Parents, it’s your favorite time of year: It’s back to school time. Make sure you got all your kids’ equipment: pencils, paper, backpack, maybe laptop/tablet, and don’t forget your Go Pro camera.
First grader Andrew Weber didn’t forget his. In Tampa, Florida, McFarlene Park Elementary wanted to conduct an experiment of sorts. They wanted to see what the first day of school was like for a six-year-old. So Andrew’s parents attached a Go Pro camera to their son and the child’s first day of school was captured on tape through this technological means. I admit, it was amazing to see an elementary school day unfold from a child who isn’t even four feet tall. Teachers, adults and even some kids towered over him. This was proven as Andrew went to hug his teacher, Ms. Weber. And the camera made him so popular all his classmates wanted to play with it.
But why would a school and parents want to subject a child to this? School officials say by looking at things from a student’s perspective, it will help them improve the school. Andrew’s mom thinks it will better understand her son socially as well as academically. The teacher wasn’t intimidated at all with this device. Even little Andrew was impressed with how popular this camera made him. All of that is good, but I hope they can use this camera in perspective. It seemed like everyone was good with this experiment, which is a good thing. I’m just afraid where this could lead. What if Go Pro Cameras, Google Glass and other devices are used to deliberately spy on people and set people up, whether they did anything wrong or not? What if high school kids use this as a cyber bullying tool? What if officials use this to have someone fired just because they said or did something the officials didn’t like, no matter how innocent it was (I just read of a disturbing case of a high school student being suspended over something innocent). What are some ways we can assure these technological methods are used and not abused?