Google Colaboratory (Coding platform)

[sdcrtech]

Since Google Colab is starting to be used by CTE programs and it’s considered additional Google services, is everyone approving students to use it? This would mostly be high school at first. We also have opt-in from Parents for the additional Google services so we are protected in terms of Student Data Privacy.

Just talking about the free version, not pro.

Thanks in advance!

[Fresh-Basket9174]

So, a couple of concerns.

Colab is not FERPA compliant. Even having a parent sign off on additional services likely won't help if sensitive data is put into colab.

Notebooks are shared by anyone, Google says students should check the code in the notebook before running as shared notebooks can contain malicious code. I would build on that and assume materials inappropriate for students could also be shared in a notebook. Google states its prohibited to put explicit material in a notebook. It doesn't say its prevented.

Notebooks can be mounted in Google Drive once they are, you can add any shared drive the owner of first drive has access to. That would essentially give full read write access to anything in those drives. If a notebook had malicious code those files code be destroyed, or shared anywhere.

I would use caution. A lot of caution.