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Smart Kindergarten
A UCLA professor is working on set of sensors and data-capture applications to record a school classroom in intimate detail. The project webpage has more information; see also an older story. The professor apparently envisions actually deploying these sensors in a classroom next spring, but doesn't mention what school is willing to participate.
And how will the little darlings day to day behavior be modified in response to all this monitoring?
Students will wear caps with sensors called "iBadges" pinned to them,
"Mom!! Do I hafta wear the stupid hat? All the other kids make fun of us!"
as well as capture their speech with small microphones.
(sotto voce)"Billy is a poopyhead. I'm gonna make him eat dirt at recess."
And then the teacher may jump in..."Johnny...it's not nice to talk bad about Billy"
[Johnny] "WTF? Get outta my head, Lady!"
Objects, such as puzzle pieces or board games, will be wired with sensors
So the child cannot take the puzzle piece across the room and show his friend?
"The problem for teachers is that they cannot usually pay attention to each student across all groups," he said. "The feedback will allow teachers to better instruct their students."
Obviously. You're not supposed to pay equal attention to each and every kid. SOme kids can get on with things themselves. Others need to be hald by the hand. That is why you hire competent teachers. And pay them a respectable wage.
A competent teacher can recognize the attributes and students needing extra attention, by use of the best data mining tool yet discovered, the brain.
"This will be an example of how humans will use computers to create smart environments," he said. "The use of sensors in this manner will allow people to talk and interact with the physical world."
umm....haven't we been talking and interacting with the physical world for a few million years?
When and who is supposed to do this data mining? The person who is in constant contact with these kids every day? When is s/he supposed to have time to do that?
Or does she just get a report at the end of the week?
"Johnny doesn't like Billy"
"Jose' needs a little more help in English"
"Mary is a little behind the curve in motor skills development"
I can see a competent teacher saying "No shit, Sherlock! I see these kids every day, all day, and I know this."
Whereas in the hands of an incompetent teacher....Johnny, Mary, and Jose' will be concentrated on even more, to the exclusion of the other kids.
Kids are not data to be mined. Interaction, play, instruction are what grows respectable adults from these little darlings.
How much could an extra $1.8M do for one classroom for a year?
I couldn't think of a worse thing to do to a bunch of kids - and believe me, they'll know they're being watched.
I'm part of a group that put a proposal in for LifeLog. This project seems like a good tie-in. More info on LifeLog: DARPA page: http://www.darpa.mil/baa/baa03-30.htm Please see the following articles if you are interested in reading what others have to say about it: * CBS News: "A Diary That Never Sleeps" http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/03/tech/mai n556654.shtml
* Geek.com: "DARPA looking to record lives of interested parties" http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Jun/gee20030 603020240.htm
* The Oregonian: "Step into one man's world, as recorded by the Pentagon's planned LifeLog" http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/index.s sf?/base/exclude/1055937392327010.xml
* Timesunion: "Your diary's got nothing on LifeLog" http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?sto ryID=140316
Although I won't argue that constant surveilence won't provide a means for detecting underperforming children, exactly how are they going to perform better when presented with less opportunity to show their stuff?
Many schools classify children into their "above-average, gifted, etc" performers, the "below-average, challenged, etc" performers, and the rest of us. Funny thing is that over a span of nearly 10 years, these groups rarely see students transitioning from one to another.
It's just too hard to reason why you are now meant to be in an advanced class, especially when you have to fight an attitude of, "well, they will never catch up, these advanced students have been performing at this level for four years now." Sadly enough, for the students in the class, often the cirricula focuses around the novel and unique approaches to learning which may have not been well tested or sound. Many of the advanced classes in the grade schools focus on displaying how far above the mark they should be focusing on they can perform. And sometimes, even the best of teachers succumb to "grade-level" envy or bragging. As a result, many students miss a large part of their education, as teachers attempt to advertise "My students read at a 12th grade level (even though they are in 8th grade)"
I can only lament the damage done (and painfully undone) by my advanced class's embracing of the "new math" where multiplication wasn't supposed to be memorized, but calculated (and re-calculated) ad-infinitum, or the horrible contrived and "fresh" ways of learning which involved set design, acting, model building, etc, to only get across the finer points of Stienbeck's "The Perl".
Interestingly, it's clear why they're picking on kindergardeners. At age 7 and above, the rules require the informed consent of the subject. If the kid says no and the parents say yes, that's a no. And there can't be any penalty for saying no. But below age 7, the parents alone can "consent".
If they tried this on, say, teenagers, they'd probably be blown off, unless they paid out some serious money.