If I were still a parent with children in this school I would be outraged. As it is, I am outraged as a taxpayer.
At the school my children attended, among some of the teachers, there was very little teaching that actually took place. The homework was basically outsourced presentation for the parents to do while teachers had parties, showed videos and took field trips during class time.
Instead of focusing on the teachers' quality and use of time, now they have a way to track students. This is outrageous.
We all own the responsibility of what baird and company are getting away with. We had a chance last year to get someone 'new' on that school board and it failed to generate enough interest from the voting public to make a difference.
Anyone who attended any of their open school board meetings saw how they treated the public. That school board and baird should be relegated to the trash heap if there was any justice. Maybe next time the public will take more of an interest in who they allow to serve on the EUSD school board.
I hope next time we can begin elect people who have a better sense of responsibility and trust. To allow the current bunch to keep their jobs is nobody's fault but our own.
If Tim Baird HADN'T installed security software on these iPADs, the discussion here would probably be about how EUSD was playing IT department for those danged Generation X parents, and how this is just another vote-getting slush fund. Let's face it, nothing Tim does will make this crowd happy.
As for the argument that kids need to learn to code instead of learning to apply coded programs to real life, wake up. Coding, like most of the trade skills you Baird-hating fuddyduddies think are all our kids need to succeed, is probably about ten years from complete automation. Your coding grandkids will be left holding buggy-whip manufacturing skills in an idea-driven world, and robots will be collecting their paychecks. They will lose their jobs first to South Asian e-sweatshops, then to machines.
People who instead learn to think and APPLY technologies will be the ones deciding if, where, and when the rest of us will go to school at all, let alone if we will be worthy of a decent paycheck. Those people currently use iPADs instinctually, and our kids should too.
People who understand how to apply technology to solve meat space problems and manage a P&L do not need to know how to write code. They hire people to write code, and make boatloads more than the code monkeys.
Teaching kids how to use innovation in their daily lives is important, whether or not they elect to understand how the tools work at a binary level.
In my opinion, people are objecting to the use of facial recognition for the wrong reasons. Having a picture taken and face measured isn't a big deal from a privacy/security perspective. There isn't useful information that a hacker would want or care about--just a long string of numbers and letters resulting from an algorithm. Truth is, your grocery store probably uses similar technology attached to cameras today to understand where their most lucrative customers go in the store, and where to place the highest margin merchandise. It's happening today, they don't need your permission, and they track you and your kids through the store. Get used to it.
That said, FR is expensive and unreliable from a practical perspective. These kids are growing, so their facial dimensions are changing. They put fingerprints on the camera lens. They block the lens. The lay the iPad flat on a desk so the camera points at the ceiling, not their face. Lighting and shadows change as the kids use the iPad near a window or outside. Kids put on and take off glasses and hats. They put their hands on their face. They don't hold the camera steady. Basically, vendor is claiming that the software will sample and reconfirmed identity of the user every minute. How frequently do you think it will logout based on one of the above predictable scenarios.
Simple password SSO is cheaper and more reliable. It allows the user to logon once. As they trigger other apps and services, the software automatically logs them in.
Facial recognition software is expensive, and overly invasive, for students in a public elementary school.
First Baird and his pliant followers, his Board of Trustees, profiteered at the public's expense, and now they are wasting our money and leaving our children and grandchildren more vulnerable to improper tracking by governmental authorities.
That the three incumbents were reelected only goes to show that the public is even more uninformed, generally, about school district politics and manipulations, than the power plays at Encinitas City Hall, by staff, contractors, and council.
See comments on the technology from the prior discussion. Still a waste of money...
ReplyDeletehttp://encinitasundercover.blogspot.com/search?q=facial+recognition
If I were still a parent with children in this school I would be outraged. As it is, I am outraged as a taxpayer.
ReplyDeleteAt the school my children attended, among some of the teachers, there was very little teaching that actually took place. The homework was basically outsourced presentation for the parents to do while teachers had parties, showed videos and took field trips during class time.
Instead of focusing on the teachers' quality and use of time, now they have a way to track students. This is outrageous.
Time to put the ipads in the electronic waste dump and get back to teaching.
ReplyDeleteGreat bumper sticker, but 20 years from now if you want these kids to have jobs, then fluency with digital tools is important.
DeleteBelieve it or not, you learned with methods and tools that your parents probably found silly.
--FP
Using the Apple interface that's so simple old ladies can use it is not digital fluency.
DeleteIf you're not teaching kids programming, you're just flaunting expensive toys.
Teach the kids to build robots not be the robots.
DeleteThe truth lies somewhere between what FP and WC are saying. Ipads are not necessarily toys, but you need to make sure they're being used as intended.
DeleteThere does have to be a cost/benefit analysis, and not everyone will become a programmer.
-MGJ
Nice Ivy League degree. Now if you want a job, go to code school.
Deletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-07/coding-classes-attract-college-grads-who-want-better-jobs
That's because Ivy League Schools like Dartmouth are for rich people and they get taken care of there. If you want to code, go to UCSD.
DeleteI had to learn code myself, only engineers knew that stuff back in the day.
"The boot camps don’t guarantee employment to graduates, and some students struggle to finish. " Hint, go to a JC first...
-MGJ
Hey - it's only taxpayers' money. Baird probably will take another expense paid junket to the luxury desert resort to "conference" on the issue.
ReplyDeleteHappy Hour in Tim's suite!
DeleteConga train starts there and goes to the cabana for more drinks on the taxpayers!
DeleteAnother overpaid, over pensioned idiot...It''s Encinitas, what else is new??
ReplyDeleteCreep factor of 10.
ReplyDeleteWe all own the responsibility of what baird and company are getting away with. We had a chance last year to get someone 'new' on that school board and it failed to generate enough interest from the voting public to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who attended any of their open school board meetings saw how they treated the public. That school board and baird should be relegated to the trash heap if there was any justice. Maybe next time the public will take more of an interest in who they allow to serve on the EUSD school board.
I hope next time we can begin elect people who have a better sense of responsibility and trust. To allow the current bunch to keep their jobs is nobody's fault but our own.
Sad, but very true. All of his desert partying cronies were reelected. Politicians rely on electorate apathy or short term memory.
DeleteActually, we do pay attention. We simply disagree with your hyperventilatied sqawkery.
DeleteLove,
THE ELECTORATE
10:34 AM = Point proven for 8:35 AM
DeleteCan't the man learn anything from history? If he just waits a little while, the mark of the beast will be free.
ReplyDeleteIf Tim Baird HADN'T installed security software on these iPADs, the discussion here would probably be about how EUSD was playing IT department for those danged Generation X parents, and how this is just another vote-getting slush fund. Let's face it, nothing Tim does will make this crowd happy.
ReplyDeleteAs for the argument that kids need to learn to code instead of learning to apply coded programs to real life, wake up. Coding, like most of the trade skills you Baird-hating fuddyduddies think are all our kids need to succeed, is probably about ten years from complete automation. Your coding grandkids will be left holding buggy-whip manufacturing skills in an idea-driven world, and robots will be collecting their paychecks. They will lose their jobs first to South Asian e-sweatshops, then to machines.
People who instead learn to think and APPLY technologies will be the ones deciding if, where, and when the rest of us will go to school at all, let alone if we will be worthy of a decent paycheck. Those people currently use iPADs instinctually, and our kids should too.
People who understand how to apply technology to solve meat space problems and manage a P&L do not need to know how to write code. They hire people to write code, and make boatloads more than the code monkeys.
DeleteTeaching kids how to use innovation in their daily lives is important, whether or not they elect to understand how the tools work at a binary level.
In my opinion, people are objecting to the use of facial recognition for the wrong reasons. Having a picture taken and face measured isn't a big deal from a privacy/security perspective. There isn't useful information that a hacker would want or care about--just a long string of numbers and letters resulting from an algorithm. Truth is, your grocery store probably uses similar technology attached to cameras today to understand where their most lucrative customers go in the store, and where to place the highest margin merchandise. It's happening today, they don't need your permission, and they track you and your kids through the store. Get used to it.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/12/11/retailers-go-high-tech-to-track-shoppers/
That said, FR is expensive and unreliable from a practical perspective. These kids are growing, so their facial dimensions are changing. They put fingerprints on the camera lens. They block the lens. The lay the iPad flat on a desk so the camera points at the ceiling, not their face. Lighting and shadows change as the kids use the iPad near a window or outside. Kids put on and take off glasses and hats. They put their hands on their face. They don't hold the camera steady. Basically, vendor is claiming that the software will sample and reconfirmed identity of the user every minute. How frequently do you think it will logout based on one of the above predictable scenarios.
Simple password SSO is cheaper and more reliable. It allows the user to logon once. As they trigger other apps and services, the software automatically logs them in.
Long post. Sorry.
--FP.
--FP.
I totally agree. A password is all that is needed.
DeleteFacial recognition software is expensive, and overly invasive, for students in a public elementary school.
ReplyDeleteFirst Baird and his pliant followers, his Board of Trustees, profiteered at the public's expense, and now they are wasting our money and leaving our children and grandchildren more vulnerable to improper tracking by governmental authorities.
That the three incumbents were reelected only goes to show that the public is even more uninformed, generally, about school district politics and manipulations, than the power plays at Encinitas City Hall, by staff, contractors, and council.