World first computer program enables teachers to police students’ online activity in class

SCHOOLS are trialling a world first lesson policing program that allows teachers to see if students are shopping online, watching music videos or playing online games in class.

KIDS killing class time on Angry Birds will no longer fly under the radar, with a new Australian-made program keeping tabs on what’s showing on their laptop screens.

NSW schools are now trialling the world-first program, which uses elaborate colour-coding to throw up a “red flag” on the teacher’s laptop when a student goes off-task on their classroom computer.

Six schools have now bought or are testing the edQuire learning analytics software and many more are expected to follow suit.

It displays a graphic on the teacher’s laptop in real time showing where students are spending their time online.

Teachers now have the technology to know what their students are looking at on their school devices in class.

A red bar means a student is not working on the lesson, green shows they are on-task, blue shows they “likely to be on task” and conducting research, and orange means they could be sending an email or conducting a Google search.

Use of the software follows recent widespread concern about the nation’s slide down international rankings in key subjects and a Productivity Commission finding of serious discipline problems in schools.

Researchers have found that when students’ attention strays from lessons, boys spend 55 per cent of their time during lessons on gaming, 25 per cent streaming videos, 15 per cent on sports sites and 5 per cent streaming music in class. Girls are distracted 59 per cent of their time by streaming videos, gaming (19 per cent), celebrity news (7 per cent), social media (7 per cent) and music streaming (8 per cent).

“We use computers every day and it is easy to become distracted — it’s a growing issue with kids getting off-task (in class),” a year 12 student who did not wish to be named said. “In the early years of high school we were monitored by the teacher walking around and looking at what was on our screens but the older students don’t get checked as often.”

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Northern Beaches Secondary College Manly Campus and Randwick’s Emanuel School have trialled the program.

Head of Teaching and Learning at the Manly Campus Bianca Hewes said it allowed her to see how much time students spent on specific tasks.

Head teacher Bianca Hewes.

“I can modify my teaching practice to meet the needs of my students,” she said.

Director of eLearning at Emanuel School Garry Case said edQuire “filled a critical hole that has been missing”.

“The staff who have seen and used it feel elated to finally have a tool to gauge what their students are up to on their laptop in class,” he said.

Program inventor Dr Michael Cejnar said the system provided information for parents, teachers and students to improve academic results.

He said teachers could “detect a student who is falling ­behind or distracted and provide immediate feedback.”

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BENEFITS FOR TEACHERS

. can better monitor lesson progress and prepare lessons which engage students

. have better insight into student computer literacy skills and learning

. can detect a student who is falling behind or distracted and provide immediate feedback

. can learn about previously unknown educational resources discovered by students

. can assist with their lesson planning and engagement of students

BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS

. can learn to make better decisions and improve their search and computer literacy skills

. once made aware of their own computer usage data students improve their on-task behaviour and halve their off-task time from 33 per cent to 15 per cent