For Assignment 1, I chose to look at a tech company called Inpixon and its Indoor Positioning Analytics platform. This interested me for two reasons:
- I work in New Westminster and we are on the brink of moving into a brand new facility. The building is a modern education learning environment, and I have been looking at other ways to modernize other aspects of the school.
- I mountain bike a lot, and one of my friends I bike with sold his company (and its technology) to Inpixon. He still works with them and our talks while biking up gravel roads and trails about where this technology could go (he started with shopping malls in the lower mainland and has now branched out into Hospitals in the US) really sparked an interest for me about the potentials of implementing this platform within a school setting.
In no way am I endorsing this company (I am not getting paid… well, Frank buys me a beer once in awhile), but I really find it interesting just how much information can be gathered and manipulated within a building.
On a side note, I had this assignment saved and ready to present as a read only powerpoint, but WordPress wouldn’t let me upload it for security reasons… so I have attached a less “bells and whistles” PDF version. Please go to Read Mode and enjoy!
Reminds me of the Marauder’s map from Harry Potter!
Love the idea and see a lot of potential in it for our school, just got to work through those privacy and security issues. For examples, if students could track each other, there might be a chance of more stalking or bullying? Conversely, we could know exactly where and who’s involved. So many things to think about!
Thank you for the analysis, Greg. I think there’s a lot of potential to integrate sensors into new builds and create technology that pairs with student (and other) devices to create new teaching and learning experiences as you’ve described.
Thanks for sharing this, Greg. How do you think the data from a platform like this could be used for learning analytics? Could it be used to improve quality of instruction? Monitor student engagement? Perform network analyses?
Thanks for the analysis, Greg. It’s so interesting to think of the ways that we might be able to track people – including students and staff – in the near future. This is definitely one of those technologies that makes me pause and worry about the drawbacks of technological advancements though, especially as far as security and privacy is concerned. The whole idea is quite fascinating though, especially the idea of geographic boundaries. It makes me think of shopping carts where the wheels lock when you try to take them off-site, but in a more digital way. I am also reminded of the tragic incident at Abbotsford Senior a few years ago, and it makes me think about how technology like this that recognizes unfamiliar devices could somehow help stop a terrible situation like that from occuring. Maybe a system like this is the answer and is worhlth the privacy concerns. A lot to think about, I guess. Anyways, thanks again for sharing.