A Collection Of Early Education Apps That Are COPPA-Compliant

by TeachThought Staff & Sponsored by Drawp, a collaboration app for creativity

COPPA-Compliance isn’t usually the first thing a teacher–or parent–consider when looking for an app.

The “big data” movement started off sinister enough, with app developers quietly requiring extraordinary permissions and access to user files, settings, and other data that had nothing to do with the operation of their app. The idea was data collection, whether that data was going to be used to simply make that app better, or for more nefarious gains, including selling that data to other companies.

None of this is to even mention the vulnerability with financial documents, credit card numbers, passwords, and other issues–challenges not just a consequence of “the cloud,” but our demand to do pretty complicated things–manage our bank accounts, text everyone we know, shop, browse the web, and so on–from our phones and tablets.

This reality becomes even more problematic in a classroom, where a teacher has to manage the actions–and ultimate footprint–of dozens of students on a moment by moment basis. The general response to this kind of overload is to take away access and privileges, and make everything as anonymous as possible. While this may work at times, ideally all apps would be trustworthy–transparent about what kind of access and data they ask for. Until that Utopia develops, we at least have COPPA.

We’ve discussed this before–What Is COPPA, for example. Below is a collection of 15 apps (sponsored by Drawp) for the elementary school teacher–early education apps that are COPPA-Compliant, and on record as being knowledgeable of and sensitive to the unique requirements of COPPA guidelines.

If you’re an elementary teacher–and want to become more familiar with the kinds of apps that protect data and honor user privacy, the following 15 are a good place to start.

15 Early Education Apps That Are COPPA-Compliant

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15 Early Education Apps That Are COPPA-Compliant