connected pens distributed in class to spy on students

A Big Brother version of the new school year is coming up. In China, several primary and secondary schools have distributed connected pens to their students. Equipped with a mini camera, they film the students’ note-taking and transmit the images to the teacher in real time. The teacher thus ensures that his students are working well. He can then download the homework to correct them. The use of these spy pens should be generalized from the start of the next school year.

This is the Chinese newspaper Chengdu Shanghai who shared, on July 30, the revelation of a schoolgirl from Hainan, an island in the south of the country. A teacher reportedly distributed free “smart pens” to his class to do their homework over the summer. By writing on a special paper, the camera of the pen captures the note taking and sends a notification to the teacher to inform him that his students are working. According to the newspaper, this practice has already been widespread for several years in certain schools in Shanghai and the provinces of Yunnan.

For two years, several surveillance systems have been tested in Chinese schools. The identity of each student is checked at the entrance to the establishment by easy recognition, brain activity is measured using headsets worn in class to check that they are thinking and do not fall asleep during lessons. .. Cameras are sometimes even installed in the classroom to monitor students’ attention and their participation.

This 2.0 range is part of a national plan to computerize the education system. Many parents are rebelling against these control systems, immersed in an already hyper-connected and hyper-monitored Chinese society.