New trial of facial recognition technology in schools could see roll call change forever

A NUMBER of Australian schools are about to trial technology which will allow them to phase out morning roll call and spy on students during the school day.

AUSTRALIAN schools are being asked to trial technology which will allow them to phase out morning roll call and spy on students throughout the school day.

Start-up LoopLearn is hopeful its advanced facial recognition technology and “small, unobtrusive devices” which scan campuses for students in real time, will be embraced by schools across the country.

The technology is designed to eliminate the need for time-consuming roll calls and ensure students can be accounted for on school grounds at all times.

The technology will be tested shortly in a small number of Victorian private schools and the company’s founder Zoe Milne says talks are also being held with public schools.

But it was hoped the technology would be embraced by “innovative schools” across Australia, because time-consuming roll calls and ensuring the safety and security of students was “a problem for schools in every state”, Ms Milne said.

The LoopLearn website — which says it has a presence in Melbourne and Sydney — states the advanced technology allows teachers to locate students across the whole school, in real time, “with machine vision and learning technology”.

“Small, unobtrusive LoopLearn Devices are easily installed in all spaces and observe which students are present – displaying this information in an easy to use web dashboard and mobile app,” the website states. “Made for the classroom, these devices scan your learning spaces in real time providing detailed attendance data down to the minute.”

LoopLearn has recently advertised for “awesome programmers” with “MacGyver like” problem solving and ‘bug squashing’ abilities in New South Wales.

Roll call could change forever with the new technology. Picture: Supplied

A letter from one Victorian Catholic girls’ secondary school to parents says “the program is based on student facial recognition and can determine a student’s whereabouts on campus at any given time”.

The new software, to be trialled in Sacred Heart College’s Year 11 classes, would also “save a good deal of time in that teachers won’t need to manually mark the attendance roll before each class”, the letter states.

It goes on to say the program is also being tested in a number of other Victorian schools.

A Sacred Heart College spokeswoman said it could not name the other Victorian schools LoopLearn had approached for the technology trial, but they were “well established schools managing large cohorts of students”.

Ms Milne also refused to name the other Victorian schools which had agreed to trial the technology.

The Victorian Department of Education said it took the privacy of public school students and families very seriously and demanded a Privacy Impact Assessment be undertaken before the introduction of any new technology such as that being proposed by LoopLearn.

“We are not aware of this product being used in Victorian Government schools — or any third party products in use in Victorian Government schools that uses facial recognition technology,’ a spokesperson said.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, which handles privacy complaints, said it was not able to provide comment.

The technology could help teachers get on with teaching. Picture: Supplied

A Year 11 Sacred Heart student said many girls were horrified at the thought of being monitored as they moved throughout the school during the day.

The same student said marking the roll in her class took less time than firing up her computer or tying her shoes.

“It legit takes less than a minute,” she said.

The letter to Sacred Heart parents said the trial would last six weeks and make use of existing technology at the school.

“We are hopeful the results of the trial will demonstrate improvements to the safety and security of all our students at Sacred Heart College,” it says.

Ms Milne said LoopLearn was “focused on using new technology to improve safety for all students and the effectiveness of the roll call process”.

“Communicating this to stakeholders is always the first step for any school before proceeding with any implementation,” she said.

The company was “partnering” with just a handful of Victorian schools at this early stage, Ms Milne said.

“With any new technology all feedback is valued. On balance we have found stakeholders accepting once they understand the priority is on student safety and that the information is privately managed and not available external to the school,” she said.

The former Melbourne University student received $20,000 to develop her start-up mid this year from the Melbourne Accelerator Program.

The Sacred Heart spokesperson said a small number of parents had approached the school with concerns about the use of their daughter’s image and data.

“We have been able to reassure them that at all times, the safety of our students is paramount. They have also felt reassured when I explained that all student images are deleted almost immediately, once the ID number has been recorded. The data gathered is both privately owned and managed by SHC — the ID numbers are only relevant to us,” the spokeswoman said. “We don’t know when the trial will commence but we are very keen to see the results; currently, teachers are manually managing attendance rolls six times a day and this often proves a challenge.”

The six-week trial would enable the school to determine the efficacy of the LoopLearn system and evaluate whether the technology would be useful to the school long-term, she said.