Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Kicking Up A Shit-Storm Over Proctorio

The temptation-to-cheat . . .

"As we've discussed before, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many educational institutions into remote learning and with it, remote test-taking. One of the issues in all of that is how to ensure students taking exams are doing so without cheating. Some institutions employ humans to watch students over video calls, to ensure they are not doing anything untoward. But many, many others are using software instead that is built to try to catch cheating by algorithmically spotting "clues" of cheating.

Proctorio is one of those anti-cheat platforms. The software has been the subject of some fairly intense criticism from students, many of whom allege both that the software seems to have trouble interpreting what darker-skinned students are doing on the screen and that it requires a ton of bandwidth, which many low-income students simply don't have access to. Erik Johnson, who is a student and security researcher, wanted to dig into Proctorio's workings. . . "

Anti-Cheat Student Software Proctorio Issuing DMCA Takedowns Of Fair Use Critiques Over Its Code

Fri, Nov 6th 2020 10:48am— Timothy Geigner

Techdirt.

Council Study Session - 11/5/2020

"COMMUNITY CHARACTER" : A Public Hearing + A Special Board Hearing Mon 11.09.2020

A "Special Board Meeting" of the City of Mesa's Planning & Zoning Board took place yesterday - again with two members absent. The PZ Board usually meets on Wednesdays . . OK, but any reasonable person might ask why they're making changes NOW to the 2040 GENERAL PLAN? Let's take a quick look at the Minutes:

Special Board Meeting

,Consent Agenda - All items listed with an asterisk (*) will be considered as a group by the Board and will be enacted with one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Boardmember or citizen requests, in which the item will be removed from the consent agenda, prior to the vote, and considered as a separate item.
Items on this agenda that must be adopted by ordinance and/or resolution will be on a future City Council agenda. Anyone interested in attending the City Council public hearing should call the Planning Division at (480) 644-2385 or review the City Council agendas on the City's website at www.mesaaz.gov to find the agenda on which the item(s) will be placed. 1Call meeting to order. Chair Astle called the meeting to order at 3:00 pm
2 Discuss, receive public comment, and take action on the following resolution:
2-a PZ 20140 Minor General Plan amendment repealing and replacing the existing Chapter 7: Community Character and the existing Chapter 16: Plan Implementation and Amendment in their entirety and replacing them with the exhibits attached to case no: ZON20-00735.

These amendments include but are not limited to,

clarifying permitted zoning districts and land uses for each character type,

adding minimum primary land use and zoning districts within the community character areas,

revising the definition for major and minor character area map amendments, and

adding approval criteria for character area map amendments. (Citywide)

Planner: Rachel Prelog

Staff Recommendation: Adoption

3Adjournment.
Approved (Vote: 5-0; Boardmember Allen and Villanueva-Saucedo, absent)

-----------------------------------

MEETING DETAIL

File #:

PZ 20140

Type:

PZ Major General Plan

Status:

Agenda Ready

In control:

Planning and Zoning Board - Public Hearing

On agenda:

11/9/2020

Title:

Minor General Plan amendment repealing and replacing the existing Chapter 7: Community Character and the existing Chapter 16: Plan Implementation and Amendment in their entirety and replacing them with the exhibits attached to case no: ZON20-00735.

These amendments include but are not limited to, clarifying permitted zoning districts and land uses for each character type, adding minimum primary land use and zoning districts within the community character areas, revising the definition for major and minor character area map amendments, and adding approval criteria for character area map amendments. (Citywide) Planner: Rachel Prelog Staff Recommendation: Adoption

Attachments:

1. Staff Report, 2. Exhibit One, 3. Exhibit Two