Rate the following essay on its writing, argument, and language skills:
Having a new technology that can detect facial expression is not valuable in classrooms. Having technology that can detect when a student is enjoying a specific lesson or action, is not valuable due to the fact that the student's facial expression may have more to do with than just the lesson being learned. The Facial Action Coding System would be able to tell if a student is sad or happy, or frusterated, or disgusted. But it does not have the technology to determine prior emotions, or the cause of them. Therefore, Facial Action Coding Systems are not valuable in classrooms. However they may be useful elsewhere, such as doctors offices, and airports.

Although the author gives a practical use of his product, "A classroom computer could recognize when a studnet is becoming confused or bored." Students go through a fair amount of stress throughout the year, and can witness or partake in many activities which can be detromental. This is where the author's claim is no longer valid.

For instance, maybe a second grader gets into school one day, and is distrought because his or her mom and dad got in a divorce the night prior. This is a scenario where the Facial Action Coding System is not going to be able to benefit the kids learning based off of his or her facial expressions. Another example includes highschoolers. What if a boy or girl is being bullied and not reaching for help and bottling all of their emotions in. A system that recognizes facial expression would not be worth having at that time because the system would base its opinion off of what the student is learning, even if the student may be enjoying what they are learning. This is just one case where the Facial Action Coding system would not be valuable.

Although the Facial Action Coding System may not be useful in school classrooms, their is practical application outside of the classroom. For instance, what if a little kid gets signed out of school because they are sick. The mom would most likely take the kid to the doctors to get them examined, if they are truly sick the Facial Action Coding System may be useful to tell if the kid is truly sick, or if they are most likely faking it, prior to the actual visit with the doctor. It may also be useful in principals offices. The Facial Action Coding System may be of use when a student makes a report. If the students emotions can be told as angered, or distraught, it may further prove that the student is actually being truthful, not just trying to get someone in trouble.

Another great use of the Facial Action Coding System is in airports around the world. The system could be of use to tell if someone is of threat or is in an unstable condition prior to boarding the plane. Airport officials could analyze reults of suspected threats before allowing them on a plane. This application would be more practical than it being used in classrooms.

Although I believe that the Facial Coding System is not of use in classrooms, the technology would be great if applied elsewhere. The authors opening sentence in paragraph nine may be the solution to classrooms. "Putting on a happy face actually works." This small quote may help lighten a students day more so than a system trying to fix what is wrong by changing what they are learning.

Score: 5