Recently, the Victorian Government brought in new rules. Victorian state schools will be banned from using facial recognition technology in classrooms unless they have the 1 of parents, students and the Department of Education.
Students may be justifiably horrified at the thought of being 2 as they move throughout the school during a day. But a roll marking system could be as simple as looking at a tablet or iPad once a day 3 being signed off on a paper roll. It simply depends on the implementation. Trials have already begun in independent schools and up to 100 campuses across Australia. According to the developers, the technology promises to save teachers up to 2.5 hours a week by 4 the need for them to mark the roll at the start of every class. Many students now have smart phones that recognise faces right now. There are also 5 face recognition apps for Android phones and iPhones. So face recognition is already in our schools.
And I argue that, like earlier technologies such as the motor vehicle and mobile phone, a strategy where adoption is managed to create the most good and least harm is appropriate. We shouldn't simply 6 it.
We are now in a golden age of face recognition. The main reason for rapid adoption is that recognition 7 has improved significantly in recent years. The simple application of this technology proposed for schools is to collect the student roll call 8 for classes. This is a compulsory requirement imposed by the education department.
However, 9 is often raised as an objection and this issue can never be dismissed lightly. Objections are mostly based on the collection and distribution of the photos. But every school 10 photos of their students already and schools have strict control over distribution. Such controls would necessarily be built into any school certified system. The only fundamental 11 of the process is whether a teacher or a computer recognizes the student.
Face recognition technologies will become widely adopted across society over the coming years. Concerns over implementation and privacy may 12 adoption in some places, but the 13 will come in and will change business practices right across the world once that happens.
In short, this technology has the ability to free up our time and reduce the costs. As with all new technologies, of course, face recognition 14 reasonable concerns. Constructive policies and dialog are the preferred way forward to gain the 15 benefit for society at large, and to make sure we do the least harm.
