"In 2012, a contest for US schools to win a gig by Taylor Swift was hijacked by members of the 4chan website, who piled on its online vote in an attempt to send the pop star to a school for deaf children.
Now, imagine a similar stunt being pulled for a general election, if voting could be done online. Far-fetched? Not according to Rick Falkvinge, founder of Sweden's Pirate party.
"Voting over the internet? Would you really want 4chan to decide your next government?" he said, during a debate about democracy and technology in London, organised by the BBC as part of its Democracy Day event."
"She recounts the moment when her 13-year-old son Jacob - now 16 - was sent to isolation for refusing to register his fingerprint to use the school canteen.
"I went to school and said that I didn't give my consent. As a parent I want to be clear that the decisions I make that affect my children are in their best interests."
"What if this isn't just a one-off case of a popular professor dying. With so many classes online, why wouldn't universities just lay off any professor with a body of recorded lectures? We already know that tenure is harder to achieve every year, and schools are relying more and more on adjunct professors who teach a couple of classes on yearly contracts with no benefits. This scheme could save schools even more money! Of course, tuition will remain the same. One prof in the Twitter thread saw this possibility already."
"John became increasingly radicalised by an online barrage of far-right disinformation. "Posts of homeless British soldiers were set against Muslim families being given free homes. Now I know the posts were all fake, but the 15-year-old me didn't bother to fact-check."
The worry is that John's contemporaries won't either. A surge of online extremism and disinformation has arrived at a time of lockdown-induced isolation, loneliness and home-schooling, creating what police call a "perfect storm". One British far-right group has even started pushing an alternative white-supremacist school curriculum for lockdown learning."
"The software, 4 Little Trees, was created by Hong Kong-based startup Find Solution AI. While the use of emotion recognition AI in schools and other settings has caused concern, founder Viola Lam says it can make the virtual classroom as good as - or better than - the real thing.
Students work on tests and homework on the platform as part of the school curriculum. While they study, the AI measures muscle points on their faces via the camera on their computer or tablet, and identifies emotions including happiness, sadness, anger, surprise and fear. "
"Admission algorithms can make or break your academic plans. A Washington Post investigation found 44 schools use prediction software to give applicants a score out of 100 for its admissions process. The score considers different aspects of a student's application from test scores, home address, transcripts, and even what websites they've visited. That's all calculated to rate how strong of a match a student is for a school."
"The system is called as"Intelligent Classroom Behavior Management System" and it is being used at Hangzhou No. 11 High School. With scanning facial expressions the system has the ability to even analysis six types of behaviors by the students such as standing up, reading, writing, hand raising, listening to the teacher, and leaning on the desk."
"The type of device matters-some are associated with worse student outcomes.
Geography matters-technology is associated with higher student outcomes in the United States than in other regions.
Who is using the technology matters-technology in the hands of teachers is associated with higher scores than technology in the hands of students.
Intensity matters-students who use technology intensely or not at all perform better than those with moderate use.
A school system's current performance level matters-in lower-performing school systems, technology is associated with worse results."
"Smartphones should be banned from schools to tackle classroom disruption, improve learning and help protect children from cyberbullying, a UN report has recommended.
Unesco, the UN's education, science and culture agency, said there was evidence that excessive mobile phone use was linked to reduced educational performance and that high levels of screen time had a negative effect on children's emotional stability."
"This all presents big questions for which we don't yet have answers. "At what point should kids know better?" asked David Dockterman, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "When should a person's 'permanent digital record' start recording, if ever? To what extent should social media be a space for trial-and-error exploration around identity and social behavior?"
"These are fantastically difficult moral dilemmas for teenagers who act impulsively, using tools that are not fully under their control, leading to consequences that perhaps none of us can anticipate," said Sonia Livingstone, professor of social psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. "This is the first time we've had a society in which almost by default, everything is recorded and shared and aggregated in ways that create a lifelong profile. Children should have the right to make mistakes.""
"Parent "Portals," as utilized in K12 education, are doing significant harm to student development.[1]
For those not familiar, Parent Portals are learning management systems that provide "real time" information to parents of school-aged children: "grades, attendance, assignments, and more."
On a daily basis parents can monitor their child's performance in school and intervene at home. In theory, this seems like a good thing.
But what is the difference between "real time" data and constant surveillance?
In my view, not much.
What if surveillance is not conducive to education?
I'm working this one out. Let's see where it goes."