Hi-Tech Schools: A Reality in Greenwood

Submitted by cel4145 on August 11, 2003 - 21:44.

When I saw the title of this piece from Fox Carolina, I imagined a description of another technology-enabled classroom, one with the newest high-tech gadgets and devices. Plus, I used to live in SC, and was curious about what advances they might be making in education. What a suprise to find that in this school, the technology is not used for pedagogy, but panopticon:

But it's the security features and technology at Westview Middle that really make the school stand out. Security cameras continuously record activity in the hallways, and if there's a problem in the classroom, teachers can simply push a button on a pin they will wear, alerting administrators to a problem and immediately beginning to videotape activities within the classroom. Teacher Sue Rossello says "just knowing that it's there is going to cause a lot less problems with the students 'cos them knowing all I have to do is press a button and there won't be any he said, she said."

What worries me is that in the push to implement technology and seem "high tech," are some schools going to turn toward implementing technology to control students, rather than using it to enhance learning? Or even worse, is this the future for all classrooms?

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The Panopticon is Here

Submitted by Dennis G. Jerz on August 12, 2003 - 01:31.

I do think it's very sad that we even have to consider turning schools into panopticons.

Jeremy Bentham, the British philosopher and social reformer, published his plan for the Panopticon penitentiary in 1791. Essentially, it was for a building on a semi-circular pattern with an 'inspection lodge' at the centre and cells around the perimeter. Prisoners, who in the original plan would be in individual cells, were open to the gaze of the guards, or 'inspectors', but the same was not true of the view the other way. By a carefully contrived system of lighting and the use of wooden blinds, officials would be invisible to the inmates. Control was to be maintained by the constant sense that prisoners were watched by unseen eyes..... Beyond the metaphor, a model of power also lies in the concept of the panoptic, and it takes us well beyond the Orwellian jackboots and torture, or even the rats. The normalizing discipline, the exaggerated visibility of the subject, the unverifiability of observation, the subject as bearer of surveillance, the quest for factual certainty - all are important aspects of the panoptic as model of power. The question is, to what extent are all these necessarily present in each context? Sociologically, is electronic surveillance panoptic power?" (Lyon, "From Big Brother to Electronic Panopticon.")

Dennis G. Jerz
Literacy Weblog
I used to post here with the ID JerzDG.

cel4145's picture

and who else is being watched

Submitted by cel4145 on August 12, 2003 - 09:49.

No doubt.

And while teachers may be accepting this technology, there's every likelihood that teachers, too, will be subject to being watched and monitored using the technology, as suggested in this recent USA Today story about a Biloxi school district which is installing webcams in all the classrooms.

And let's not forget about online classroom environments. In an email discussion during the Computers and Writing 2003 Online Conference (sorry, no archives), a writing program administrator lauded the use of the tracking functions, such as those commonly found in Blackboard, to manage teachers in First Year Writing. The idea is that this would be a boon for wpa's to spot major problems with teachers, but the potential for abuse because of the ease of close scrutiny is undoubtedly there. For example, suppose administrators decide, after observing teacher access records, to set access frequency standards. The insidious potential of such a practice is illustrated in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, where Y.T.'s mother, who works for the federal government, is monitored electronically to determine whether she is spending too much or too little time on a given task.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been very active in promoting awareness of privacy and security issues at the federal legislation level, but I'm becoming more concerned because surveillance is creeping into our society in the name of security and efficiency, as with the examples above. As educators, I believe we need to work harder to bring these issues forward or else as technology continues it's integration into education, it will undoubtedly be used as to create panopticon.