In light of recent discussions of the rights and wrongs of domestic data-based technologies such as Amazon Ring, the following check-list has been circulating on social media – attributed to the Georgia Institute of Technology ‘Aware Home’ research program from the 1990s. The original Aware Home paper offers an early set of reflections on the social implications of smart-home technology and the constant monitoring of occupants’ behaviours – concluding that: “there is a clear need to give the occupants knowledge and control of the distribution of this information”. With this in mind, the following three deceptively simple questions emerge – still offering a neat means of assessing the datafication of schools and classrooms:
- Can I decide what becomes data?
- Will the data purpose enrich my life?
- Can I decide who the data is shared with, and why?