The subject of the new MacBooks for the Freshmen has raised countless questions, many coming from APS parents. One parent, Marianne Fogelson, posed some interesting inquiries and concerns at a recent school board meeting. A list of these questions was printed in The Sentry’s October 24 issue, and Instructional Technology Coordinator Keith Reeves provided answers for all of them to the best of his ability. His knowledgeable voice on the subject will be split up into three different articles, being published in three different issues, thus creating a series in The Sentry on the valuable information Reeves has to offer about the MacBooks.

What specific type of data is being collected on the students?

¨We have no idea. The question would need to be more specific. If a survey instrument is given, if there’s an assessment given online, obviously thats technically data, so all of that is being gathered. Instruction-related data would be the best answer to that question.¨

Where is the data being stored?

¨Within the individual applications that are being used to collect it [the data] in the first place. Google Apps for Education would be the foreground thing, thats where most of the data related to student performance is being stored at the moment, as far as I can tell.¨

Will parents be able to review the data being gathered on their children?

¨If it’s assessment-related data, of course they can. They go to StudentVue, or TeacherVue or ParentVue and they have access to that. “

Can the devices track the content of e-mail and social media?

¨Technically speaking, as it was explained to us, yes. As we understand it, any communication that comes and goes from the device could be tracked. We’ve been told it won’t be, but as it was explained to us it has a lot of those capabilities. We were told that we can see everything all of the time.¨

Can the devices remotely activate and use the laptop camera and microphone to see and listen to student activity?

¨Technically speaking, if they can turn on the camera and they can remote in, yes.¨

Can the devices track laptop location?

¨Yes, absolutely. Thats a built-in Apple option.¨

Can the devices track web-surfing and internet searches?

¨Again, same as the rest of it. Any netcommunication in and out, as I understand it, is theoretically trackable.¨

Can the devices track purchases on commercial sites?

¨It would depend on what they mean by that. The short answer is probably no, because that stuff gets super secured, but if you’re purchasing from a non-secure site, then theoretically, I guess, but probably not.¨

Can the devices track IP addresses where the laptop is being used?

¨Yes, absolutely. That’s one of the keys ways that they can identify the network that the device is on. That’s one of the ways that the Mobile Device Management, or MDM system tracks the device. So if the device leaves the schools district and is reported lost or stolen, they can look at the little network utility they got, and say it’s connect to blank network, and that would require them knowing the IP.¨

Can the devices track IP information from individual family internet connections?

¨Yes, same thing, same technology. If you connect to your network at home, we should be able to see what network it’s attached to. Theoretically, that would include the IP address. If youŕe going to remote into the kid’s device at home, which we know it can do, we would have to, by definition, know the IP address. It’s the only way to connect.¨