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October 27, 2004
Welcome to Sunnybank Preparatory School - We're watching you!
I have ranted in my blogs before about this, but I think I will just continue to do so for a while, while I build up my thinking on the subject... Essentially I am convinced that this watching of our children through technological means is a very risky behaviour. We risk alienating them as children from their parents and as citizens from their society. Why engage in this risky behaviour? Is it guilt for not being there in person?? Is it worries that they will be attacked in their school? Is it concern that they are misbehaving? All of these things have alternative solutions, I suspect, and to turn to the video camera as our first line of defence is unthinking and possibly dangerous. To reiterate, watching students via cameras inserts into our relationships with children an element of mistrust, and element of non-reciprocal watching, that is non-conducive to the creation of caring, creative, and constructive citizens. In my mind, if I am a student living under the gaze of a camera, the first thing in my mind is - if they don't trust me, then why should I trust them?Welcome to Sunnybank Preparatory School"A preparatory school in Lancashire has become the first in Britain to allow parents to watch their children's progress from the comfort of their homes or offices,"news.telegraph reports."Pupils at Sunnybank Preparatory School,Burnley,are filmed in their classrooms from the moment they start school to the moment they leave.Their parents can monitor their progress at any time of the day by logging on to a secure internet site.The system shows the school in real time,but recordings of specific events, good or bad, can be retrieved and saved on CDs".
Parents log on to watch pupils in the classroom
Source: Smart Mobs
Posted by Richard Smith at October 27, 2004 10:48 AM