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One card to rule them all
By adamg on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 7:29am
Boston yesterday launched a pilot program to give public-school students a single ID card that will also get them on the T and into community centers and let them take books out of the library.
""This card will help make the assets of our city more accessible and remind each student everyday that there are community centers and libraries for them to explore throughout Boston," Mayor Tom Menino said in a statement of the new BostONECards, initially handed out just to students at the Josiah Quincy Upper School in Chinatown.
Civil-liberties types, of course, are concerned about the implications of a single card tracking big parts of a student's day.
Ed question: What about a MightyMightyBosstonesCard?
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Comments
Is the most cost effective
Is the most cost effective way to help our students and failing schools? What is the cost of the program?
Apples and oranges
Good question on the costs, but it seems more like a cost issue (one card cheaper than four or five) than an educational one.
It would be interesting to learn more about the technology behind it, since it seems like the different systems use different technologies (RFID for the T, what is basically a bar-code scanner at the BPL).
don't lose that card
Great. Now if you misplace that one card, you're screwed up, down and sideways. Same if you lose all your cards all at once (lost wallet) I suppose, but you're concentrating not only a lot of surveillance power in one place, but a lot of inconvenience if stolen, lost or cracked by evil-doers (checking out all the Henry Miller from the library on your card and never returning any of it).
tough
its a fact of modern life. If you lose your drivers license you're S.O.L. until you get a new one. May as well learn that--if you're old enough that you need to carry cards, you better learn quickly that you can't be lax about them
Historically, there has been
Historically, there has been much resistance to a national ID card. It is important to condition children from the start to accept one. Also, it makes more data on the students more easily accessible to those who want it.
DC rolled out the exact same
DC rolled out the exact same type of card last year, but it is available to all residents.
It provides the user:
-Smarttrip access (their charliecard)
-Access to public pools for free, and other venues
-Library card
-Ability to use as ID
Personally, I think it's long overdue that every drivers license and state ID include a charlie chip inside.
Yeah, so that anyone with $50
Yeah, so that anyone with $50 of hardware can identify you as you pass on the street.