Tuesday 12 June 2012

agee, agog or proprioception, exteroception, interoception

In I am sure a well-intentioned and intellectually-honest attempt to improve public education, the charitable foundation of a software tycoon is sponsoring research into magnetic bracelets that gauge students’ level of engagement and interest by detecting changes in galvanic responses. This strikes me as funny, like the next generation of mood rings, except that this release is obviously better since it’s in bracelet form, like a cause-bracelet (for boredness awareness), and I assume would be able gossip and pass notes to one another during class. Maybe better methods of holding students’ attention could be developed and perhaps back away from some of the more gimmicky and emotional techniques that has infused the classroom in recent years, but I do fear that instruction, competing for a slice of interest in swelling seas of distraction, might then become more like a focus-group for a marketing campaign than schooling for a liberal and open-ended education. If untutored and afforded no more than a glance, of course, the fights historical and beings animalculous would never stand a chance against celebrity news and the latest gadgets. Learning is a challenge and effective ways of reaching students are being tested and crafted but how theories, subjects and disciplines (no, nor teachers neither) ought to be put to a vote, and one of involuntary reflexes at that.