A Camera in Every Classroom?

So recently I read an article about Bill Gates wanting to install a camera in every classroom.  I found this idea interesting but impractical.

First of all, the cameras are for…….evaluation of teachers (as I said earlier, Bill Gates).

So if you are or have ever been a teacher, think back to the evaluation process you went through.  If you are not a teacher, you are or were probably a student (odds are high on this one).  How often are teachers evaluated?  When they are evaluated, how long are those who evaluate in the room?  Odds are, you probably witnessed somebody in the room once or twice a year and they were probably not there for the entire class period.  I remember being evaluated once for 15 minutes in an 85 minute class period.  I was given a 2 out of 5 for technology use in the classroom because I did not use technology for a 15 minute span. I am currently a PhD student in Mathematics Education at Michigan State University with a research agenda that hangs around the use of technology in the mathematics classroom.  I’ll let you do the math on whether or not that 15 minutes of time my principal was in my classroom  was indicative of what goes on in my classroom outside the time of her visit.

So maybe the camera will give evaluators more access to watch me teach and maybe see that I actually used technology during that class period and others.  Hopefully, they watch the videos for more than the 15 minutes that I was observed.  So do we need a camera in every classroom?  Does having a camera in every classroom mean teachers are going to be video taped all the time?  If I am only worthy of 15 minutes of time during the heat of the battle, what makes one think that entire lessons are going to be viewed over video?  Also, are these video cameras to be on record for every class period?

One of may favorite parts of this article is:

Anya Kamenetz of Fast Company reports that in a TED Talks Education special airing on May 7 on PBS, we can expect to hear more about Gates’ plan. The hope Kamenetz writes, is for teachers “to be filmed in action so they can be evaluated and, maybe, improve.”

I really like that last quote……if “be evaluated” and “improve” were switched.

“to be filmed in action so they (teachers) can improve and, maybe, be evaluated.”

Doesn’t that seem like a lot better use of putting a video camera in every classroom?  I think improving instruction will trump any arbitrary and subjective evaluation any day.