Webcams in all classrooms (BIG BROTHER ALERT!)

USA Today ^

[unixfox]

When students in Biloxi, Miss., show up this morning for the first day of the new school year, a virtual army of digital cameras will be recording every minute of every lesson in every classroom.

Hundreds of Internet-wired video cameras will keep rolling all year long, in the hope that they'll deter crime and general misbehavior among the district's 6,300 students -- and teachers.

[Wonder Warthog]

"..just to monitor kids and teachers..they are kept PRIVATE ..only those who have a reason to see the tapes can.. there is NO reason to have WEBCAMS."

Sure there is. Re-read the part of my post about the PARENTS being able to access their children's classes in real time. It will help maintain discipline, as well as allowing the parents to have some idea of what is being taught and how it is being taught. A great idea that is long overdue.

[dr_who_2]

Why do you want to eliminate the audio?

Webcams don't normally include audio.

Why do you think you can't evaluate teacher performance from watching and listening to them. How can kids look like they're paying attention 6 hours a day without improving their attention?

Simple. You stare in the direction of the teacher and let your mind wander. You don't evaluate performance by polling a schools 20 classrooms over a 10 minute interval. You walk in from the back of the class, listen, and take notes. It's been done before. But perhaps you would prefer the school administrator who sits in his office all day channel surfing and commenting on what he sees with an intercom if you're really lucky. Nevertheless, the "level of presentation" would be less of an issue if school systems didn't insist on putting slow learners and kids who are running behind in with the achievers and the clever kids who get bored with the slow pace.

Sure, teaching certification couldn't possibly be improved by including a few snips for real world problems or solutions. Excuse me for suggesting that there's room for improvement.

A webcam running 6 hours a day isn't a few "snips". It's a waste of time.

"...if your parent is kind of pillar of society that is fond of watching taped episodes of Jerry Springer." You do know we're discussing webcam, not just taped video right? Why would you assume that it would be Jerry Springer parents that would watch the most?

Because no one who is normal is going to spend six hours of their day watching the class their kid is in. If you want to know what your kid did in school, bloody well ask them and expect a straight answer from them. If you need to rely on a webcam instead, there's something wrong with you, and if you feel the need to watch live webcams during the course of your working day, you're going to be the first guy to be laid off.

Why can't you imagine the benefit of a teacher going back and snipping the part where a kid flipped her off or called her a name few hours earlier after the kid denies it?

Any teacher who lies or spends their time engaging in petty spats with students they don't like should be canned immediately, tenure or no. 99% percent of the time, the student in question is lying and the teacher has every reason to complain. This means that the student should be disciplined, not made the defendent of a de-facto civil suit. If the student is a constant problem, the student should be removed so that the teacher can get back to teaching instead of policing.

Every other year or so, so-called "educators' will con a school into introducing wonderful new technology that will solve all their problems: television, satellite/cable, web surfing, graphing calculators, vcr's (now remember kids, if you rack up enough smiley faces, you'll get to watch this R rated horror flick!)--- you name it, they've tried it. Then there's always another gratuitous safety feature added to the school buses, the same school buses that stall in the winter so that one quarter of the students are two hours late. Computers are a special case in that a portion of the students knows 10 times as much as all the other students and the teachers put together. The nice thing about expensive new technology is that it gets you a puff piece in the local newspaper and distracts everyone from the practical issues involved in not running a school into the ground. In particular, the curriculum suffers when the 3 R's are supplanted by "web development for 8 year olds".

Now, suddenly Sept. 11th happens, and bureaucrats across the country are trying to find a million-and-one uses for a surveillance camera. As usual, a noisy bunch of yes-men is singing the praises of this new advance in running a government and everyone else is either not paying attention or just thanking their lucky stars that their kids already graduated.

[elfman2]

"Simple. You stare in the direction of the teacher and let your mind wander. "
I think that if troubled kids tried to do that for 6 hours every day, they'd double their SATs. From what I hear from a good friend who's taught in both rough and rural CA schools, pretending to listen would be a monstrous improvement.

"A webcam running 6 hours a day isn't a few "snips". It's a waste of time."
It's the source of snips when recorded. Are you intentionally trying to be stupid?

"Because no one who is normal is going to spend six hours of their day… If you need to rely on a webcam instead, there's something wrong with you"
Never mind, got my answer… So now you feel the need to defend your previous idiocy by pretending that someone has to watch all 6 hours or nothing. You are a "waste of time".

[dr_who_2]

"Simple. You stare in the direction of the teacher and let your mind wander. " I think that if troubled kids tried to do that for 6 hours every day, they'd double their SATs.

Interesting logic. Perhaps we should introduce Bhuddist meditation into the curriculum. That'll raise those SAT scores, especially in math and reading.

It's the source of snips when recorded. Are you intentionally trying to be stupid?

Nope. The person who regularly edits his favorite snippers out of a day's worth of web cams and thinks that he's making a contribution to someone's education may be a well-meaning idiot, but an idiot nonetheless.

Never mind, got my answer…

Snippity snip snip. Do you perchance have a hobby collecting coupons?

So now you feel the need to defend your previous idiocy by pretending that someone has to watch all 6 hours or nothing.

I simply don't pretend that this webcam business is a real solution to the problem. It's a solution in search of a problem.

You are a "waste of time".

If you feel that way, then feel free to get lost.

[davisfh]

"What are you? One of those "Living Constitution" types!"

Nope! I'm one of those types who interpret the constitution quite literally, as written. Seems to me that having your fact constantly on camera and having your every action constantly scrutinized is a violation of the constitution. Sorry you disagree.

[davisfh]

Oops! Fact = face

[Zipporah]

I totally disagree.. although parents can have access ..others may be also.. this is a privacy issue. And as I said, there are already cameras at the schools but they are kept within the school on tape for access only by those who are either parents or school personnel.

[Zipporah]

-Flushes out incompetent and lazy teachers and highlights the good ones... There are already in place cameras and other methods of 'flushing out' bad teachers will only take place when tenure is no longer a factor.

- Helps ID best practices for teacher training IDing best practices should not be at the expense of privacy of students. There are other effective methods based on research.. it's there IF boards of ed actually want improvement.. it's more the CURRICULUM utilized than bad teachers.

- Enables parental evolvement. Prental involvement should be not watching your kids (might I add the possibility of wackos on the net being 'involved'..

- Creates a record bad student behavior. As I said before there are already cameras in place for the schools with a video record if needed to record bad behavior.

The answer is not in videoing children or teachers in the classroom.. the problem is POLICY and CURRICULUM... one policy in place (follow the $$) is that children with bad behavior are labeled as BD (behavior disorder) which makes them "special needs" for which schools receive extra $$ to educate.

[Zipporah]

They can replay the audio of each teacher's lecture each day?

I have viewed some of these videotapes.. not as a parent but someone who works at the school.. if the need arises they can be viewed.

[Wonder Warthog]

"I totally disagree.. although parents can have access ..others may be also.. this is a privacy issue."

Balderdash. If someone wants pictures of the kiddies, all they have to do is park next to the playground at recess (or not even next to the playground with a good telephoto lens). This argument is a strawman.

In any event, if one DID want to restrict access to parents, this can easily be done by PASSWORD PROTECTING access.

The only "privacy issue" involved is on the part of the TEACHERS, who are afraid the parents might actually see what and how they are teaching the children.

[ladylib]

They should be careful what they wish for. A junior high in Middletown, NY, decided to videotape and present on local cable TV a lecture given by an Indian in full regalia to a bunch of junior high school kids. The kids weren't rude, but they were bored to death, some yawning and and not even making an effort to keep awake. One boy in the front of the classroom had a look on his face like he wanted to kill -- one wondered how often he had to listen to something like this. And you know what? The presentation was deadly dull and boring, yet the school decided to present it to the district's population.

I remember seeing a news report about teachers who were teaching subjects they were not credentialed to teach -- in particular a math teacher who was credentialed to teach gymn and hadn't a clue about math. You should have seen the resentful looks on those kids' faces.

[jackbill]

Hooray for webcams in the classroom. It's about time we expose the "education" system. Perhaps now, they will have to teach rather than show a movie?

[snowstorm12]

"…there is NO reason to have WEBCAMS."

- Flushes out incompetent and lazy teachers and highlights the good ones.
- Helps ID best practices for teacher training
- Enables parental evolvement.
- Creates a record bad student behavior.



also add
-protects children from sexual predator teachers/and teachers from false accusations
-sick kids can log on at home or parent can log on to find out what he/she missed so they don't get behind.

[elfman2]

"There are already in place cameras and other methods of 'flushing out' bad teachers will only take place when tenure is no longer a factor."
And those "methods" are doing such a fantastic job! You're right, no cameras needed.

"IDing best practices should not be at the expense of privacy of students. There are other effective methods "
And those "methods" are resulting in such a great educational system! And students should have privacy from their PARENTS! You're right, no cameras needed.

" Prental involvement should be not watching your kids "
And parent's watching their kids is bad. You're right, no cameras needed.

" might I add the possibility of wackos on the net being 'involved'"
And password protected login and logs of who's watching could not possibly stop that. You're right, no cameras needed.

" As I said before there are already cameras in place for the schools with a video record if needed to record bad behavior."
And as I said before, they're doing such a bang up job! You're right, no cameras needed. Very persuasive…

[elfman2]

"-sick kids can log on at home or parent can log on to find out what he/she missed so they don't get behind."

I didn't think of that. Thanks!

[noexcuses]

My son doesn't need a camera for him to behave. The kids who do need to be in seperate classrooms with cameras.

Here at the school my son attends if a student "earns" a certain level of demerit points his parents have to attend school with him for a day or two. So far no student has had to have parents in class with him more than once :-)