Dive Summary:

• CourseSmart's CourseSmart Analytics gives teachers an "engagement score" based on each student's e-book reading patterns.
• Another example of self-monitoring e-book software is Amazon's Whispercast technology, which can restrict Kindle users' access to administrator-specified sites or applications. 
• Evgeny Morozov, a contributing editor at the New Republic, argues that while such technology may solve problems of distraction, surveillance software will also inhibit students' curiosity for learning. 

From the article:

"... All of this might prove useful in the short term, but it seems that students—the supposed beneficiaries of the 'digital revolution'—might be getting shortchanged by the revolutionary rhetoric. The era when students can look up anything they wanted on their tablet or e-reader—say, an unknown word or a historical figure—may be over before it has even begun in earnest.

This may help solve the distraction problem—undoubtedly, a big plus. But it might also inhibit the development of highly interactive, mixed ways of learning that could, when properly used, satisfy—and even expand—the insatiable curiosity of the most promising but difficult students. Highly monitored electronic textbooks and heavily controlled e-readers are unlikely to give us another Einstein."