A、How high tech affects today’s school education. B、How schools should incorporate educational apps into the classroom. C、Benefi

W: Good morning, everybody.(1)Today, school districts across the country are going high-tech, incorporating educational apps and digital programs into the classroom. But fears about the privacy and security of students’ personal information are on the rise. Today, we have Nicole Rasmuson, a math teacher from Miami’s iPrep Academy. He is using innovative software. Thank you for joining us.
M: We all started at the very beginning, and then some just took off. It’s about 70 percent online. And it’s a smart program, and so it checks: Are they understanding? Are they answering questions correctly right away? Are they struggling? Is it taking them a long time to answer questions? Do they keep making mistakes?
W: All the while, the computer is crunching and storing data about the students and sending back customized lessons, is that correct?
M:(2)Yes. It’ll ask them, "What are your interests?" And so, in the word "problems" , it’ll—if one kid is really interested in food—it’ll talk about cookies and that kind of stuff. It’ll even ask them, " What are your friends’ names?" And then it’ll put their friends’ names in the "problems" , too.
W: Sounds quite smart.
M: All that gets uploaded, along with student schedules, grades, discipline records, homework and even e-mails, the making of what some have called a digital profile.
W: But shouldn’t we fear that someday it may be used in unauthorized ways?
M: We’re going to have a lot of data floating around, with a lot of very detailed information that can be quite surprising. One example: What a child eats in the school cafeteria is collected, using a student I. D. card. We can envision a day, for example, that a health insurance company wants to see what they ate when they were third-graders to decide how they were going to underwrite insurance.(3)Is it far-fetched? It could be. We don’t know.
W: Already, students’ data has been misused.(4)Google was recently sued for scanning students’ e-mail accounts in order to build advertising profiles. The tech giant has since stopped and pledged, along with 214 other companies, not to use student data for commercial purposes. But there are a whole lot more companies out there.
M: I’m trying to protect my kids, and there’s so much data collection that’s going on right now that we’re not even aware of. I think that’s absolutely a legitimate concern. But I think responsible school systems that have the appropriate policies and safeguards, quite frankly, reduce that threat.
W: What measures have been taken by schools so far?
M: To protect personal data, Miami Superintendent Alberto Carvalho requires that teachers and students use a web portal. All the apps and software inside have been vetted, and the companies must sign contracts that prohibit any unauthorized or commercial use of students’ information. These rules are strictly enforced.
W: So the penalties that we apply in Miami are when private companies default on their contractual obligation, we bar them from future business with the school system.
M: So far, the district says, the tech companies have stuck to the rules. But at iPrep, teachers say they go outside the portal to use unregulated apps every day. And they’re not the only ones. Miami school officials say hackers on the outside have never successfully broken in and stolen student data. But the growing amount of sensitive information stored electronically has driven lawmakers in at least 15 states to restrict what companies can collect and mandate steps to protect it.(5)That heightened security could put a damper on digital tools that personalize learning.
W: Thank you for your information.
This is the end of the first interview. Questions 1 to 5 are based on what you have just heard.
1. What is this interview mainly about?
2. Which of the following is included in the function of the innovative software in Miami’s iPrep Academy?
3. What is the man’s attitude toward data safety in his school?
4. According to the woman, why was Google recently sued?
5. According to the man, what will binder digital tools that personalize learning?