The introduction of the iPad Pro across campus has prompted many teachers to incorporate Apple Classroom, a function that allows teachers to, from their own iPads, view student screens, open apps on student iPads, share screens with one another, and lock student iPads without warning. On the surface, it seems that this function facilitates the learning process, offering teachers a convenient way to track their students’ progress in class.
Despite the seeming convenience Apple Classroom provides, however, the app harms the classroom more than it helps.
When one matriculates at Choate, she pledges to live by Choate’s core values — including the stringent Honor Code. Each student’s status at Choate already entails living with integrity. Because of this pledge, teachers should trust students enough to not use an application that monitors them. Whether or not teachers do use the function to track students’ activities is beside the point; that the teachers can choose any student’s iPad at any given moment and display their screen to the whole class is an intrusion of privacy.
I understand that paying attention in class can sometimes be difficult, especially when maximal focus is expected over the entire seventy minute block. However, a student holds her own responsibility to do well in class. If a student chooses to game or shop in class instead of focusing, it is her fault — not the teacher’s. Whether or not the student fulfills this responsibility should be of her own discretion. It shouldn’t fall upon the teacher to patrol a student’s every move in class, even it it’s just checking a student’s screen at a given moment. Apple Classroom really doesn’t belong in the classroom.
With Apple Classroom, teachers can connect to any student and monitor her iPad activity anywhere within Bluetooth range — much farther than the periphery of a classroom. While it is true that the status bar on a student’s iPad will turn blue when the teacher is watching, it is nonetheless concerning that teachers can view student screens outside of the classroom. In honesty, the thought of anyone being able to access my iPad screen as long we are within range makes me very uncomfortable. While many wouldn’t do such a thing, the fact that it could happen is a breach of privacy in itself.
Apple Classroom provides teachers a convenient way to track students’ progress in class. However, this benefit is coupled with an unhealthy amount of control teachers have over students’ iPads. Even if teachers don’t go to such extents to monitor students’ productivity, they shouldn’t have the option of doing so. Instead, teachers should rest assured knowing that students are staying on task during class and aren’t abusing the privilege of an iPad.
