In Sorø, primary school teachers use programs that allow them to follow what students are doing on the school computers.
Elias Sonne Lund is in 8th grade at Borgerskolen in Sorø, where teachers use the two programs NetSweeper and LanSchool to keep an eye on students' screen activity. (Photo: © Jacob Lomholt) 27 min. ago
"Life finds a way," warned Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park.
Because no matter how high the walls, and how strong the fences that were put up in the dinosaur park, no matter how much one tried to contain the great prehistoric creatures – what you try to control will often find a way around.
And perhaps the same applies in the classroom.
The government can guard itself as much as it wants against school students' use of private screens – something the party leaders pointed to as one of the main reasons for the historically poor PISA results – but life finds a way.
Because instead of their phones, students are simply using the school computers for gaming and social media, according to several researchers DR has spoken to.
But there may be a solution. And it is showing itself in Sorø.
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> It's no different than if you're out in a schoolyard as a yard
> duty teacher. There, you also have to see what's going on
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Sorø Municipality has introduced the two programs LanSchool and Netsweeper from Lenovo on the school computers. They block distracting content, and the teacher can follow precisely what is happening on all computers in the class. That is according to Rasmus Thomsen, who is a teacher at Borgerskolen in Sorø.
- It means I can be sure that they are on what they're supposed to be on.
History teacher Rasmus Thomsen is glad that he can be sure the students are on the right sites. (Photo: © Jacob Lomholt)
And that could be the right solution, says Andreas Lieberoth, associate professor of educational psychology at Aarhus University.
- Both so the teacher can follow when students lose concentration, but also simply so that students can feel that adults have tabs on them and are following along, he says.
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Aware of surveillance
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But the associate professor also points out one thing to be aware of with these programs.
- We must never become a surveillance state, where the teacher sits and keeps an eye on them all the time.
It is more the students' awareness that they can be discovered that matters, Andreas Lieberoth believes.
The programs have made a big difference for teacher Rasmus Thomsen. The school has been mobile-free for several years, and yet he has experienced how students could disappear into other things on the computer while teaching was going on.
- If we go down to the student, they're smart enough to close it down. You can see that there are some hands that suddenly get busy, he says.
That is, until now. With the new programs, the situation is different. To DR's reporter, he shows his screen, where the students' computer screens materialize in a row in real time.
Do you feel like you are monitoring the students?
- You can't avoid feeling that. But it's no different than if you're out in a schoolyard as a yard duty teacher. There, you also have to see what's going on.
The student council at Borgerskolen was actually concerned, says school principal Malene Härstedt, precisely about surveillance. But she would not call the two programs that.
School principal at Borgerskolen Malene Härstedt says the school has a huge responsibility for Bildung, given that the children have grown up in a digital age. (Photo: © Jacob Lomholt)
- I think it's extremely narrow to see it that way. No one questions that a teacher has prioritized which materials should be worked with. And the same applies in the virtual world.
Instead of surveillance, she calls the programs "a virtual classroom management tool."
- It's a tool that limits virtual noise, and it's one of the things we get feedback from our students on that is very, very significant.
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More concentration
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But the students are not entirely free from the feeling of surveillance.
- I definitely feel monitored, says Elias Sonne Lund, who is in 8th grade at Borgerskolen.
It can feel "a little uncomfortable," he says, that the teacher can look in and shut things down if the students are somewhere other than in the lesson.
But he can also see the point of the programs.
- It's easier for the teacher to know what we're doing – and we learn more from it.
His classmate Martha Mie Nielsen also doesn't mind the teacher being able to follow along, even though she does miss the possibility of flying a bit under the radar.
Martha Mie Nielsen believes she learns more now that the teachers have gotten the new programs. (Photo: © Jacob Lomholt)
- You definitely do. But it's also nice to actually be able to concentrate now, and not have to go "oh, I could just get in there and play." It's easier to concentrate.
But the shortcuts are not completely closed off.
Elias says the students can see on their computers when the programs are turned on. And they are not necessarily active all the time.
So is it just a matter of going for it when they're turned off?
- Yes, it is.
Life finds a way.
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