Dive Brief:

• The Internet of Things could impact K-12 in myriad ways, from automatically tracking attendance to collecting data from students via wearables.
• The technology is still in its infancy, experts admit, but could provide new sources of data for schools, looking at how students learn, interact and move throughout the school day. Schools might also be able to push out data from multiple sources to students throughout the day.
• Concerns about student privacy abound as the tracking could appear invasive, though at this time, applications for IoT uses are still limited and largely theoretical.

Dive Insight:

From health care to environmental science, the Internet of Things could have a major impact on our daily lives and on society at large. Education is no exception, where senors and other data-collection devices are turning campuses into "smart schools" capable of registering shifts in temperature or activity and making utilities and other adjustments as necessary. 

But more devices can lead to more problems for schools, especially where privacy and security is concerned. Internet of Things-enabled devices could lead to new vulnerabilities impacting the school's network. Experts have also warned against a general loss of personal privacy in a world where data collection is pervasive. Add to that the fact that these devices are still mainly hypothetical, and likely to be expensive when they do exist, meaning many schools without large technology budgets to spare may not be impacted for quite some time.