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Webcams Watching The Classrooms?
embarcadero writes "Webcams will be tuned to watch over 500 classrooms in the Biloxi, Mississippi school district this year, according to a story in USA Today. The goal is to make classrooms safer, but there's a lot of speculation about how the recorded info could be used for or against teachers in disputes or teaching reviews. I can just see Mrs. Waters pointing towards the camera, 'If I don't catch you cheating on this spelling test, that camera will! Don't even think about it.'"
That's called a Truancy Law, already in effect:
According to the Mississippi Compulsory School Attendance Law, minors 17 years old and younger are required to be in a public or private school or a homeschool setting from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday during the school term.
In addition, under the city's curfew law, all minors age 17 and under must be off the streets from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
ever worked in a call center? Your EVERY move it watched.
You are attached to a phone (so you can't go anywhere further than the phone cord).
You are logged into a computer that has Internet tracked (including access to see exactly what is on your screen at any given time).
You are logged into a time server to keep track of your "clock punches".
You are logged into a phone so that every keypress on the phone is tracked.
You are recorded for QA purposes which are listened to at regular intervals to check your score weekly.
The call center I worked at was QUITE effective at keeping people working every minute of their 7.5 hours and making sure people were clocked in/out on time for start, breaks, and end.
You were scored on a sheet by both QA and your supervisor (so they both know what you did both good and bad).
And all you people think that CSRs are bad? We don't do this for teachers, why not?
Direct supervision and coaching are something very different from surveillance. You may be right, but nobody's suggested using the Biloxi webcams for giving teacher any sort of supervisory feedback -- only security monitoring. Essentially this system is being set up so it is more likely only to be used against teachers -- the tapes will only be reviewed if there is an allegation of a problem -- than for their professional benefit.
I don't necessarily have a problem with that, but I am adamant we be honest about what is going on.
Let me be clear: I'm not weighing in on one side or the other about the webcams. But some of the rationales for them are amazingly specious, and I think honest rational discourse requires me to call them out as such.
-*- Any technology indistinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced -*-
Either FERPA will need to be amended, or those tapes will require very careful handling to avoid existing protection in FERPA. This has probably already been addressed in case law, but a brief search revealed nothing.
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Text of FERPA : http://regweb.oit.unc.edu/resources/ferpa_text.php
Basically it restricts who has access to "educational records."
Excerpts follow for the trusting and lazy. Reading the actual text of FERPA is certainly preferable to these tidbits. I'm also putting them in a different order so they will be less dull to read. Be sure to read up on the (long) list of ways in which records can be released without prior consent! This post is becoming too long, otherwise I would have included those as well.
Reg. 99.7
What must an educational agency or institution include in its annual notification?
(a)(1) Each educational agency or institution shall annually notify parents of students currently in attendance, or eligible students currently in attendance, of their rights under the Act and this part.
(2) The notice must inform parents or eligible students that they have the right to --
(iii) Consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in the student's education records, except to the extent that the Act and 99.31 authorize disclosure without consent; and
Reg. 99.1
To which educational agencies or institutions do these regulations apply?
(a) Except as otherwise noted in 99.10, this part applies to an educational agency or institution to which funds have been made available under any program administered by the Secretary of Education if --
(1) The educational institution provides educational services or instruction, or both, to students; or
(2) The educational agency provides administrative control or direction of, or performs service functions for, public elementary or secondary schools or postsecondary institutions.
Directory Information" means information contained in an education record of a student which would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. It includes, but is not limited to the student's name, address, telephone listing, date and place of birth, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, and the most recent previous educational agency or institution attended.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1232g(a)(5)(A))
"Disciplinary action or proceeding" means the investigation, adjudication, or imposition of sanctions by an educational agency or institution with respect to an infraction or violation of the internal rules of conduct applicable to students of the agency or institution.
"Disclosure" means to permit access to or the release, transfer, or other communication of personally identifiable information contained in education records to any party, by any means, including oral, written, or electronic means.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1232g(b)(1))
"Educational agency or institution" means any public or private agency or institution to which this part applies under 99.1(a).
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1232g(a)(3))
"Education records"
(a) The term means those records that are:
(1) Directly related to a student; and
(2) Maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution.
(b) The term does not include:
(1) Records of instructional, supervisory, and administrative personnel and educational personnel ancillary to those persons that are kept in the sole possession of the maker of the record, and are not accessible or revealed to any other person except a temporary substitute for the maker of the record;
(2) Records of the law enforcement unit of an education