theodp writes: Chicago Public School (CPS) teachers were ‘blindsided’ after access to popular classroom software was yanked due to CPS’s interpretation of Illinois’ Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA), the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Sneha Dey writes, “Among the software products that violate the law, CPS now says, are programs like Code.org, which is widely used in computer science classes, and Adobe applications used for artistic design and newspaper page layouts. That left has many high school newspapers unable to produce their print editions. Also off limits is Scratch, software to create interactive stores, animations and games. CPS had partnered with the Scratch Foundation to hold family coding nights, among other events.”
The Blueprint’s Karen Buecking has more on how the new student data protection law has upended the computer science curriculum at CPS, noting that CPS teachers received an email from tech-backed Code.org explaining the situation: “We’ve already signed student data protection agreements with over 150 districts across the state to comply with the new law,” said the Code.org representative. “The bad news is CPS’s agreement and application process contains onerous requirements unrelated to student privacy that make it prohibitive for organizations like Code.org to agree to CPS’s requirements as written.”
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot