Use of Technology in Education System.

An article by Bilal    3 Comments

I had earlier posted on how a school district used webcam surveillance to find its missing/misplaced laptops. Security Alert. Can someone remotely access your webcam ? Well they are not the only one using such high tech. The Education system is slowly changing, as seen here by the Intermediate School 339 in the Bronx borough of New York. They have recently implemented the usage of laptops instead of books during class. Well not entirely (you can’t really replace books completely can you now?), but most of the school work is now done on the laptops. The student computer joins the teachers network/class, depending on the subject and then each student is engaged by online MCQs and written feedback on the topic being taught.
It is kind of interesting how the school board is now implementing technology in their teaching methods. I am still in University and we have yet to come across such teaching methods. Dan Ackerman, assistant principal is quite positive about this move. He believes that technology is now a main part of every student’s life and its implementation is necessary to keep the student interested and up-to-date in his/her studies. He himself is a former technology coach (no wonder).
You can see the full coverage and a video of this from Cnet here. School shows off its laptop surveillance tactics.

Is it really that good ?
Certainly now there are going to be many questions among your mind. Misuse of technology? We all know what kids nowadays do on internet. MySpace, Facebook, games is probably the only reason why they ever log on to the internet. And they are smart enough to bypass the proxies/filters. The issue has been addressed in the interview as well.
But
How are these issues addressed? The principal is able to easily log into any computer in use and see what the person it doing. The remote log is enough right to even turn on the webcam and look at the student. Well the students seem to be abusing the camera itself, using the camera application to use it as a mirror. (Quite funny, I wonder if these girls know they are on the web).

Frankly I would not like someone suddenly logging into my webcam even though I am working in university on a university computer during a lecture time (you get the idea.). I do no however mind, someone logging in to see what all am I doing during my lecture hour.
(Actually.. change the university and lecture to school and periods. I DO mind it in a uni lecture.)
Well what I am trying to say, I am quite impressed with the use of technology in the education system but there still many faults that need to be considered. For once, how much control does a person have remote access. I mean accessing the webcam, seriously?

And for the problem of accessing what the student does on a PC, well that can be regulated as well. But that would involve much advanced technology and would only be functional if many schools opt in, since no company would create such a technology for one school. The internet access could be cut of entirely and the material to be used can be stored on a local server. The education system could also get custom built laptops with basic similar operating system (Google’s chance to shine with a altered version of its web based Chrome OS) that covers up basic functions.

All in all, I like this idea of using Technology in the education system, but it still has a long way to go before its perfect. It wouldn’t matter to me now anyway since I am not in school anymore. (Maybe when I have kid, but that Is way beyond me right now). Till then.

Regards,
Kaiser2011