Technology is good, but H-F High sets some restrictions

Homewood-Flossmoor High School is all for new technologies in classrooms – to a point.

The District 233 school board on Jan. 20 gave its approval to a purchase of an Anatomage Table for use in science and health professions classes. It voted to prohibit the student use of Meta AI Glasses due to concerns for student privacy.

Anatomage Table

The school board approved the $115,490 purchase of an Anatomage Table and subscription for teachers’ instructions on use. The interactive anatomy table has a large touch screen that allows students to visualize the life-size human body in 3D. 

The table allows students to virtually explore, dissect and visualize complex structures, like muscles, bones and organs. Students in biology, anatomy and kinesiology classes will be able to use the table that presents real patient scans. Teachers can use Anatomage Table clinical cases for classroom assignments.

At the board’s Planning Committee meeting where the purchase was first discussed, Chair Nate Legardy said this equipment will be in the new science wing that opened to students in August. Board member Tamekia Smith was excited to give her approval for the purchase of the table. She said some colleges don’t have the equipment, so H-F students will be ahead of their counterparts.   

H-F is gearing up for a new curriculum for a college pathway focusing on health professions. It is anticipated this table will be used by those classes.

Meta Glasses

During the school board meeting, Superintendent Jennifer Norrell got unanimous approval from the board for the administration to develop a policy that would ban the use of Meta Glasses on campus. She first brought the issue to the board’s Planning Committee for discussion.

She said the teachers’ union discussed the issue with her several months ago, but she didn’t believe it was a critical issue. She was part of a demonstration of Ray Ban Meta AI Glasses over winter break. That experience gave her “a whole different perspective,” she said.

The original version of Meta Glasses had a light on when a picture or video was being taken.  The latest version doesn’t have that security function, she said. The wearer gets a neuro-band wristband that allows the hand to function like a computer mouse. No one would know when the student is using the glasses that function as a computer screen. It allows the wearer to pull up a phone or screens from other devices.

“My greatest fear in all of this is that you can take pictures, and the light or flash, if you’re not immediately facing the person, you don’t know they’re taking a picture,” Norell said. “What completely terrifies me … they could take pictures in the locker room” and “the damage that could be done” to an unsuspecting student. 

She said the policy will protect students from a photo or video appearing on social media taken in a student’s most private moments.

Committee member Tamekia Smith agreed, calling the possibility of an intrusion on a student’s personal space “scary.”