This just in from the parent advocacy group, Parents Across America:
Contact: Laura Bowman, PAA-Roanoke Valley: 540-819-6385
Julie Woestehoff, PAA interim executive director: 773-715-3989
Our Children @ Risk
Parents raise alarm about EdTech’s harmful effects on children’s
academic, intellectual, emotional, physical and social development
Echoing the 1983 “Nation at Risk” report, Parents Across America (PAA)
today declares, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose
on America the takeover of public education by digital technology that
threatens our children’s health and well-being, captures their private
data, and undermines the best elements of their education, we might
well view it as an act of war.”
PAA has spent extensive time looking into recent writing and research
that raise red flags about the impact of the EdTech explosion on our
children. This high-pressure movement has brought a mishmash of digital
devices and online and other pre-packaged programs into our schools,
where they are promoted as “personalized,” “competency-based,”
“student-centered,” or “self-directed” learning, terms which we refer
to together as EdTech.
Today, PAA released a position paper and a series of reports, including
a 35-page background paper, detailing some of the many threats to
children’s health and well-being, parental control, family privacy, and
the quality of teaching and learning by this latest effort of corporate
reformers to profit from our children’s education and undermine
democratic public schooling.
PAA’s executive director, Julie Woestehoff, explains, “What we have
found out about the EdTech push alarms us, and should alarm any parent.
First of all, there is actually very little research addressing the
many news ways that EdTech is being used in our schools — our children
are truly being used as guinea pigs. What we do know about children and
screen time is based in part on new studies and in part on previous
research into children’s use of television, video games and computers,
which can help us anticipate some of EdTech’s health effects. And
EdTech’s teaching and learning track record is not positive. Yet
corporate reformers and the new federal education law, the Every Child
Succeeds Act, or ESSA, are investing heavily in EdTech and increasingly
pressuring its widespread use.”
Leader of PAA’s chapter in Roanoke, VA, Laura Bowman, says, “We are
speaking out for balanced, healthy classrooms for our children. We
strongly oppose the push to increase student screen time, replace
teachers with packaged lessons delivered by digital devices, and
continuously test students, data-mining the results. We are very
concerned that the massive and growing use of EdTech is displacing
valuable elements of schooling without providing clear benefits, and
threatening our children’s right to a healthy and educationally-
appropriate school environment.”
PAA is not against the appropriate use of technology in schools. Just
as the group opposes standardized test misuse and not the tests
themselves, they challenge technology use that reduces schooling to a
data-mining computer game, and not technology itself. We know that our
children need to master technology, and we acknowledge that parents
must work harder to monitor their children’s use of technology at home.
But we also strongly feel that schools, school districts and states
must become far more cautious, diligent, transparent and accountable
about their technology decisions.
PAA believes that, in the face of strong pressure from the parental
opt-out movement, and criticism that the misuse and overuse of
standardized tests harms children and their education, corporate
reformers and “Big Testing” have changed their tactics.
These education profiteers are promoting even more lucrative testing
and teaching strategies, mostly tied to the Common Core State Standards
and the PARCC or SBAC national tests.
These products help Big Testing continue to control the curriculum and
access vast amounts of student data. Meanwhile, students are spending
increasing hours glued to computer screens and other digital devices
which leaves less time for interacting with other children, adults or
their own imaginations, and exposes them to new dangers.
We have prepared a set of informational materials for parents covering
PAA’s specific concerns about EdTech’s:
-harmful effects on children’s mental and emotional development,
-negative impact on student intellectual and academic growth,
-damaging physical effects,
-depersonalization and other ways of undermining the educational
process,
-questionable value and effectiveness,
-continuous testing of students, often without obtaining consent from
or even informing students or parents,
-threats to student data privacy, and
-hugely lucrative benefits for private companies.
Parents must be alerted to these potential risks, and be prepared to
challenge and, if necessary, opt out of school-based technology that
may be harmful to our children.
Based on these and other concerns, we call on legislators and education
policy makers to consider our list of recommendations found at http://p
arentsacrossamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/EdTechRecs8-20-
16.pdf.
Please see our documentation paper (http://tinyurl.com/edtechdocu) and
reports (http://tinyurl.com/PAAEdTechreports)for more detailed informat
ion, references and background.
The link doesn’t work above. Here it is: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/parents-digital-learning-opt-form-share/
EdTech is the hostile takeover of public ed in our cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Cyber and online learning for public school students. Human teachers for those who can afford it. Parents beware of adaptive tech such as DreamBox, TeenBiz, and more. There are tons of articles about how they want to sell this to parents with no research behind it and lots that reports how bad it is for kids. Check out this book:https://www.amazon.com/Glow-Kids-Addiction-Hijacking-Kids/dp/1250097991
The Link Doesn’t Work
We yet don’t know how to properly integrate tech. We need to get curricula and assessment remotely correct first.
Sorry, should have stated that I was offering ‘The Link Doesn’t Work’ as a statement about EdTech.
Glow Kids, By Dr. Nicholas Khadaras: “We’ve all seen them: kids hypnotically staring at glowing screens in restaurants, in playgrounds and in friends’ houses―and the numbers are growing. Like a virtual scourge, the illuminated glowing faces―the Glow Kids―are multiplying. But at what cost? Is this just a harmless indulgence or fad like some sort of digital hula-hoop? Some say that glowing screens might even be good for kids―a form of interactive educational tool.
Don’t believe it.
In Glow Kids, Dr. Nicholas Kardaras will examine how technology―more specifically, age-inappropriate screen tech, with all of its glowing ubiquity―has profoundly affected the brains of an entire generation. Brain imaging research is showing that stimulating glowing screens are as dopaminergic (dopamine activating) to the brain’s pleasure center as sex. And a growing mountain of clinical research correlates screen tech with disorders like ADHD, addiction, anxiety, depression, increased aggression, and even psychosis. Most shocking of all, recent brain imaging studies conclusively show that excessive screen exposure can neurologically damage a young person’s developing brain in the same way that cocaine addiction can.
Kardaras will dive into the sociological, psychological, cultural, and economic factors involved in the global tech epidemic with one major goal: to explore the effect all of our wonderful shiny new technology is having on kids. Glow Kids also includes an opt-out letter and a “quiz” for parents in the back of the book.”
Here is the Parents Across America link: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/parents-digital-learning-opt-form-share/
One of my students is embarking on a cross-country trip soon. “Wow, you’ll see a lot of interesting things!” I said, thinking about the Rocky Mountains and unfamiliar cites. “Yeah, he said –lots of new Pokemons!”
And this: Senator Suggests Collages Swap Videos for Professors: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/senator-suggests-colleges-swap-instructors-videos/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=pbsofficial&utm_campaign=newshour
MADISON, Wis. — U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has an idea for making colleges cheaper — ditch the instructors and start playing online videos for students.
The Republican senator from Wisconsin floated the idea during a question-and-answer session Thursday in Milwaukee.
He called higher education a “cartel” and suggested colleges could cut the number of instructors and increase use of online videos like Ken Burns’ 11½-hour documentary on the Civil War.
“Why do you have to keep paying different lecturers to teach the same course? You get one solid lecturer and put it up online,” Johnson said. “If you want to teach the Civil War across the country, are you better off having, I don’t know, tens of thousands of history teachers, who, you know, kind of know the subject? Or would you be better off popping in 14 hours of Ken Burns’ Civil War tape and having those teachers proctor based on that excellent video production already done? You keep duplicating that over all these different subject areas.”
Get politicians, tech folks, and business out of education.
Good news from Parents Across American, and Ken Burns who said loudly and cleary that his Civil Wars series cannot and should not replace teachers of history.
Amazing! We, in the educational technology world, have been told time and again that “the teachers want this technology, because our kids will be left behind…” and “my kids need that technology, because they are left behind by the rest of the world…” and now, out of the blue, these arguments against the use of technology!
From my view, as a member of the District’s technology department, the need and pressure to get as much technology in the hands of kids was ill conceived, and few, if any, actually looked at the numbers to see if there truly was such a benefit to be gained.
I have argued, close to the loss of my job, that pushing technology into the class rooms without careful planning about both privacy concerns and curriculum delivery.
To now see a paper published where parents are complaining about the level of technology use in education seems a bit hypocritical.
It was almost a conspiracy between teachers AND parents who forced the use of technology in education – and now, SEVEN BILLION (and growing) later, people begin to see what my colleagues have been warning about for years.
What a world we live in…
It’s quite simple, the folks who told you those things lied to you. Would you mind citing the sources of the things you mentioned? We’ve heard this kind of push poll manufactured propaganda before, and are not surprised at your apparent confusion. I do salute you for knowing what was right and advocating for it while apparently being deep in the echochamber of those pushing it. That’s not easy to do.
The folks who told me those things were TEACHERS and PARENTS in the District where I work! Every day we have teachers clamoring for more and more technology… I have argued against the influx, based on independent research that the impact on ACHIEVEMENT is a statistical “0”. Boston University was a great resource. They made it clear that Sped had a major impact, but gened? between the two, you end up with a big fat ZERO.
As a District, it was decided by the TEACHERS, that we needed 1:1, because that is how “education happens in today’s world.” I have known for 6 years that was a baloney statement, but hey, I do not have an education degree, so what do i know?
It is called pull marketing. Same way drug makers convince patients to demand a marketed pill from their doctor. Of course tech companies are responsible.
Allow me to quote, “Just say no…” Just because a vendor had something to offer does not mean you have to buy it!!!
Teachers are adults, right??
For as educated some are, their unwillingness to do the research to see if such cash layouts really do something.
Case in point: “We need iPads. Why? We need them.
Why? Don’t know yet, but we need them.
What are you going to do with them? Don’t know, but we need them.
$780,000.00 later, we have iPads.
We have no plans.
We have no desired outcomes.
We have no curriculum adaptation to make use of the technology.
What we also no longer have, is $780,000.00
But by golly, we have iPads!
We are currently completing our 1:1 rollout. We added 10% for emergency. Principal decides 30 more are needed.
Why? Well, I need them for my students.
But you already have 10% above your enrollment.
But I need them…
There went another $11,000.00
We KNOW only 25% ever reach the network. But we now have to come up with $1,000,000.00 per year to update and renew.
Smart boards? Same. Only 25% are actually used as intended. We KNOW that, because a group of four walked our buildings to interview and observe EVERY room in ALL our buildings.
Reason for wanting one? Well, She has one, so I want one too.
So no, I do not for one moment absolve teachers from responsibility for the ludicrous waste of money, time, effort – and therefore, lack of proper education of children in my little part of the world.
On the other hand, I do have job security.
Rudy, read the Parents Across America report. EdTech replaces teachers. Teachers have little to no job security. It is time to stop hating on teachers, who actually went to college and often grad school because they care about children.
One thing that has to be emphasized is the way that the whole edtech thing is and end run around the Opt Out movement since it embeds the entirety of the Testing Industrial Complex’s machinery into every aspect of the school day. There will no longer be discrete tests to opt out of. This is designed to deny parents all of their rights to direct the education of their children and hand control of that over to Eduvulture corporations. This is a tag team of Big Data and Big Brother on steroids.
You are absolutely right, Jon. We at PAA were working on a project about Test Stress last year. We want the American Academy of Pediatrics to take a position on the emotional fallout from high stakes testing. While we were working on that project, we were alerted by one of our chapter leaders that our message is being hijacked by profiteers. They’re saying, “Oh, yes. Those tests are so harmful to children, and children need a more personalized education. We have just the answer: EdTech! It personalizes learning, and the assessment is embedded! The kids won’t even know they’re being tested!” As you said, it means massive data collection on our kids and we hope that our work on the harmful effects of EdTech helps parents and educators better understand what’s at stake.
PARENTS were some of the loudest voices claiming that, if only we had more technology, my kids will do so much better in school…!
So don’t make the tech companies the big bad wolf in this, please. Place the responsibility where it belongs! Many parents and teachers had forced Districts into increased expenditures in technology.
I have 19 years of experience in this as an employee of the tech department of a district…
I see a lot of what you are saying in my district, too, Rudy.
Lay off some more teachers and buy some chromebooks! And don’t forget a new administrator to manage it all!
Quiz for the day: which is worse: edtech, reformistas, or charters?
It’s a three-way tie!
They are one and the same, in for the most part. A triumvirate of malfeasance.
Hey, big time cheers to Parents Across America. !!! Ed tech is killing education. (Not in Sidwell, though.)
And they all have a thicket of links to each other, and IMHO, the corpus callosum is the GOP with a lot of help from the Democrats.
I must disagree. The powerful right hemisphere is connected via the Democrat corpus callosum to a left hemisphere long comatose. The powerful right hemisphere is also connected via the Trump to the antediluvian midbrain, including the medulla oblongata. Actually, come to think of it, comparing reformy-ism to a brain is wrong. It’s more like a gall bladder.
As screen time at home continues to approach infinity, elementary school, for many, many families, could be the only place that their children can experience life without screens for several consecutive hours.
Yes, FLERP! For this generation of children, technology is just NOT innovative! Working and playing with other kids and hands-on learning, and learning to draw with crayons & write with a pencil and paper are actually what our kids need! The viral internet story yesterday from the teacher who is giving no hw this year is proof that parents have had it with “rigor”. They may not know that is part of ed reform, but they are realizing that what is going on in our schools is not quite right.
Coincidence. I opened Susan Pinker’s book to continue reading and the chapter is on the digital divide. She comments on what research there is on craziness like apps for toddlers to bring them the joys of toilet training. More seriously, the effects of hours in front of a screen. For us as teachers, the question is the effect on learning and development of more screen time in school. Lots more research needed.
I worked as the tech for our multiple sites for more than a decade. I’ve watched the growth of technology in the classroom and how it’s effected the students, teachers, and admins.
This letter from PAA echoes everything I’ve seen and is right on the mark. What started out as a set of wonderful classroom tools is taking over the classrooms, schools, and districts.
Again: what started out being technology as a tool for the teachers has become the teacher as a tool for technology. The teacher’s role is being diminished to that of a monitor following a standardized script.
I so hope that this movement takes root and spreads as has OptOut. This is a very real problem that has gone beyond just “knocking at our door”.
Well said. Might I add the obvious that students have become the tools of tech just as much as teachers.
Yeah…even more so, really. If this trend is allowed to (aka: promoted) continue, this will become the “norm” for the younger students.
Tools, indeed.
Those charged with teaching critical thinking gobbled up technology uncritically. I don’t recall anyone asking me if I wanted technology in my classroom, they just installed it. When I didn’t use it, admins complained. So I retired. Somewhere there is a teacher talking to a kid, but it’s probably during lunch out at a picnic table.
When my school installed Smartboards, I requested not to get one. My request was denied. Now it covers most of my white board and makes it less functional to teach. District wide implementation of tech concerns me… And wastes tax payers dollars. As Diane stated, learning happens between humans. Technology should be the slave, not the master.
I, too, had a smartboard installed without requesting it. I had been well-known for my engaging, multi-colored chalk diagrams.
I used the smartboard. It was OK, not great. Then the software changed and we all had to re-learn how to use our boards. We did so. Then it changed again and all of the new techniques I had been developing had to be re-learned yet again. That’s when I stopped using its “smartness”. Now I use it as just another whiteboard, an expensive one at that.