The title of the article, “Teacher Knows if You’ve Done Your E-Reading” might send a chill down some students spines. It describes a new advancement in technology that might be a student’s worst nightmare or the tool that could fix his study habits pre-eminently. The technology? Data tracking that allows professors to get a glimpse of if and how much students are reading their e-Textbooks.
College is a time for students to become independent and take more responsibility for their actions. This technology creates another figure watching over them. Furthermore, students might take notes on paper, which would negatively affect their rating. Others could can find ways to game the system. At the same time, the data tracking could help professors understand why students are not understanding material. Like many technologies, data tracking of e-reading has benefits and detriments depending on how it is used by students and professors alike.
I personally think that this technology takes things a bit too far. Although it makes sense as to why professors might like this new sort of tracking system, it definitely imposes on the privacy of the reader. It’s a bit eerie to know that your professor has been tracking your reading habits, and it’s certainly not something I would feel comfortable with.
I think this is ridiculous. It’s up to the student to do their work and there is something to be learned for with personal responsibility. Students can’t become dependent on technology to keep them in check.
Once again, this is an invasion of privacy by technology. Whether or not you read your textbooks isn’t necessarily indicative of how well you understand the material, or how well you’ll do in the class. This’ll allow professors to form biased ideas based on how much you appear to work instead of how much you actually understand.