this came up in the "observation" thread and I'm quite interested in this topic now so would like to learn more about teachers experiences and opinions on the matter.
I'm starting to think about this and research it.
A couple notions that have already come up is that those cameras in the classroom might thwart creativity and risk taking both among teachers and students, making mil1quetoast of our classes, and that students will become tacitly accepting of being under constant surveillance by authority figures, without recourse to look back at those monitoring them.
Regarding the argument in general about surveillance, that, if you aren't doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about, that could extend to the monitoring of everything you do and say throughout your life. That could be a justification for monitoring all of your correspondences, purchases, books checked out, you name it.
But this presupposes a "right" and "wrong" as dictated by someone else and to which one would conform. In short, it says that if one is conforming there is nothing to fear. That might not be a problem as long as one fits well within the confines of acceptable behavior and beliefs and convictions of a given society at a given time, but if that society happens to go through a period of non-benevolence, one would be screwed.
Just a couple thoughts to get the ball rolling, if I've even supplied enough momentum for that.
Oh, and I liked this picture so much, I'll put it up again here in this thread.