Digital Age Lets Schools Track Students' Whereabouts

From kindergarten to college, students these days are usually not far from the eyes—prying or protective, depending on your view—of administrators. Two cases in point:

• The Chicago Tribune reports on districts keeping track of young students on school buses through a combination of GPS technology and ID cards. Kids swipe their cards when they board, and trackers can then log into a database to determine whether a student has gotten on or off.

• NPR, meanwhile, takes note of a more controversial trend in colleges. At Northern Arizona University, students have to swipe an ID card as they enter lecture halls to get credit for attending. (So no roll call, just beeps.) The system is designed to give those thinking of skipping a nudge to show up. "I don't see why we need to be told what to do anymore," says one junior. "I feel like it's a move toward that—treating us as though we were juveniles."

(More school stories.)