New: Podcast S1E5: Designing for Data Privacy & Security in AI-Integrated Learning

ByNext Path Design

Listen: AI for Educators Design Lab Podcast S1E5

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Who’s responsible for data privacy and security in AI-integrated learning? In Episode 5 of the AI for Educators Design Lab podcast, Jennifer Maddrell, PhD, argues that these issues aren’t just IT and compliance concerns, or problems tech vendors should monitor and control. They’re core design responsibilities for educators, learning experience designers, and educational leaders that shape everyday tool choices, workflows, and prompt decisions.

This episode was recorded amid reports of a major Canvas/Instructure security incident that may have exposed data for up to 275 million students, faculty, and staff. While large-scale breaches grab headlines, Jennifer argues the more common everyday risk is far quieter. It could be a well-intentioned teacher pasting student names, grades, or full assignments into tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini without pausing to consider where that data goes, how long it’s retained, or whether it’s used to train the model.

To work through this challenge, Jennifer walks through five design considerations along an arc that begins with the educator and works outward to students, families, and community:

  1. Educator grounding: Building a privacy-aware workflow with habits like multi-factor authentication, pseudonyms in prompts, no-training modes, and treating new AI features as new tools
  2. AI tool selection: Recognizing that data protections aren’t binary but exist on a spectrum from free consumer accounts to paid personal plans to enterprise and education-specific licenses with Data Processing Agreements
  3. Data minimization during use: Asking what the least amount of personal data a task actually requires, and paying attention to which learners would bear the greatest harm if something went wrong
  4. Teaching privacy literacy: Building privacy as a skill students actively practice, not just a rule they follow
  5. Transparency and consent: Knowing the legal and ethical obligations to inform students and families, especially for minors, and adding clear syllabus language, real opt-out alternatives, and parent-facing disclosures

Design: AI for Educators Design Briefs

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Our Design Briefs are a free companion to our AI for Educators Design Lab podcast. Each brief includes a synopsis of the episode’s core design considerations with questions to tackle the AI integration pain points and opportunities you face.

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Thank you for following along. I’m excited to explore AI alongside you.

– Jennifer

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