Mobile apps like HiMama are useful for parents and caregivers to communicate with each other throughout the day. But, are we being too invasive and less trusting? Are we asking too much? What about apps that monitor our high school and university students in classes? Should we know what goes on in their day at every moment? Should our educators and caregivers be available ALL the time? What about this culture of over-monitoring?
My children use an app for childcare called HiMama. It’s a great tool. I can send messages to the teachers and director of the daycare letting them know if my kid was having a bad day, they can push out mass messages, curate collages of what they are doing today, and communicate directly with parents without little ears hearing. What I like is I can mark my child absent and explain why quickly. I can access it like a mobile text message.
One review – The review below praises the app and has the caregivers dive deeply into recording and sharing. But all of that takes time. They have to stop activities with the kids in order to document their day, and is that what is best for our children? What really has me thinking about mobile culture and the culture of helicopter parenting (not saying this is, but I want to address the main issue), is that what’s next? An app where teachers in K-12 have to document what my child eats and with whom? Who do they hang out with at recess? All so the parent can access it on their mobile phone and create a culture of “big brother”? I wonder about setting boundaries with this kind of culture. What’s next, a hand implant that tracks my child at all times?
Hi Jennifer,
I find this so tricky and interesting. On one hand, I would definitely see the interest in knowing what your child is up to when you’re away from them. Not knowing what is going on at school can be stressful and worrisome. However, at one point, these updates will eventually end. At what age will the child’s parents be happy with no longer getting updates?
Another thought that you also mentioned is that, although this may be a huge help for parents to check in, send messages or explain absences and save some time, you’re right in saying that it perhaps does the opposite for teachers. At one of our schools we did a daily blog post about our day for the parents and it takes time to take a break, take pictures, type it out. I’m not familiar with the apps available, but maybe having an option for quick selection updates could be cool. On HiMama, I really like the ability to select multiple children for the updates.
Thanks for introducing the HiMama app to me – it seems pretty useful and innovative. In my current elementary school, we write about the students’ day in a journal that gets sent home with the students (and the parents often leave a message for the staff). I often wondered if a whatsapp group or some other online platform could be more efficient and informative (e.g. sending videos/pictures of the students’ work or behaviour). Though I’m not a parent, I guess parents often just want an objective answer to the question “how was school today?” Your questions reminded me of that Black Mirror episode “Arkangel”, which somewhat describes what HiMama could evolve into in the future. Basically, children are equipped with a chip/camera that allows parents to monitor what the child sees through a tablet. It’s a good example that describes how technology is not always what “should” be used, even if we “can”.
Hi Jennifer,
In China, some teachers do not need to stop activities to document the day for parents on apps like Himama. A growing number of students are participating in an experiment using AI technology. Children wear neural sensing equipment on their heads that can read and report if the student is concentrating, offline, or disengaged. Using electroencephalography (EEG), real-time data is sent directly to the teacher, who monitors each student. The app also sends this data to parents (via chat every 10 minutes) who can study their children’s attention during the day. A child reported that his parents punished him for lower attention counts. Being monitored may lead to higher test scores overall, but at what cost? The data is also sent to government researchers and seems such an invasion of privacy. I hope that neurodivergent children are not treated unfairly. In these classrooms, students’ thoughts are things that can be measured and reported; widely. The lack of personal privacy and degree of government oversight is extensive in this culture according to the following Wall Street Journal report on the trend: How China Is Using Artificial Intelligence in Classrooms | WSJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLsHI8aV0g