There are three principal concerns – digital divide, privacy and access – all of which emerge from contexts in which cultural practices, of which education is one, have run into rough weather in terms of rights.
How the Camera Has Changed the Dynamics of the Classroom
From concerns about surveillance to the blurring of spaces, it is evident now that the virus has changed more than our physiologies.
A video conference on a laptop. Photo: Gabriel Benois/Unsplash
Education6 hours ago
Over the past year of online teaching, instructors and students have struggled, not just with the digital divide but with a tense binary: online classroom work
versus privacy violation.
Academic Practice in Ecology and Evolution found that some students felt it was a violation of privacy (because their personal settings, their homes and family were visible), possible distraction when watching others on screen, self-consciousness, among others. Class, race, ethnicity and appearance were factors in their reluctance, the study found. Another report by Margaret Finders and Joaquin Muñoz, deemed the practice of asking students to turn on the cameras to be a form of surveillance. (Although it seems odd that for a generation of Instagrammers and Facebookers, the camera, of all things, is a source of anxiety!)