Tracking devices on show

 

Everyone is very excited at the BETT show where technology for education was put on display. The boy on the left is learning to find an escape route and the girl on the right said that she is learning she can help other people by using Minecraft. That has got to be impressive.

 

Nicky Morgan, Education secretary, appeared earlier and made a speech about all the benefits this technology can bring to education.

 

"So where do we see technology impacting teaching outcomes?"

 

"One exciting area is assessments. The instant nature of online and computerised testing has obvious potential to lighten teacher workloads as well as collect data. The analysis of that data can be invaluable to teachers and system leaders in their pursuit of excellent educational outcomes. Informing them which parts of the curriculum they are teaching well and signalling where there is room for improvement."

"What’s more is that these assessments are becoming more intelligent, allowing the tests to grow with the students. This is really exciting because it means assessments can be tailored in real time to the needs of students..."

"There are established market leaders in this area such as GL Assessment and the Centre for Evaluation Monitoring but there are exciting new prospects, too. "

Here is what GL Assessment has to say about itself:  

GL Assessment is the leading provider of formative assessments to UK schools. For over 30 years, we have provided scientifically rigorous assessments and services for children's education, mental health and wellbeing.

http://www.gl-assessment.co.uk/assessment-solutions

Formative assessments track children as they work on a task. It provides very useful information about cognition, motivation, perseverance, and so on -  for those who want to know.  

As expected when you look at the list of assessments, there are assessments for numeracy and literacy - but Behaviour and Attitudes is also on the menu -. and this is from a company which provides scientifically rigorous assessments for mental health and wellbeing.

All of that looks highly intrusive to me, potentially.

The problem with technology is that it may be used for good or ill, so it is very important to know how all of this is going to be put into practice, and especially important to know what is going to happen to all the children`s data collected. If it goes the same way as the US it will end up in a huge government data storage facility.

Keeping Children Safe in Education – Questions on the Consultation and Use in practice has plenty to say about safeguarding children from cyber bullying, extremism and risk of harm - for which data will be collected -  but has nothing to say about keeping children safe from intrusive technology and overzealous practitioners. On the contrary, it emphasises the importance of early help and data sharing.

The consultation, which fails to mention parents, is open until 16 February 2016.  See below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/keeping-children-safe-in-education-proposed-changes