Nuked Us colleges are already testing out a similar tactic with a location tracking app. Students are now expected to install the app on their phones.
The Kansas City Star reported that new students’wo n’t be given a choice’. The spotteredu app uses Apple’s iBeacons to broadcast a Bluetooth signal that can help the phone figure out whether a student is in a room.
A university spokesperson told campus reform on Sunday that only athletes are technically required to use the app. A new statement from the university on Monday claimed that the app’s being piloted with fewer than 2 percent of the student body.
The app uses local Bluetooth signals, not GPS. It’s probably not going to be very useful to track students outside of school.
spotteredu is being tested at nearly 40 schools at the University of Missouri. One Syracuse professor says that classes have never been so full, with more than 90 percent attendance. An earlier version of the app did have access to GPS coordinates, if only for a student to proactively share their location with a teacher.
Another startup, degree analytics, uses Wi-Fi signals instead of Bluetooth to serve an additional 19 schools. In September, the New York Times wrote about a similar app from a company called fanmaker that provides’loyalty points’ to students who stick around to watch college sports games at the stadium instead of skipping out.
The idea of tracking students’ locations is being quietly normalized. It also sounds like the idea is being monitored, in a way that smacks of surveillance.
