Excellence in teaching and learning in higher education today requires creative, inclusive and sustainable use of digital technologies. This is vital to engage and connect an often distributed and diverse community of learners, whose needs and expectations are increasingly influenced by the opportunities and demands of a digitally mediated society. 

Some aspects of teaching and learning necessitate the handling of digital personal data, so external technologies are restricted. There are other reasons why external technologies might be restricted too. Concerns around cyber security, accessibility, and equality, may all be cited as reasons not to engage with external technologies in a higher education learning environment.

How can digital literacy be developed among staff and students, if they aren’t permitted to handle external technologies?

Since 2017, Liz Hudson has been working with colleagues across the higher education community to develop legal, practical and ethical solutions to the issue of external technologies in teaching and learning. The culmination of this work, which includes feedback from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is now being published on this site for the benefit of everyone.

The work continues through two projects:

• Beyond GDPR: promoting privacy literate learning and teaching in further and higher education. A suite of guidance and learning materials to support privacy literacy and compliance in teaching and learning.
• A privacy risk management framework for higher education. This project explores Nissenbaum’s Contextual Integrity Heuristic as a basis for developing risk management strategies around pedagogical and academic ‘norms’.