Interesting

[Seadog]

My niece is a teacher who deals with special needs children. Two months ago, it was mentioned that their daughter who is 11, was wanting an iPad for her birthday. I was asked for advice and gave them some options. I was talking to her last night to see which one she got, and how the child was doing with it. She said the had not bought one, because the school she teaches at, gave her two iPad 2s; 16Gb-wifi models. Since she only needs one, her daughter is able to use it for a short period while they see how it worked out. my niece loves it for work, because she uses the camera to video a child when they act out, and then shows them what they look like. It has been instrumental in her job, plus she has something to show superiors and parents about what is going on.

They now know for certain that my grandniece is getting an iPad, with at least 32 Gb SSD

 

[Beachgirl]

Is it legal to take videos of these childern without their parents consents !!, these teachers are corssing the line way too much these days.

 

[gresh14]

Why would you just assume the teachers are not getting the parents consent? Sounds to me like they have some kind of agreement worked out , you kind of jumped all over this person for no reason.

 

[Seadog]

First off, there it is legal to monitor and photograph students in a school setting. If any person is in a public place where they have no expectation of privacy, they can be photograph or video taped as long as it is not used for commercial or unlawful purpose. It is the same thing as street cameras, and police vehicle cameras. They are there for a lawful purpose.

Second, these videos are used to protect and teach the childrens who are not able to develop the social skills that most take for granted. It is like holding a mirror in front of them, but with the ability to explain to the child about their actions and behavior in a way to teach them better. Our legal system has taken away most of the special schools that used to deal with these students, and scatters them to all the schools with little or no funding to handle their special needs. Small towns have to spend huge chunks of their precious funding on these students, many of which will never function in society. Plus they often disrupt the rest of the student's training on a regular basis. To handle the problem, a few teachers are given special training on how to help these children cope. Working with the parents, and tools like the iPads, they are trying to achieve a positive outcome. It is an extremely difficult job, and I am proud of my niece for her being able to deal with them. Anything that make her job easier, and helps her wards, is a good thing.

I brought this up because I had never heard of this technique, and thought this forum would be interested in another way this is a miraculous device.

 

[Beachgirl]

I was just irritated about the whole concept and by the fact that someone is video taping some kids doing some stuff, I was not talking about the device but it is irritating to me to see how people are using these devices to some extents, in my mind, these videos will stay forever, and those kids may see them posted somewhere when they get older.
I don't not want to open a can of worm here and I'm not going to reply to this post again, but sure there should be some very strict regulations on these teachers.

 

[MattIM]

I remember in elementary school my class was chosen by the school to be a demonstration class. The school system was implementing new learning techniques. They wanted to photograph my class going through the lesson plans with the purpose of monitoring our progress and allowing educational theorist to modify the lessons for improvement. At that time there was no video cameras but regular movie cameras.

We were given a letter to take home explaining what was being planned for my class. My parents reaction? Great! Maybe little Matt will be discovered and become the new Dennis the Mennace. We were not a special needs class, just an ordinary class of students. I remember in those days, special needs students were shunted off to special places where us 'normal' kids didn't interact.

I'm glad someone like your neice is taking advantage of the iPad's capability. I'm an auditor, my team visits company buildings. One of our tasks is audit the safety and security of our buildings. Whenever we find a problem we take a lot of time to describe the finding and to suggest remedies. About two years ago, my team started using our iPhones to take pictures of the problem. We'd go back and use the photos to describe our findings--digital photography was not considered acceptable as they could be manipulated--like we would have the time to modify digital photos! But eventually we got our way and our auditees started accepting photos as proof of a problem.

Recently, I took my iPad 2 on an audit. I took a video of the entrance of the building and took a couple of minutes of videotaping people as they went through the card readers. I caught a tailgater and because we had his face, we were able to follow up with him and demonstrate the proper use of his badge. Photos are worth a thousand words.

 

[Seadog]

Any device can be abused. In situations like this, there is a strict code of ethics. The actual worry is students with iPads, iPhones, etc. They are more likely than teachers to take and post pictures. We cannot get away from digital photography. A battered child/wife going to the emergency room, is going to be photographed. Psychiatrists video their sessions so they can review subtle reactions later, and review cient history. As we continue with technology, there will be issues to be dealt with. As long as there are hateful kids, deviant adults, and villians in any form, there are dangers. Technology will not be the issue, for they will always find ways to hurt. We just have to balance the good and the bad.