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Another way to phrase it would be "How can schools know if they are engaging with their students?" Or, "How can teachers better understand what engages student

Another way to phrase it would be "How can schools know if they are engaging with their students?" Or, "How can teachers better understand what engages students and what doesn't engage them?" That said, a good storyteller or teacher knows if they are engaging their audience (or failing to) and can adjust for better engagement. Bad ones don't know this, or even if they do, don't necessarily know what to do about it.

ALittleLight 5y ago
The immediate concern is that, if a metric indicates a problem, who will be forced to change? The student or the teacher? If Mrs. Smith realizes little Timmy isn't paying attention, is she going to accept and consider the possibility she is boring, or just punish Timmy? For perspective, consider how often children are currently drugged when they are found not to be paying attention in school. Privacy may play a useful role here in directing us toward the good futures rather than the bad. For example, maybe schools are allowed to use heart rate attention monitors, but the data must be aggregated and anonimized. It's okay for Mrs. Smith to learn that 74% of her X (where X is greater than 50) students pay attention when she speaks and this puts her at Y percentile of teachers across the country in her subject. It's not okay for her to know the attentiveness of individual students. Of course, in reality I have zero hope that this would be used in a positive way.
- LocalH 5y ago
  >If Mrs. Smith realizes little Timmy isn't paying attention, is she going to accept and consider the possibility she is boring, or just punish Timmy? For perspective, consider how often children are currently drugged when they are found not to be paying attention in school. As someone who was diagnosed with ADD in 1988, this point is very poignant. Society largely tends to ignore and downplay the fact that everyone's experience is subjectively different and that not everyone has the same "brain wiring".

ALittleLight 5y ago

The immediate concern is that, if a metric indicates a problem, who will be forced to change? The student or the teacher? If Mrs. Smith realizes little Timmy isn't paying attention, is she going to accept and consider the possibility she is boring, or just punish Timmy? For perspective, consider how often children are currently drugged when they are found not to be paying attention in school. Privacy may play a useful role here in directing us toward the good futures rather than the bad. For example, maybe schools are allowed to use heart rate attention monitors, but the data must be aggregated and anonimized. It's okay for Mrs. Smith to learn that 74% of her X (where X is greater than 50) students pay attention when she speaks and this puts her at Y percentile of teachers across the country in her subject. It's not okay for her to know the attentiveness of individual students. Of course, in reality I have zero hope that this would be used in a positive way.

LocalH 5y ago
>If Mrs. Smith realizes little Timmy isn't paying attention, is she going to accept and consider the possibility she is boring, or just punish Timmy? For perspective, consider how often children are currently drugged when they are found not to be paying attention in school. As someone who was diagnosed with ADD in 1988, this point is very poignant. Society largely tends to ignore and downplay the fact that everyone's experience is subjectively different and that not everyone has the same "brain wiring".