Bill Gates Wants Surveillance Cameras in the Classroom
Bill Gates Wants Big Brother in the Classroom
March 1, 2009Flint Journal - How do you make a teacher great?
Bill Gates posed that question at the prestigious Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference last month.
And though it's unlikely there were many public school teachers in the audience, with tickets at $6,000 a pop, they could have set Gates straight on a few things.
Gates says great teachers are being made at KIPP charter schools (Knowledge Is Power Program).
"When you actually go and sit in one of these classrooms, at first it's very bizarre...The teacher was running around, and the energy level was high," he said. "And the teacher was constantly scanning to see which kids weren't paying attention, which kids were bored, and calling kids rapidly, putting things up on the board."But all teachers do that, to one degree or another. It's certainly not the aberration that Gates implies.
According to Gates, in a "normal" school, teachers are not told how good they are because teachers' contracts limit the number of times the principal can come into the classroom--sometimes to once per year, and they must provide advance notice.
"So imagine," he said, "running a factory where you've got these workers, some of them just making crap and the management is told, 'Hey, you can only come down here once a year, but you need to let us know, because we might actually fool you, and try and do a good job in that one brief moment.'"Aside from the disturbing comparison of teachers to "workers making crap" and the insinuation that they only work well when watched, the blanket statement about teacher contracts is misleading at best, inaccurate at worst.
At my school principals dropped into our classrooms whenever they chose and stayed as long as they liked.
But Gates has a solution.
Because digital video is cheap, Gates suggests putting cameras in classrooms to record regularly in all public schools. Every few weeks teachers could review the clips and work together to improve their teaching.
Aside from the rather creepy Big Brother aspect to Gates' suggestion, cameras wouldn't bother most teachers. They know they're highly visible and accountable to the public. But finding time to review hours of videotape would be a logistical nightmare.
Video cameras in the classroom aren't a bad idea, though. The revelations would finally make "reformers" like Bill Gates take heed.
They would, once and for all, shine a painfully bright light on students: the angry, silly, spoiled, impoverished, lazy, hyper, unmotivated, sullen, troubled youth that challenge even the very best teachers.
It's okay to raise the bar for the profession. But attempting to do so based on fuzzy theories serves no one well.
Keeping Track of the Kids
September 7, 2010New York Times - This is an era in which many devices are watching us. We carry about wireless phones that tell our service providers exactly where we are. Surveillance cameras blink down from corners and storefronts. Advertisers follow us effortlessly around the Internet.
Still, plans in Contra Costa County, Calif., to tag preschoolers with radio frequency identification chips to keep track of their whereabouts at school seem to go too far.
The concern that school officials would use the ID chips to keep tabs on children’s behavior — and tag them perhaps as hyperactive or excessively passive — seems overwrought. County officials point out that the tags will save money and allow teachers to devote less time to attendance paperwork and more time to their students. And the chips, which will be randomly assigned to different children every day, according to a county representative, will not carry personal information that could be intercepted by others.
We just worry that we are all becoming a little too blasé about our scrutinized lives. Americans’ enthusiasm for technological solutions typically has been balanced by a mistrust of technology taking over our lives. The demons of “I, Robot” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” always lurked somewhere beneath the surface of our dreams of high-tech futures.
Part of the reason we now accept the continual observation of our lives is that we are at best only vaguely aware it is happening. Surveys have found that most Americans believe, incorrectly, that many common techniques used by corporations to keep track of their online activity are illegal. Though it may seem innocuous to attach a chip to our preschoolers’ clothes, do we really want to raise a generation of kids that are accustomed to being tracked, like cattle or warehouse inventory?
The War on Kids: See This Film
December 1, 2009Schools Master - This documentary award winner depicts the police state mentality applied to American school climate today. And the schools shown in this film are mostly those from the leafy suburbs--so you can multiply the control and surveillance and police tactics in these schools by 10, and you have life in the corporate reform schools and no excuses chain gangs that are replacing public schools all over urban America.
From the New York Times, November 18:
Michigan District Deploys Networked Surveillance
April 13, 2009The Journal - Chippewa Valley School District in Michigan is conducting a massive rollout of surveillance equipment in its high schools and ninth-grade centers.
The district, which is using gear from Axis Communications, is deploying more than 600 network cameras and video encoders, including standard and high-resolution network cameras, along with 4U Blade racks and Q7406 Video Encoder Blades. The centralized video surveillance management software used in the deployment is coming from Milestone Systems. Metro Technology Services handled consulting for the project, while Spiritech is handling hardware and software installation.
"Ever since the Columbine high school tragedy 10 years ago, school districts have been looking for ways to enhance security in their schools," said Mark Deldin, Chippewa Valley superintendent. "If students do not feel safe in their schools they will be distracted from learning. Our mission is to make students, parents and staff as safe as possible. A strong sense of safety and welfare enhances the educational process and improves our standing with our community."Chippewa Valley serves about 15,000 students in two preschools, 12 elementary schools, four middle schools, and six high schools and ninth-grade centers.
Caution Kids: CCTV in Operation
September 16, 2010Arkansas Blog - The Hope School District has spent $540,000 in federal stimulus money to install surveillance cameras in most classrooms — special ed is among some exempted areas. This is supposed to be about enhanced safety for teachers and students, though the superintendent admits nobody will be monitoring the cameras most of the time.
Please pass along to Hope students this link from merry olde England, where closed circuit TV is nearly universal.
In a speech two weeks ago, Jack Straw mocked my suggestion that Britain's pupils were being groomed for the surveillance society.
I wonder how the justice secretary reacts to a story from Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, Essex, where pupils walked out of classrooms that were fitted with CCTV cameras — on the grounds that their civil liberties were being breached — and refused to return until the camera system had been turned off.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk.
Little Rock School District Beefing Up School Security This Fall
August 13, 2010Today's THV - One week from Thursday, it's back to school for thousands of Central Arkansas students.
And in the Little Rock School District, students can expect some new security changes, watching over them, literally.
Security changes are coming to about 30 of the district's buildings this fall. It's all part of $700,000 in federal stimulus money working to make schools safer with help from "Big Brother."
"Every morning when I come in, I do the run-through on it, make sure everything is working," Heath Ingram said.
"There's another elementary school in the main office," he says while watching the video.Ingram's the district coordinator for Closed Circuit Television Security, a system with cameras planted in and outside buildings and linked to monitors at schools and Ingram's office.
Under this project most of the district's elementary schools, like Bale here, will see these cameras in place for the first time this fall. High schools and middle schools will see upgrades to existing systems.
"The main reason we did this is that we feel like we handle the most precious things that people have and that's their children," Bobby Jones said.Jones is the district's security director. He says this system can save video for up to 30 days and also save valuable time for administrators.
"Instead of spending hours interviewing people, the principal can immediately pull the incident up, show the students, in some cases the parents," Jones said.And find out what really happened in each case. The images are available to Little Rock Police too.
"All our systems we have online have the capability of being interfaced with Little Rock police in the event of an emergency situation," Jones said.Cameras are also in hallways, classrooms and outside exits too.
"We try to put them in the computer rooms, that's a lot of money sitting there," Ingram said while watching the video at this desk.
All keeping an eye out for trouble with Ingram ensuring that eye never closes.
"Just to keep crime down hopefully or to deter crime from coming in and happening," Ingram said.School security officers will help monitor these cameras throughout the day at the buildings. Ingram says he'll contact them if he finds problems with any equipment.
Most cameras are in place right now but some work will continue through September.
The director adds this new security wasn't sparked by any specific incident. And they hope it can help crack after-hours cases, like break-ins, as well.
Detroit Schools Boost Security Year after Shooting
June 30, 2010Chicago Tribune/Associated Press - Since a shooting incident a year ago, Detroit police have been working to mitigate the violence that has extended from the streets into school hallways. And while officials say in-school violence is decreasing, some students and parents say the safety changes haven't been enough.
"I feel safe at school," said Emmanuel Gannaway, who will be a senior at Cody High School. "But we do need more security."That need may be partially met this year. The district plans to invest $41.7 million in upgraded security equipment, including new surveillance cameras and alarm systems at schools. Each high school will get 100 cameras placed in stairwells, hallways, parking lots, entrances and other parts of the school, the district said. K-8 schools will get 32 cameras each and elementary schools, 24 cameras. Enhanced surveillance is a tactic to keep outsiders from entering the school to start trouble, said Detroit Public Schools Police Chief Roderick Grimes.
The alarm systems, he said, will send a signal to officers when a door is breached.
"That will give us somewhere to start the investigations on who got into our buildings unauthorized," Grimes said.The district also has increased the number of metal detectors at school entrances, and Detroit police boosted patrols in some school neighborhoods.
Improving school safety is an issue for districts across the nation. Chicago recently unveiled a plan to spend $25 million in federal funds on school safety programs.
Forest Grove to Hold Meeting on Proposed $65.3 Million Schools Bond for Construction, Maintenance, Surveillance Cameras, Etc.
September 13, 2010
Oregon Live - Under the federal government's stimulus act, the district could finance $15 million of the bond interest-free, saving millions of dollars over the bond's 20-year life.
The district is asking taxpayers for $65.3 million to fund numerous construction projects, including a $24 million expansion to the high school and $21 million to demolish and replace Joseph Gale Elementary School. The bond would also pay to build a bigger cafeteria at Harvey Clarke Elementary School, expand the cafeteria at Echo Shaw Elementary School, install surveillance cameras in every school and conduct maintenance that has been put off due to lack of funds.
Will Surveillance Cameras Be Placed on All County School Buses
September 28, 2008WGNS Radio, Murfreesboro, TN - The Rutherford County School Board meets Thursday night to determine how to pay for placing security cameras in all county buses. Currently, 49 buses now have cameras. The school board approved $432,000 in funds to place the surveillance systems in the remaining 146 school buses. Unfortunately, there is only enough money in the county coffers to equip 10 buses a year with cameras.
Recent events on local school buses are increasing the push for cameras in every bus. In addition, there are allegations that the lowest bids are not being used when it comes to cameras. The county school board will look over bids and other information at a 5:00 o’clock work session Tuesday night at Oakland High School. The board returns to the central office at 5:00 o’clock Thursday night to vote a plan that would place surveillance cameras on the remaining 146 county school buses. They’re hoping to discover a way to do the job all at once instead of 10 buses a year. WGNS News will keep you informed.
Laredo Independent School District
April 23, 2010Loredo Teaxas School Superintendent - While my focus has clearly been in the area of academics, I spend a serious amount of time each week dealing with safety and security. In our schools, we make a very difficult promise in the area of safety. We provide our education with the guarantee that our kids will do so in an environment that maximizes safety. In fact, I know I personally expect my child’s school to send my son home each day the same way I sent him.
So as we concentrate on this expectation, I am happy to see our Board of Trustees recently approve $2,226,885.000 million dollars for the purchase and installation of surveillance cameras at our elementary, middle, and high schools. We have had surveillance systems at our secondary schools for some time and this recent decision to use our stimulus funds on security is exciting for our 2010-2011 school year.
Our district police department is working very closely with city and county officials to also monitor the recent civil unrest in our sister city. It breaks my heart to see how the public schools in Nuevo Laredo are so significantly impacted by this situation. In the U.S., we continue to monitor, prepare, and protect our students as if they were our very own during this surge of violence in Nuevo Laredo. The campus administrators have reported overwhelmingly that our camera surveillance systems have improved student discipline and provided greater safety and security for their campuses. The safety of our staff and students must be our priority, and the extension of camera surveillance systems and other security initiatives to be mentioned in our upcoming budget will enhance our commitment to our objective...
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