Photo credit: Dan LevielleÂ
Education Dive published a brief last week entitled “Now is the time to consider wearable tech in schools.”
Probably the most well known wearable tech would be Google Glass pictured above, which currently has a price point and is not in the stage of development where it would be introduced into schools… yet.
They note:
Wearable devices like heart-rate monitors and virtual reality headsets are expected to become mainstream in the education space within four to five years, and schools should be thinking now about how to prepare to handle them.
They are not the first to pick up on this topic. At Ed Tech Magazine Courtney Pepe and Stephanie Talalai wrote back in October that wearable technology can boost student engagement and motivation.
According to the NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2016 K–12 Edition:
Well-positioned to advance the quantified self movement, today’s wearables not only track where people go, what they do, and how much time they spend doing it, but now what their aspirations are and when those can be accomplished. This category also has potential to interest a variey of students in STEAM learning, as classroom activities can encompass multidisciplinary efforts of design, building, and programming.
This sounds perfectly creepy doesn’t it.
Education Dive continues:
Wearable technology brings the promise of data aggregation, but schools must consider student privacy in deciding how to collect and store data, and successful rollouts will require thorough planning, testing and training.
They should consider student privacy, but frankly if they’re talking about data aggregation they’re just giving lip service to privacy.
What can be learned with wearable tech that a tablet can’t do? This is just BS for the tech industry to make money.