Posted on 05/06/2010 12:12:54 AM PDT by Daffynition
Students at Northern Arizona University will have a hard time skipping large classes next fall because of a new attendance monitoring system.
The new system will use sensors to detect students’ university identification cards when they enter classrooms, according to NAU spokesperson Tom Bauer. The data will be recorded and available for professors to examine.
Bauer said the university’s main goal with the sensor system is to increase attendance and student performance.
“People are saying we are using surveillance or Orwellian [tactics] and, boy, I’m like ‘wow,’ I didn’t know taking attendance qualified as surveillance,” Bauer said.
University President John Haeger is encouraging professors to have attendance be a part of students’ grades, but he added it is not mandatory and up to each professor to decide, Bauer said.
Haeger added the sensors, paid for by federal stimulus money, initially would only be installed in large freshmen and sophomore classes with more than 50 students.
NAU Student Body President Kathleen Templin said most students seem to be against the new system. She added students have started Facebook groups and petitions against the sensor system.
NAU sophomore Rachel Brackett created one of the most popular Facebook groups, “NAU Against Proximity Cards,” which has more than 1,400 members.
Brackett said she chooses to go to class, and it is a right she hopes to preserve. She said not being forced to go to class is a part of the college experience.
“I feel as though having students make it their own decision to go to class is part of the process of becoming mature adults,” Brackett said.
Adam Kissel, director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said this is the first time he has heard of such a system.
Kissel added if the school is strictly using the system for taking attendance in classrooms there would probably be no harm.
Kissel said with enough sensors, the system could be used to track students’ presence on campus 24 hours a day, which would be a problem for students’ rights.
“One thing that we find here at FIRE is that if the rule is there or the technology is there, the university will probably use it,” Kissel said.
Brackett said she feels the sensor system is an invasion of privacy. She said in theory, with the recorded data, many people in the university would be able to track students’ locations.
“It’s just one more step in the wrong direction…. I am finding out the more I study this particular issue,” Brackett said.
While some say the system is Orwellian, it is similar to an existing University of Wisconsin practice. Some UW classes use electronic clickers to take attendance and have students answer questions during class.
UW professor Dana Geary, who uses the clickers for one of her classes, said the clickers do not seem to affect the number of students who attend class.
Geary added the attendance grades were useful in helping her make decisions in grading for students whose grades were right at a boundary level.
It's not the attendence, it's the RFID tracking chip - as you very well understand, Bauer.
Some class attendees will have two or several ID cards on them and a little extra cash in their pockets.
Anyone else wondering why the NAU spokesperson speaks like a valley girl?
“...boy, I’m like ‘wow,’ “
If education was the true intention, universities would be better off installing cameras and servers to allow distance education services where students could attend classes from home.
This particular drive reeks of authoritarianism.
That was my first thought as well. This is a more efficient way of taking roll, but certainly not a more effective one.
Stimulus money! Bwahahaha...this will really “stimulate” the economy. Businesses will boom, wealth be created and unicorns sing hosannahs when student attendance is tracked.
And his assistant Chloe had no comment, just a pouty expression.
And the termination of childhood gets pushed back another few years. They aren’t in grade school, expect them to act like adults and treat them accordingly.
Trying to normalize the idea of being tracked 24/7 in the mushy minds of the yutes. BTW, in my entire time at college, I think I only had one instructor take attendance. Are we trying to turn college into high school now? (don’t answer that, I know)
In college, the desire to learn should encourage attendance, not Big Brother.
Exactly. If you are not motivated enough to get your ass to your classes on a regular basis, then your grades will suffer accordingly. You gotta man up or take the hit. Why should the college be wiping the snot off these kid’s noses?
I guess they were right when they said don’t trust anyone over 30.
The amusing part of this is a kid can drink all night...then show up for class and sleep through it...and be counted as “ok” by the school. This is a total waste of funds. It’d make sense in a high school but not here.
“two or several”??? ... or maybe W-A-Y more! ;)
I guess AZ needs to do something with all that electronics equipment that the Federal Government won’t let them install along the border with Mexico.
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