This is a fascinating and rather frightening essay about the quest for a teaching machine.
Philip McRae, the author, looks at the historical search for a machine that would standardize teaching, making it cost-efficient and providing a common curriculum. Then he describes the present-day efforts to aggregate Big Data, discover patterns, and create a platform through which content might be delivered to 100 or 200 students in a class.
Here is the pivotal line:
“At its most innocent it is a renewed attempt at bringing back behaviourism and operant conditioning to make learning more efficient. At its most sinister; it establishes children as measurable commodities to be cataloged and capitalized upon by corporations. It is a movement that could be the last tsunami that systematically privatizes public education systems.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is this the correct link?
Any measure to which ‘better education’ is weighed, should be applicable to a ‘good upbringing’ of our children.
Would we, parents, accept a ‘standardized’ upbringing of our children? Would we accept a ‘standardized testing’ of our parenthood? Would we agree with ‘performance-related’ pay of parental support? Would we be interested in a ‘upbringing machine’, based on some meta-analysis, telling us what to do & what not to do in our parenting?
I don’t think so.
Yes, there is such a thing as good parenthood and not-so-good parenthood. But beware of totalitarian or common-denominator devices telling you what to do, and of the high-stakes policies that force you into one corner or another.
Why do we accept standardized schools?
Please Diane, repair the link to the ‘frightening essay’.
the link is definitely wrong
LINK FIXED!
We need constructivism Practices. I believe, though, that we tend towards constructivism (it is built on our natural networking)–enabling it is what good educators do. And good educators will find a way to continue doing that, no matter what happens around us or above us. People find a way. And then this destructive wave of reform will be reversed. Perceptive people will want to capitalize on what works and when they realize there are people who will make things work despite poor reform measures, they will turn to them to be the leaders. And the good news is we will know what doesn’t work because of the live experiments going on all around us in education. So without cowering, those of us who know what works should keep doing it the best we can.
Try this until the link is repaired.
http://www.joebower.org/2013/04/can-computers-replace-teachers.html
Thanks, Mark, I fixed it. My bad. As always.
Here is the correct link:
http://www.joebower.org/2013/04/rebirth-of-teaching-machine-through.html?spref=tw
And here is a related post I wrote yesterday building on the video of BF Skinner embedded in McCrae’s piece:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/05/are_education_innovators_chann.html
Our district is seriously heading down this road. We are merging from simple content-based formative/instructional data collection to personal/survey assessment data collection. As a grad student, I had to give survey participants a “Participant Consent Form” when I collected data for research. Our schools are collecting data on minors. Why don’t they have to send a form home?
At what point do parents have the right to demand a consent form? Students are sitting in front of computers and answering anything put in front of them. At what point do they get to say no?
So question for all: Do any of your districts send home a “Participant Consent Form” when a school gives a survey that is non-academic to our children who are legally minors?
They are never going to let anybody say no. Parents need to step in and refuse to let their children take these tests.
Asimov could see so much, but I’m guessing he never considered the data collection/marketing angle.
http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/funtheyhad.html
Worse than that it is about total control of all information to be used against us. In the military it is called “Net Centric.” Read Aviation Week for a long time and you will understand exactly what is going on and how it is done and who the players are and how they do it. All this is started in the military and then comes to the public sector as is the push for total drone surveillance in the U.S. along with face I.D. cameras and license plate readers as it is and has been in London. Even without a cellphone and a non GPS car it does not matter with this technology. Amazing how easy it is for them to take away privacy. Stupid public. If you only understand or think you understand education you will never be able to fight them or understand what they are doing. To really understand you need knowledge of many worlds and how they react together and cross use of technology for the total control for our “SAFETY.” HA, HA, HA jokes on you.
The kids are data, and data is for sale. Just ask Mark Zuckerberg.
This is all part and parcel of the neoliberal takeover of education. One of the basic characteristics of neoliberalism is the quantification and commodification of everything, including things that historically have been part of the commons (water) or treated as a public good (education).
Big data, or “datafication” allows children, or “our most valuable assets,” to use Michelle Rhee’s heartfelt words, to be reduced to a number and monetized. You can just see these privateers salivating as they ponder the business opportunities represented by monetizing the kids and using them as a profit center.
I agree Michael wholeheartedly with your sentiments.
For those curious about neoliberalism. Remember not to be faked out by the term liberalism; it’s not in the old-fashioned democratic sense-, rather think Chile and Pinochet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
Kids in Chicago Public Schools are already spending a lot of time on a BF Skinner “teaching machine”: Mathscore, Raz Kids, Starfall, Odyssey Compass Learning, Achieve 3000, etc etc. These programs are actually required as part of “school improvement” plans (CWIP) for much of CPS (e.g. http://schoolreports.cps.edu/ciwp/SchoolID000000_ESCIWP.xlsx)…and of course the only “improvement” goals that actually count are the improvement in test scores (and attendance–their one nod to the idea that something besides test scores might matter).
Diane, thank you for posting my article, and carrying this message forward. As the elders of the Hopi Nation have said: “No one is coming to save us…We are the ones we have been waiting for.” I admire your perseverance and your determination to support public education systems and thoughtful educational reform. Regards, Phil McRae
This is my vision of the situation:
http://thetruthoneducationreform.blogspot.com/2013/02/we-still-have-factories.html?view=snapshot
You can click on the image to enlarge it you wish.
That is why I argue that individual schools need to be free to become the the set school for the students that choose to attend
Educate ourselves. Educate others. Empower yourself in defending against big data–the latest in statistical lies. Here is a great article on the use of graphics to enhance story telling and spinning.
Steve Jobs Proved Data Can Tell Any Story You Want
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3008621/whos-afraid-data-science-what-your-company-should-know-about-data
I am not surprised, big data has enormous potential to revolutionize how students learn and teachers teach. You can find more information in this blog post: http://www.bigdata-startups.com/big-data-will-revolutionize-learning/