Security

How IT Teams Ensure Modern Classroom Tools Are Safe

K–12 technology teams are supporting innovation while keeping student and district data safe.

Amy McIntosh is the managing editor of EdTech: Focus on Higher Education and EdTech: Focus on K–12.

It’s a scenario every K–12 IT leader knows well. A teacher discovers a new tool they’re excited about, whether it’s an artificial intelligence platform or a new software application, and wants to use it in their classroom. They then come to the IT team and ask whether they can use it.

This question often doesn’t have a simple answer. Answering it means evaluating the vendor’s security posture, assessing the data privacy risk, ensuring regulatory compliance and determining the instructional value of the tool.

IT leaders exist to enable learning by putting powerful tools in the hands of teachers and their students, but they also exist to protect those same parties from harm. Enabling innovation means balancing the tension between those two goals.

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The vendor landscape has exploded in recent years, with most districts running dozens of third-party applications, each serving as a potential point for exploitation. IT security experts are tasked with managing the risks associated with these applications. By establishing official policies and best practices for selecting and working with vendors, districts will be better prepared when vendors face a data breach.

At the device level, content filtering and Domain Name System security help districts define the relationship between access and safety. By determining the websites students are allowed to visit, IT teams are creating a more productive learning environment while also keeping their networks protected from malicious websites.

Sometimes, sticking with the vendors you know can be the key to expediting new application adoption. Districts using AI tools to improve student literacy, for example, are finding these capabilities inside applications they already trust. By staying with vendors the district already uses, the security posture is known, data agreements are already in place and the IT team isn’t starting from scratch.

Protection and enablement do not have to be competing priorities. The most effective K–12 IT leaders have built systems and policies that allow them to move toward approving new tools without abandoning their responsibility to protect. This balance allows IT teams to build the technical and organizational infrastructure to make better decisions as the landscape continues to shift.

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