By Marilyn Assaf
Vancouver Island University graduate Breanne Quist is in the running for a prestigious national honour – the Ernest C. Manning Innovation Award.
Quist has been nominated for her work creating The Privacy Compass (www.privacycompass.ca), a website designed to help B.C. teachers, parents, and schools navigate privacy issues when selecting and using learning management systems and social media tools such as Twitter, Pinterest, blogs and more.
The Ernest C. Manning Innovation Awards are dubbed as the ‘most prestigious innovation awards in Canada.’ Nominees are Canadians who have demonstrated recent innovative talent in developing and successfully marketing a new concept, process or procedure. Quist finds out in March if she will receive one of two $10,000 awards from the Manning Awards Foundation.
“I’m super excited because being nominated is a huge honour,” says Quist, who graduates from VIU’s Master of Education in Educational Leadership program on Friday (Jan. 30).
Quist holds two other VIU credentials – a bachelor of education degree and an online learning and training diploma. She lives in Nanaimo and teaches all subjects in Grades 8, 9 and 10, and high school technology classes for Anchor Academy, a distance education school in Salmon Arm.
B.C. has some of the strictest privacy legislation in Canada and North America, says Hengstler, especially with regard to public schools and their ability to use social media and learning management tools.
Quist’s Privacy Compass website was designed to provide the information and support necessary to make informed decisions and support schools and teachers in selecting appropriate tools, support teacher knowledge, and obtain informed consent from students and parents.
“Breanne created a framework for identifying key privacy considerations, evaluating them, communicating them to teachers and parents, and creating relevant permission forms,” said Julia Hengstler, VIU professor.
Web users need to understand that there are privacy issues and risks when accessing online resources, adds Quist.
“It’s about knowing what they are, and understanding the benefits of using the tools and managing risks.”
As an example of one potential risk, Quist points to the U.S. Patriot Act.
“If a student or teacher uploads online resources to Google Docs for a family genealogy project, the US government could read through all your family information,” says Quist. “By signing up for Google, you’ve agreed to let them do this. A lot of people don’t realize this.”
Quist will receive a certificate from the foundation to acknowledge reaching this level in the competition.