(via shashdot and George Siemens)
It looks like Northern Arizona University is planning on implementing a system to “use sensors to detect students’ university identification cards when they enter classrooms, according to NAU spokesperson Tom Bauer. The data will be recorded and available for professors to examine. Bauer said the university’s main goal with the sensor system is to increase attendance and student performance….NAU Student Body President Kathleen Templin said most students seem to be against the new system. She added students have started Facebook groups and petitions against the sensor system. NAU sophomore Rachel Brackett created one of the most popular Facebook groups, “NAU Against Proximity Cards,” which has more than 1,400 members.”
I usually refrain from replying on initiatives that annoy me. This one goes over the top however, because it puts the blame on one of the groups that I care deeply about: students and youth.
May I suggest a few simple alternatives? :
- Improve student performance by making teaching and education more appealing (i.e. increase instructor performance to increase student performance).
- Redesign curricula with engagement at the core. Content learning will follow.
- Treat lack of attendance as a sign of the problems that the institution faces rather than a student issue.
- Require professors to attend courses that are consistently rated above-average (and use RFIDs to check whether they are actually attending those course if you are so inclined to use the system)
- Institute policies that encourage and reward instructor innovation.
- Encourage sharing of innovative teaching approaches, transformative technology use, and curricular innovation.
- Learn from your students and involve them in the decision-making process. It seems that they are harnessing the power of the technology much better than you are (see facebook initiative above)
- Invite me to give you a workshop (that’s a joke, but I won’t refuse if you actually do invite me)
Thanks for listening. We now return to our regular programming.
R Geurtz
RFID to monitor students? not a good solution – however – Kuddos to NAU for trying a solution to a chronic problem at universities where large, lecture style teaching still pervails
George Veletsianos
solutions aren’t supposed to perpetuate the problems and status quo though :) The implicit thinking behind the rfids is that students need to come to class because the person who will be there has knowledge to hand out, regardless of the fact that attendance does not translate to learning.
Scott Overmyer
I’m with you George. Students are paying for this experience, and if going to class has no value added over not attending, why force students to attend? Listening to lectures with 350 other people can have some value, but only if the lecture contains content that is: 1) not available elsewhere, 2) more easily understood or pedagogically appropriate than what is available online or in a book, or 3) at least entertaining. From an administrative perspective, keeping track of attendance may have some financial aid and some research implications, but if the idea is to improve attendance, this way is essentially bankrupt.
Ted
I could not agree with you more. Student engagement is absolutely the key to student attendance. What equally concerns me is that professors would need to examine data recorded through proximity cards to know which students were in attendance. Class sizes must be manageable so that instructors know their students by name, and have an opportunity to interact with each.