School District Tries Cameras in Classrooms with Different Viewing Angles and Ability to Pan, Tilt and Zoom

By B.N. Frank

Some Americans think that there is already too much surveillance in schools. Some don’t think there is enough and are even proposing that teachers wear body cameras!

In one Georgia school district, teachers are being allowed to choose whether or not to have cameras in their classrooms. But can parents choose whether or not to allow their children be taught in those classrooms?

From GovTech:

Georgia School District to Try Cameras in Classrooms

Dalton Public Schools will put Kloud-12 OneDevice cameras in about a dozen secondary classrooms, with teacher permission, for purposes of remote teaching, professional development, observation and security.

(TNS) — Roughly a dozen secondary classrooms in Dalton Public Schools will have cameras this school year as part of a pilot effort.

“We’re testing the water,” said Superintendent Tim Scott. “We’re only asking for teachers who want to do this, (so) no one has to do it.”

“There are a lot of ways to use them,” Stuart Davis, Dalton Public Schools’ director of technology and telecommunications, informed the Dalton Board of Education members during a Monday work session at Dalton Junior High School. “If we try it this year, and it doesn’t work, we won’t use them” anymore.

“Teachers are in control of everything from the instruction side” with the Kloud-12 OneDevice cameras, Davis said. Teachers can, for example, teach a lesson in one room of a school, with that content delivered to another room or even another school, allowing them to “double up on instruction.”

These cameras are designed specifically for schools, so they’re “nearly invisible,” according to Kloud-12, which is based in Atlanta. The cameras offer a handful of different viewing angles, including 360 degrees, as well as the ability to pan, tilt and zoom without motors, which means silent operation and reliability.

The cameras are used by teachers in many school systems for professional development, Scott said. Teachers watch themselves to improve, or teachers watch other teachers for possible tips.

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