Tom Ultican discovered a fascinating study of tech philanthropists and their self-serving gifts. Gates, Zuckerberg, and other tech giants are “giving” in a way that supports their self-interest.
The study that Ultican reviews is “Education, Privacy, and Big Data Algorithms: Taking the Persons Out of Personalized Learning,” by Priscilla M. Regan and Valerie Steeves.
They argue:
“We argue that, although there has been no formal recognition, personalized learning as conceptualized by foundations marks a significant shift away from traditional notions of the role of education in a liberal democracy and raises serious privacy issues that must be addressed.”
“It presents yet another example of the transformation of the traditional role of public education as educating citizens to one of educating future workers and consumers, a contrast of liberal democracy with neoliberal democracy.”
“The edtech sector has been focused on the notion [of personalized learning] …. While companies have generated hundreds of products and a smattering of new school models are showing promise, there is little large-scale evidence that the approach can improve teaching and learning or narrow gaps in academic achievement.”
The authors also review Education Week as a model of education journalism that is underwritten by edtech foundations and helps to market their wares. Reporting by Benjamin Herold on Ed tech, however, is exceptionally critical.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education has become “a de facto Ed tech sales firm.”
I have been saying for a long time that “personalized learning” is actually depersonalized learning because it attempts to replace human teachers with computer instruction. Education requires human interaction, not a connection between a human and a machine.
Despite my cynicism about the tech billionaires and their relentless pushing of Ed tech, I don’t think they are motivated by greed. When you are already a billionaire, what difference does more money make? I believe they promote Ed tech because that’s all they know. When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Actually, I don’t think the tech billionaires have given much thought to their concept of education. They display little or no interest in literature, the arts, or any of the humanities. This reflects their limits and their ignorance. The fact that they have so much money and power threatens the very heart and soul of education. Education is not, should not be merely trading or transactions. It is and should be a way of life. Try explaining that to Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg or any of the other tech titans—or state legislators or members of Congress.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Makes me ILL. GRIFTERS to the MAX.
In the meanwhile:
https://www.salon.com/2020/12/02/new-ppp-data-shows-two-dozen-businesses-at-trump-and-kushner-properties-received-federal-loans/
New PPP data shows two dozen businesses at Trump and Kushner properties received federal loans
Half of the program’s allocated $522 billion in loans went to only 5% of recipients
What is WRONG with America?
Well, Duh …
I don’t think they are motivated by greed. When you are already a billionaire, what difference does more money make? ”
Maybe that’s why you are not a billionaire.
“I believe they promote Ed tech because that’s all they know”
If greed is all one knows
Then greed is how she blows
We take it thru the nose
from folks like Jeff Bezos
Cuz greed is all he knows
So greed is how he blows
well said: there is a point somewhere along the line of money accumulation when the accumulation of money becomes the entire point of endeavor
For billionaires, I think that point came very early on, probably in the womb, where folks like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page were already scheming about how they would make a billion.
They undoubtedly emerged with their hand out and prolly did not start breathing until the birthing physician gave them a 100 dollar bill after slapping had no effect.
We all would have been better off if the birthing physicians had kept their hands to themselves.
I understand why tech billionaires want more data. They control people’s thoughts and behavior with data. What I fail to understand is why anyone buys the tech billionaires’ snake oil. Why are so many otherwise intelligent people so gullible? I was in a school site council meeting the other day and a techie teacher advocated for spending ALL our Title I funds this year on tech because, after the pandemic, everyone is going to want to keep doing everything online. Because things are soooo good right now, online. I don’t understand. I will never understand. I just do not understand how people can fall in love with shiny trash.
I know! I think the marketing around tech is just so strong and the shiny trash so alluring because it’s easy and it’s “the future.” I feel the exact same way.
20 years from now, when the surgeon general posts a warning about technology and social media use, similar to the warnings on cigarets, those same people you refer to will say “remember when we let our children spend hours on social media? I wish we knew how harmful it was.”
Billionaires have no need for more money. Some of them seek to undermine the common good, and others despise organized labor. Some of them are vainly self-serving. They don’t want to pay taxes to educate other people’s children. Then, we also have the radical religious right wing billionaires like DeVos
Of course they don’t need more money, but need and want are two different things.
If they did not want more money, they would actually give it away instead of setting up an LLC or Foundation to pretend to give it away but whose real purpose is avoiding the tax man.
SDP, thanks! Now I know why I not a billionaire! I lack the greed gene.
C’mon SDP. The greed gene. If that doesn’t inspire you…
Wasn’t one of Captain Kangaroos pals named Mr Greed Genes?
Thank you for this well researched look at Edtech. Beware of tech villainthropists bearing “gifts.” These are not gifts. Tech foundations are releasing Trojan Horses into public schools in an attempt to privatize education from the inside out. These so-called grants are tools for big tech to infiltrate public schools under the guise of philanthropy. Remember that charter schools started with a “civil rights” trickle until billionaires bought enough politicians. Then, we got the flood that also spawned useless vouchers.
Cyber learning is the old failed mastery learning of the 1970s. The flashy advertising of tech products is merely lipstick for the same old pig. While computers are useful tools, they are not a substitute for human instruction.
Yesterday we were talking about misleading words in education. Beware of any products that use the Wall St. term leverage. Education should lead, guide and inspire, not leverage.
Leverage is what you apply to pry something loose.
It’s actually an apt term for prying the $600 million annual public outlay loose from school districts and schools.
It can also be used to pry rocks out of the ground, which is what these people should actually be doing.
Give Bill Gates , Mark Zuckerberg , Jeff Bezos, Warren Bluffett and the others crow bars and set them loose in a field of bolders.
Have them do something useful for a change.
SDP,
You meant $600 Billion, not million!
Yes, thanks. $600 billion.
The billionaires would not even bother for $600 million.
That would be like picking up a penny off the ground. Not even worth bending over for.
The essential reading for understanding the unbridled avarice of capitalism — how the Gospel Of Greed takes root in the hearts of those who set out at first seeking only, if a bit too desperately, some assurance of personal salvation, and how they come to wander lost in the spiritual wasteland of Moneytheism so ruling our nation today — is The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber. There are some links on this page.
The Road to Hell
The road to hell isn’t paved with good intentions
But rather, is strewn with tech inventions
While their owners be so bold
In their grabbing all the gold
They’ll not be on a road to earn redemption(s)
Nice!
“I don’t think they are motivated by greed.”
I must respectively disagree. The tech industry’s earnings are in decline. Most of the wealth the tech billionaires have is in stocks, not real estate and cash. If those stocks drop, their wealth drops, too.
EdTech is one of the many desperate attempts of the tech industry to keep the profits flowing and the stock prices up. The higher the profits, the higher the price of the stocks, and that increases the net worth of the tech billionaires because most of their wealth is inthe value of the shares they hold and have not sold yet.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2020/12/31/big-tech-leads-decline-in-core-earnings/?sh=6948f42f499e
Yup – schools are an untapped (well not anymore) market. There was too much trust that they had the best interest of education and learning in mind – rather than that they simply wanted to sell products. Maybe it’s a bit of both – wanting to sell products and thinking they have these great answers. Either way, it’s maddening.
I think there was too much trust that they knew what they were talking about with regard to education simply because they knew how to write software (and bad software in many cases).
The motivations of the billionaires are actually irrelevant.
The only thing that is relevant is whether their education ideas are any good and the vast majority of them aren’t .
From Fiddler on the Roof:
“When you’re rich, they really think you know”
Good read but Tom’s wrong about Illuminate Ed. They’re owned by a Venture Capital Private Equity Firm. https://www.illuminateed.com/news/five-way-merger-creates-new-illuminate-education/
Illuminate has been collecting EdTech embedded testing companies so they not only hold the general info but they also produce the tests that score kids too.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-07-09-illuminate-education-s-buying-spree-comes-at-a-price-including-layoffs
In “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”, Yuval Harari predicts that Homo sapiens will be extinct within the next 1000 years. A good bit of Harari’s reasoning here comes from the human tendency to embrace technology over human need. AI and automation threaten our well being because we refuse to acknowledge the need for human interaction over convenience and task. We either embrace our biological needs or leave the Earth too someone else. I have adult children who are angered by the inaction of leaders throughout our world who have been presented with the obvious.