Many schools are putting video cameras in the classrooms for a variety of reasons: to monitor teaching, to monitor interactions and behaviors, to help teachers with lesson presentation. Read the article and comment about how you feel about being on camera all the time.
Because the article is blocked at school, I have copied it here.
Advantages of Using the Video Camera in the Classroom
An increasing number of schools and teachers are using video cameras in the classroom. Whether it's recording a lesson to monitor student behavior, or assigning students to watch a podcast, video helps students learn. This article details some of the advantages of having a video camera in the classroom.
Expert Insight
Using technology, including video cameras, in the classroom can improve the way students learn, according to a recent U.S. Department of Education report. "By leveraging technology, schools can customize instruction and ensure that children who need extra help get it," the report states.
The department's Office of Educational Technology supports this idea. It examines U.S. schools' technological needs and the teaching trends taking place in schools. One type of technology helping teachers educate their students is the video camera.
Significance
Video is growing in popularity, and more students are using the medium as a research tool for their schoolwork. Whether kids are looking for facts about frogs or help in writing a book report, there is often a video on the Internet that provides them with the information they need.
The website YouTube is the second most-used search engine, after Google. According to recent figures, Americans conducted about 2.8 billion searches on YouTube---about 200 million more than on Yahoo, according to comScore.
Examples of Video in the Classroom
Videoconferencing is one way students benefit from use of video in the classroom. About 25 percent of U.S. public schools use videoconferencing to supplement its curriculum, according to Alan Greenberg, video communications expert. The medium allows students to connect with and learn from people they may not otherwise have access to. For example, some schools use videoconferencing to connect with NASA astronauts.
Video podcasts, audio and video clips that can be recorded and uploaded to the Internet, are another format in which students use to learn.
Benefits
Video helps kids learn. Use of a video camera in the classroom can boost students' test scores. New York college students given access to video podcasts of a psychology lecture averaged 9 percent better on tests than students without access. One advantage to the video podcasts was that students could replay sections of the lecture they didn't understand. One teacher in Oklahoma dresses up like a librarian and records video podcasts to teach her students about the importance of reading.
Potential
Use of a video camera in the classroom can help teachers to teach better and students to behave better. Teachers may use a video camera to document important lessons throughout the school year. They can also play back those recordings during parent-teacher conferences.
Finally, teachers can use video cameras to record themselves to learn how to improve their teaching methods.
9 comments:
So many schools now a days are putting video cameras throughout the hall ways, & in the class rooms. I think that putting video cameras in the class rooms & other various places throughout the school is a very good idea. I honestly don't think that people should be able to monitor what we are doing at all times, but with how the world is today, I guess all of that stuff is needed. Having video cameras in the hallways though, I think is a good idea because if there happens to be something that goes wrong in school, for example; two kids start a fight in school, but both of them say that the other one started the fight. Then, you can just go & look on the recorded video that you have, & that will tell you who actually started the fight. That's why I think having video cameras in the school is a good idea.
I dont think the video cameras are hurting anybody. The only concern I would have about buying all these cameras is this: are they really worth the money we put into them? I dont really know how much it cost to get them, but are they really benefitting the school that much? are they worth the money? There are MANY repairs that our school needs that I think should have been put ahead of purchasing cameras. I dont want to complain or anything, but I've been in the office and I've seen the camera screen. It's not really even being monitored. There's nobody watching it. So the chances that they'll catch something, like a fight, happeneing is really unlikely. They might be able to go back and check it to confirm that the situation did happen. By then, though, the fight will have been over and it will be too late to stop it.
Ann Schmitt...
I remember when we put cameras in the hallway and for some reason, people were complainging because they thought that the school would be spying on them in a way, but the school is just trying to keep all of us safe. I would feel weird if we had cameras in our classrooms though. Like in Mr. Gregg's room, it used to be a computer lab so there is a camera in there and sometimes I would feel weird because someone could be watching our class. And I have to wonder if paying for the cameras to put in classrooms would be worth it. If the school has money to put in a bunch of cameras, the school could afford to fix other things that should come way before installing new cameras.
Personally, I don't feel that we should have video cameras in the classrooms. It might be helpful maybe to get webcams installed so that when a teacher is lecturing and a child is ill then we can just log in and watch the lesson be taught. I don't feel that people should be constantly watched, especially high school students because we should all be mature enough to not have to be constantly monitored. I do like the idea of getting the lesson taught even while being at home, but I feel that if they put cameras in class rooms than they aren't trusting us or believing that our teachers are completing their jobs. The cameras in the hallways were a good investment, but I don't believe that they are being properly used. I feel that the cameras should be monitored during switching time, but they don't need to be as much after. I am torn between both because the teachers and students should both be trusted to do as they are supposed to without getting in any trouble, then it would be a good idea so as people who are sick can watch the lecture from home.
The only reason people make new rules was because something must have been done in the past that caused a problem. So now they can't trust us people of doing the right thing and telling the truth. So they think that they can just watch us all the time. When we think someone is looking we don't do anything wrong. They put cameras to make us think that they are looking at every move that we do. I do think that having cameras is a good thing to have so we have a copy of what is going on during school. Then we can go back and look to see what happen when we have a problem with students. It helps prevent students doing the wrong thing.
Video cameras in classrooms I feel would change the way teachers teach and also how students act. Knowing that someone is watching you during class you probably won't daydream, doodle, or do anything distracting because you don't want to get caught. It could also be a bad thing because when teacher's have an open hour they like having their privacy, and this would really just make them feel self-conscious. I will say that if a fight were to break out while a teacher was not in the room and they had video cameras in there they would be able to tell you who was in the fight and also who started it. I feel that video cameras would be a great idea, but it all depends on if the teacher's would be okay with having someone watch them 24/7.
Video cameras in classrooms? Well at first, I was totally opposed to the idea, but as I sit here and start to think about the upcoming homework I will have to do in Mrs. Hansen's class and the homework I just have finished making up. It would have been somewhat nice to be able to get onto our school site, go to that class record, and watch that class. That way when she read over Romeo and Juliet I would have been able to get the actual class period in without actually having to be there. In the beginning I sat her and was like No, why on earth would be need cameras!? They would cost the school more expenses and the way our Intro. to Business class has been talking the budget cuts across the state are not looking all too great. It would be nice to get to go and watch my Geometry class get taught too. :)
A lot of schools have video cameras in major hallways and enterances. I think that this is a good idea that they are doing this for security reasons. However putting cameras in classrooms? I think that may be on the border of invading privacy. However I do think that cameras would be a good way to catch students doing things against school policy such as texting in class or cheating. It would also be helpful if something dangerous were happening. I guess i'm a little undecided to whether or not schools should put cameras in classrooms as well as the hallways. I wouldn't think that their could be such a problem in classrooms, but their could always be a day where their was. Another variable for the cameras would be the cost of purchasing and installing the cameras. That would have to be thought of.
If I was a teacher I would be completely against cameras in the classroom. However, I do understand why there would be a need to have them in the classrooms. Teachers do deserve some privacy but the cameras could really intimidate them and I believe that it would cause them to do their job more efficiently. Also, it would catch more kids cheating and doing innapropriate things. Students would also learn to not cheat anymore if there is no possible way of getting away with it if there are cameras in the classroom
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