Keeping Track of Things: Care Log and Abaris
Aidan and Blaise are brothers and are both autistic—-their father, Gregory Abowd, a human computer interaction professor at Georgia Tech, has invented Care Log, a computer and video system. Science Daily has a video of the technology, which consists of a camera mounted overhead; a button can be pressed to record “’something interesting’” (in the words of Professor Abbawd) and that moment recorded for future evaluation on a computer. A similar technology, Abaris, also catches discrete moments on video tape. Both systems seem useful for showing teachers and parents how they may unknowingly may be doing things that cause a child to become upset. While I’d personally feel a little odd about having a camera recording me in my own living room (just me sensing shades of Big Brother), I can see the uses of these systems in a classroom—-I know from my own teaching (one does have to turn around to write on the dry erase board) that it’s impossible to have the proverbial eyes in the back of one’s head.
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4 opinions for Keeping Track of Things: Care Log and Abaris
mcewen
Dec 1, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Lummy! Not for me thank you, I wouldn’t like my mistakes broadcast, I prefer dirty little secrets.
Cheers
Regan
Dec 1, 2007 at 9:23 pm
I don’t know if I would broadcast it on the web, but we have in-home cam. As a matter of fact it IS pretty useful for the practical reasons stated, and also for the usual reasons people buy some of these systems, home security.
It was helpful to me and teachers in seeing when WE were making procedural and teaching errors, or were making assumptions that were incorrect. There is a large cringe factor starting out, but it’s surprising how quickly you forget that it is there.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 1, 2007 at 10:18 pm
I can see how it would be useful for teaching purposes—–who knows, if we all had it, we would all behave better!
Regan
Jul 16, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I had reason to look at the Abaris system
It looks like a lot of hardware to get used to up front, but I can see how this could be pretty nifty, for functional assessment and instruction. It looks like it’s some time before it’s home available, but they’re giving it a tryout at the University of Washington.
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