Saturday, January 06, 2007

Emotion-aware teaching software tracks student attention

Shaun A. Saunders (author of MallCity 14) brings this little tidbit to my attention. For those of you that haven't read MallCity, look for the review a few entries back in this blog, MallCity is "BigBrother" in the extreme - where marketing and consumption are not only a way of life, but the only way to live. One chapter of the book deals with the very disturbing idea of how intrusive software and hardware are becoming in todays school environment. Shaun's idea was fiction...here is the fact:

Tutoring software that knows when students' are losing interest in a lesson and can adjust to keep them on track is being tested by researchers in China and the UK.

The system keeps track of students' attention by measuring physical signs of emotion. It then varies the speed and content of a lesson based on an assessment of their level of interest. Ultimately, it could improve electronic tutoring programmes, say the researchers involved, thus helping developing countries deliver education to remote areas that lack educational institutions.

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