Knowing undergraduate students' propensities for sleep, cheating, and beer money... I eagerly await the role of "phone walker" as a side job for an entrepreneurial nerd who was already planning to head to class and the library anyways ;-)
But in all seriousness: this is horrendous, and in my eyes the greatest damages revolve around the normalization of surveillance and training students to get used to supervision. On the other hand, I also care a lot less about the social impacts of private universities, as opposed to public ones. It's hard for me to envision this approach taking hold at a public institution, just because we're always so chronically underfunded, but I do tend towards the optimistic side of things. On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 2:27 PM Thomas Delrue <[email protected]> wrote: > There's so much wrong with this approach that I don't even know where to > start... Your title was incredibly appropriate! > > On 12/24/19 19:46, Yosem Companys wrote: > > When Syracuse University freshmen walk into professor Jeff Rubin’s > > Introduction to Information Technologies class, seven small Bluetooth > > beacons hidden around the Grant Auditorium lecture hall connect with > > an app on their smartphones and boost their “attendance points.” > > And what about those students that either don't carry a cell phone or > those that turn those anti-features off? Why are those punished even > though they participate equally well? > > At some point, this is just a professor being a lazy person and not > actually wanting to do their job properly (like taking attendance - heck > why does attendance even matter if you pass the class, what are we, 5?) > > > And when they skip class? The SpotterEDU app sees that, too, logging > > their absence into a campus database that tracks them over time and > > can sink their grade. It also alerts Rubin, who later contacts > > students to ask where they’ve been. His 340-person lecture has never > > been so full. > > > > “They want those points,” he said. “They know I’m watching and acting > > on it. So, behaviorally, they change.” > > This sounds very much like an abusive relationship: "I hold something > you like and I *will* make you act out things as silly as I can think > them." > This sounds more like a power-trip rather than anything else. > > > Short-range phone sensors and campuswide WiFi networks are empowering > > colleges across the United States to track hundreds of thousands of > > students more precisely than ever before. Dozens of schools now use > > such technology to monitor students’ academic performance, analyze > > their conduct or assess their mental health. > > > > But some professors and education advocates argue that the systems > > represent a new low in intrusive technology, breaching students’ > > privacy on a massive scale. The tracking systems, they worry, will > > infantilize students in the very place where they’re expected to grow > > into adults, further training them to see surveillance as a normal > > part of living, whether they like it or not. > > I am happy to see people speaking up against this! I commend them for > daring to speak out and hope their voice gets amplified! > > > “We’re adults. Do we really need to be tracked?” said Robby Pfeifer, a > > sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, which > > recently began logging the attendance of students connected to the > > campus’ WiFi network. “Why is this necessary? How does this benefit > > us? … And is it just going to keep progressing until we’re > > micromanaged every second of the day?” > > > > This style of surveillance has become just another fact of life for > > many Americans. A flood of cameras, sensors and microphones, wired to > > an online backbone, now can measure people’s activity and whereabouts > > with striking precision, reducing the mess of everyday living into > > trend lines that companies promise to help optimize. > > > > Americans say in surveys they accept the technology’s encroachment > > because it often feels like something else: a trade-off of future > > worries for the immediacy of convenience, comfort and ease. If a > > tracking system can make students be better, one college adviser said, > > isn’t that a good thing? > > The road to hell is paved with good intentions... > > > But the perils of increasingly intimate supervision — and the subtle > > way it can mold how people act — have also led some to worry whether > > anyone will truly know when all this surveillance has gone too far. > > “Graduates will be well prepared … to embrace 24/7 government tracking > > and social credit systems,” one commenter on the Slashdot message > > board said. “Building technology was a lot more fun before it went all > > 1984.” > > It appears that some people read Orwell's 1984 and took it to be a > manual rather than the warning it was intended to be. > > > Instead of GPS coordinates, the schools rely on networks of Bluetooth > > transmitters and wireless access points to piece together students’ > > movements from dorm to desk. One company that uses school WiFi > > networks to monitor movements says it gathers 6,000 location data > > points per student every day. > > What could possibly go wrong... > > > School and company officials call location monitoring a powerful > > booster for student success: If they know more about where students > > are going, they argue, they can intervene before problems arise. But > > some schools go even further, using systems that calculate > > personalized “risk scores” based on factors such as whether the > > student is going to the library enough. > > > > The dream of some administrators is a university where every student > > is a model student, adhering to disciplined patterns of behavior that > > are intimately quantified, surveilled and analyzed. > > It appears that they are in the wrong 'business' then. > > > But some educators say this move toward heightened educational > > vigilance threatens to undermine students’ independence and prevents > > them from pursuing interests beyond the classroom because they feel > > they might be watched. > > > > “These administrators have made a justification for surveilling a > > student population because it serves their interests, in terms of the > > scholarships that come out of their budget, the reputation of their > > programs, the statistics for the school,” said Kyle M. L. Jones, an > > Indiana University assistant professor who researches student privacy. > > > > “What’s to say that the institution doesn’t change their eye of > > surveillance and start focusing on minority populations, or anyone > > else?” he added. Students “should have all the rights, > > responsibilities and privileges that an adult has. So why do we treat > > them so differently?” > > > > [snip] > > > > -- > Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major > commercial search engine. Violations of list guidelines will get you > moderated: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt. Unsubscribe, > change to digest mode, or change password by emailing > [email protected].
-- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major commercial search engine. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt. Unsubscribe, change to digest mode, or change password by emailing [email protected].
