Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. facial recognition
    • ex. The police use facial recognition technology to catch criminals.
  2. be supposed to
    • ex. You’re supposed to rest when you’re sick.
  3. a threat
    • ex. My friend feels that all single women are threats to her relationship. She doesn’t trust her boyfriend much.
  4. alert
    • ex. My smartwatch alerts me when I need to walk more.
  5. invasive
    • ex. The questionnaire was a little invasive. It asked for a lot of personal information.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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New York’s Lockport City School District has spent more than $1 million to install facial recognition technology in its schools. The money was supposed to be used for students’ technology education, but the school district used it to buy 300 cameras, servers, and software instead.

The facial recognition technology has a watchlist with names and photos of people who are considered threats. It analyzes people’s faces to check if they are on the watchlist. If a person is on the watchlist, the technology alerts officials, who confirm if the person really is a threat.

Many parents and teachers are not happy with the school’s decision to buy the facial recognition technology. They say that the technology is too invasive. Instead of using the technology, they want school officials to hire better security and counselors. Parents and teachers also explained that they want school money to be used for education, not for treating students like criminals.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

School Safety

  • Do you think hiring better security and counselors is better than using facial recognition technology? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do schools in your country have good security? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you think it's necessary to spend a lot of money to ensure safety in schools? Why or why not? Discuss.

Use of Money

  • Do you think it's okay that the school used the money for the facial recognition technology even though it was supposed to be used for students' technology education? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Should schools always inform parents and students about how they plan to use money? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • What should schools spend most of their money on (ex. teacher training, classroom improvements)? Why? Discuss.