Positive and Negative of Smartwatches
“Do you happen to know the time?” While this phrase may seem trivial, technology has changed this question. Now we simply look at our cell phones or occasionally, our watches-or smartwatches-to answer the age-old question. But why are schools banning something as elementary as a watch or even a smartwatch? Let’s take a look at what you may have been missing.
We love to stay connected, even when we can’t be close to our cell phone. Bring on the smartwatch! Common tasks the smartwatches are known for include:
- Playing music
- Calling
- Sending and receiving mail
- Managing your schedule
- Real-time weather info
- Monitoring sports performance
- Take photos and video (if the smartwatch has a built-in camera)
- Monitoring children (if they wear a smartwatch too)
- Monitoring heart rate and blood pressure
- Using apps installed on a smartphone
Recently, Administrators at Pierce Junior-Senior High School have elected to keep smartwatches out of the classrooms. While banning smartwatches in school is slowly growing in the U.S., schools globally have been banning them for years.
Like smartphones, we’ve entered a realm where students are able to:
- Stream notes to a smartwatch
- Take photographs of a quiz or test, send to another student and communicate through various apps to get answers
- Quick and advanced searching for answers
- Send and receive communications with little effort
- Photograph, record and stream areas where privacy is a concern
Websites, such as Youtube, feature videos on how to use the latest technology to cheat and invade others’ privacy. A simple Google search, and even the youngest student can watch a video to learn how to evade the system.
Smartwatches have been known to have a hefty price tag. While the most advanced ones are still more on the expensive side, lower quality ones with fewer traditional features and ones designed specifically for a spy or cheating situation, have now been featured on websites everywhere at a very affordable price including Amazon. Many of these lower quality, spy-type gadgets even look like the simple watch we grew up with.
Pierce Junior-Senior High School does provide MacBook Laptops to all of our students. How are students able to take the most advanced tests, such as MAPS and ACT on computer? What about cheating with the web browser and other apps? Testing, such as the ones previously listed include what is called a “Lockdown Browser” and other secure methods, which prevents students from leaving the test application and accessing notes or the internet to answer questions.
While we will never be able to eliminate cheating altogether, it is important to limit technology to either distract a student or contribute to cheating. It is important to understand both the positive and negative impacts of technology and the roles they play, again positive and negative, in schools.
