Nancy Bailey is fearful that the stage is being set for a big-tech takeover when the pandemic is gone. Scores of tech vendors have longed to gain a permanent foothold in the schools, and their day may have come, even though there is nearly universal agreement that remote instruction is a poor substitute for in-person instruction.
Here are the warning signs:
First, there is sure to be a teacher shortage when schools reopen because so many are taking early retirement, due to health concerns.
Second, several districts have recently passed urge bond issues for technology.
Third, due to the pandemic-caused recession, there is unlikely to be sign I can’t improvements in teachers’ salaries or working conditions.
So we face this conundrum: teachers, students, and parents are frustrated and voted with online learning. They yearn to be back in class with face-to-face, human interaction. Yet after the pandemic, we can expect to have more of what we abhor.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Many districts used PPP for technology….. laptops, connectivity for families. So the infrastructure is there.
Our district didn’t spend much on PPE and plexiglass….even though we are in person… but spent lots for tech.
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I am betting that is true for most districts across the nation: much more money for tech than virus protection.
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The CARES act in 2020 restricted money to PPE and technology only. Congress wrote the law so that it could not be used to hire more people.
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Well, would I rather go on our school’s ‘online learning platform’ and update what I’ll be teaching this semester? (Which is what I was just about to do….)
Or, comment here on Diane’s blog….?
That’s an easy one.
As I think I wrote to Diane at some point recently, people who have studied a lot of history are lucky. It helps to put this whole current disaster in perspective, at least it does for me.
And, I’ve always been particularly fascinated by the history of science as well as the philosophy of technology. I took lots of classes in those subjects. Lucky again!
I don’t consider myself particularly intelligent…hardworking yes, brilliant, no. And, the older I get, the dumber I feel, ha, ha. Maybe that’s some wisdom sinking in.
Over and over, though, it just HITS me….most of what I read and learned from professors about the onslaught of technology keeps coming at us -good, bad and indifferent. It’s happening.
The Upper Delaware River is a few miles below my home…I could hike down there right now through quiet hemlock forests with deep ravines made even more treacherous by the snow that’s falling outside. Most likely I wouldn’t see another human.
And, when I got to the shoreline if I waded in, the force of the frigid water would feel familiar to my legs, even in mid-winter. I could hold out my arms, lean into the onrushing water and try to stop the bone numbing river.
And, I’d probably have a better chance of doing that than stopping the technology coming at us right now.
Maybe, hopefully, we can get enough people to channel the technology in some better direction? If we work together…
A blown up planet, a melted down planet, a planet where a new plague moves as fast as a jet airliner… those are a few of the other options.
Meanwhile,,, the ‘online learning platform’ awaits me…..
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Is there currently a group working on a way to hijack (I’m not sure that is the correct word, but it’s the best I can come up with this morning) the technology and use what is currently in the schools in an effective, research based manner? I was an original ACOT (Apple Classroom of Tomorrow) teacher in the early years of educational technology integration into classrooms. (1986) and we were able to do wonderful things with students with huge, clunky computers. One of the areas we explored, at the time, was Computer Aided Instruction. It was unpopular and ineffective for the majority of the students. But, we did find activities using technology that were engaging and enhanced problem solving and critical thinking. All of this was documented and published by researchers at UCLA. I was a small cog in this project, but on the front lines of technology use in classrooms. I can only imagine the possibilities of harnessing current technology, student skills, and teacher understanding of technology today. The primary thing holding us back today is required yearly testing and the “importance” placed on high test scores. Those skills we encouraged are not reflected at all on standardized tests.
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While I am away from campus, my school is tossing hundreds, possibly thousands of books in the recycling bins and buying hundreds of computers to replace them. They call it “renovation” and I can’t stop them because I am not able to be there. Hybrid instruction plans are being made by my district with no exit strategies, no agreed conditions or timelines for returning to full service instruction.
I’m going to rewrite that for emphasis on the right words to describe offline school: full service instruction. Pandemic opportunists are taking advantage of public school students and teachers while we are unable to assemble in numbers. It does not matter whether parents and students want more crisis education after the crisis ends. The power to degrade the quality of public service is leveraged by the disaster. It’s the Shock Doctrine.
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If anything, students need relief from computer assisted instruction. They need the social, emotional and cognitive support that human instruction provides.
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And I forgot to mention the $7 billion bond issue my district approved to build tech infrastructure that Nancy Bailey wrote about!
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too true… as I argued, https://prospect.org/education/ed-tech-cashes-in-on-the-pandemic/
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Best article I’ve seen on this subject. Thank you.
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People like Bill Gates are waiting in the wings to implement an automated online school delivery system. He’s been touting so-called “individualized education“ it involves purchasing Microsoft “solutions“
Bill Gates’ classroom of the future
https://money.cnn.com/2013/03/08/technology/innovation/bill-gates-education/index.html
“never let a crisis go to waste” -Rahm Emmanuel
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Ah now I get it. I’d thought that one silver lining of covid was, parents would see tech-delivered ed was inferior to IRL teaching, and would push back if it threatened to dominate the post-covid classroom.
The problem is, money is being spent now to catch up on covid tech needs, and once it’s spent, the tech model will continue to be used when no longer needed, in order to justify the expenditure.
We have a handy example of this in the CCSS-aligned curriculum & hi-stakes assessments. Its use continues even though ed-harmful and not particularly popular. That’s a worse situation because imposed by law: legislators really have to have their backs to a wall before they change the law.
But taxpayers have long memories re: bond issues, and there will be hell to pay if districts aren’t using all the goodies purchased. Especially if districts come back for another big $proposal to get teachers back into classrooms full-force.
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One thing lost in the very true complaints about how awful it is to attend school “remotely”—the technology is extremely good, much better than most people expected a year ago. It’s not at all surprising that after a year of remote schooling, and now with calls in some districts for indefinite remote school until all teachers, staff, and students are vaccinated, districts have become highly invested in the technology. What did anyone expect?
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