But a litany of fingerprint scanners have fallen victim to bypass methods, many of which are explained publicly in detail on the internet. The hacks could potentially be used by students to make replicas of their own fingerprints, or lift those of others from imprints left on the reader.Imperfect is not the same thing as impractical.
Schools spend a lot of resources in their Identity Management function: calling roll, assigning grades, managing a medical services office (school nurse), collecting health information on student athletes (physical exams), etc. Moreover, in the United States, this challenge occurs in a very strict legal environment (see FERPA).
We all have an interest in how efficiently an industry that is overwhelmingly funded by tax revenues manages its resources. Schools should therefore be encouraged to adopt more effective means to accomplish the demands society places upon them and they should be commended for innovation within their industry.
This article is about using fingerprint readers to measure time-and-attendance in schools. This function is usually carried out by human teachers, reading names from a piece of paper and making notes on a piece of paper. Because human beings are simply the best things in the world at identity management among people they know, this system works really well. But at what cost?
Is reading the names of people from a list really the best use of a highly trained, educated, and professional human resource? Are the constraints this system places upon class size worth it? What metrics would a rival system need to show in order to make switching systems worth the effort and cost? Sadly, questions like these are rarely, if ever, asked in articles like these.
There's also a social angle to this issue. The educational system is wonderful and necessary, not just for filling young minds with humanity's accumulated knowledge, but also for providing a social environment larger and more complex than the nuclear family but far more protected than the larger world. Much of the usefulness of this social environment lies in its ability to communicate to students the boundaries of acceptable behavior in preparation for their full participation in society as adults.
Of course, during this social education, society's rules are sometimes more honor'd in the breach than the observance (see "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Animal House", etc.) and that's fine, too, but it's also why this part of the educational process is so important. "Senior Skip Day" or senior class practical jokes are OK. Cheating on exams, not so much.
Which brings us back to the linked article with the sub-headline:
A NSW high school has installed "secure" fingerprint scanners for roll call, which savvy kids may be able to circumvent with sweets from their lunch box.
The scare quotes around "secure" invite the familiar (around here) refrain: "Compared to what?" Deeming young identity thieves "savvy kids" implies that the author believes that a technology's inability to overcome failures of educational will is a technological, rather than an organizational shortcoming. In the real world, identity theft and fraud can get you thrown in jail. Educators don't call those who cheat on exams, skip school and forge notes from parents "savvy kids". Why would they do so when the issue is identity theft? They wouldn't.
In answer to the "Compared to what?" question, I'd place fingerprint biometrics between full-time teachers and substitute teachers in terms of identity management effectiveness at a fraction of the cost.
Adopting technology to alleviate a bureaucratic problem often makes sense, but this issue is totally separate from a student's social education. If educators are unwilling to monitor for- and punish the hacking of time-and-attendance systems through identity theft among their students, the "technology" won't work. If they treat use of the system in the same way they treat other student responsibilities, it will.
Thankfully, educators have a very different sense of their responsibilities than does this article's author.
