of end users and marketplace providers working together. "The SDPC is proud to partner with Google and their Chromebook App Hub team. The SDPC is best positioned to work closely with both school staff and marketplace providers to enable safe, secure and transparent on boarding of apps", touts Steve Smith, Cambridge Public School's CIO.  "The work of the SDPC Community, when partnered with projects like the App Hub, better enables schools to build their digital ecosystem while addressing privacy concerns."

The Google blog announcement also acknowledges the great work of the SDPC Community and a provides a quote from Dr. Larry Fruth, CEO of A4L Community, "The App Hub will also be a great tool for schools and states as they look for resources like the SDPC to address changing privacy policies. Districts can align the information in the App Hub to their local resource approval processes, which will greatly improve the on-boarding of new apps and the transparency in their usage for districts."

Stay tuned for the availability of the Chromebook App Hub later this year. Educators can express interest in submitting idea sparks via the Google for Education blog.  Google also encourage developers to contact them if they are interested in being part of the App Hub community. You can sign up to get notified when the Hub becomes available via the Google for Education blog, plus developers are also encouraged to consider being a part of the growing Student Data Privacy Consortium.

The Google for Education blog announcement can be found here: https://blog.google/outreach-initatives/education/chromebook-app-hub/


About the Access 4 Learning Community
There is no other global community made up of educational policymakers, marketplace product and service providers and the customers they serve, collaborating daily to address real word learning information and resource issues.

The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, previously the SIF Association, is a unique, non-profit collaboration composed of schools, districts, local authorities, states, US and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively address all aspects of learning information management and access to support learning.  The A4L Community is "Powered by SIF" Specifications as its major technical tool to allow for this management and access simply, securely and in a scalable, standard way regardless of the platform hosting those applications. The Access 4 Learning Community has united these education technology end users and providers in an unprecedented effort to give teachers more time to do what they do best: teach. For further information, visit https://www.A4L.org

About the Student Data Privacy Consortium
The Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) is designed to address the day-to-day, real-world multi-faceted issues that schools, states, territories and vendors face when protecting learner information. SDPC's vision is to develop common activities, artifacts, templates, tools and effective practices that can be leveraged through a unique collaborative of end users and marketplace providers working together.  For further information, visit https://privacy.A4L.org