Code Acts in Education: Valuing Futures | National Education Policy Center

Code Acts in Education: Valuing Futures | National Education Policy Center

Code Acts in Education: Valuing Futures

The future of education in universities is currently being reimagined by a range of organizations including businesses, technology startups, sector agencies, and financial firms. In particular, new ways of imagining the future of education are now tangled up with financial investments in education technology markets. Speculative visions and valuations of a particular ‘desirable’ form of education in the future are being pursued and coordinated across both policy and finance.

Visions and valuations

Edtech investing has grown enormously over the last year or so of the pandemic. This funding, as Janja Komljenovic argues, is based on hopes of prospective returns from the asset value of edtech, and also determines what kinds of educational programs and approaches are made possible. It funds unique digital forms of education, investing speculatively in new models of teaching and learning to enable them to become durable and, ideally, profitable for both the investor and investee.

We’ve recently seen, for instance, the online learning platform Coursera go public and reach a multibillion dollar valuation based on its reach to tens of millions of students online. New kinds of investment funds have emerged to accelerate edtech market growth, such as special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) that exist to raise funds to purchase edtech companies, scale them up quick and return value to both the SPAC and its investor, plus new kinds of education-focused equity funds and portfolio-based edtech index investing that select a ‘basket’ of high-value edtech companies for investors to invest in.

The result of all this investment activity has been the production of some spectacular valuation claims about the returns available from edtech. The global edtech market intelligence agency HolonIQ calculated venture capital investment in edtech at $16bn last year alone, predicting a total edtech market worth $400bn by 2025.

But, HolonIQ said, this isn’t just funding seeking a financial return—it’s ‘funding backing a vision to transform how the world learns’. These edtech investments tend to centre on a particular shared CONTINUE READING: Code Acts in Education: Valuing Futures | National Education Policy Center

A Few Thoughts about Classroom Technology Then and Now | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

A Few Thoughts about Classroom Technology Then and Now | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

A Few Thoughts about Classroom Technology Then and Now

Two decades ago, research I had done on schools and classrooms in Silicon Valley during the 1990s was published as Oversold and Underused: Computers in Classrooms.  In 2018, The Flight of a Butterfly or Path of a Bullet, another book researching 41 exemplary Silicon Valley teachers who had integrated technology appeared. Since then, I have visited many classrooms where teachers used electronic devices seamlessly in lessons until the pandemic hit. Then remote instruction became the primary medium of teaching and learning.

What similarities and differences do I see between the two periods of intense activity in getting hardware and software into schools and classrooms?

The similarities are easy to list.

*At both times, policy elites including donors and computer companies urged districts and schools to get desktops and laptops into classroom teachers’ and students’ hands.

The hype then and now promised that students would learn more, faster, and better; that classroom teaching would be more student-friendly and individualized–the word today is “personalized”; and that graduates would enter the high-tech workplace fully prepared from day one.

*Teacher and student access to the new technologies expanded.

For example, in the mid-to-late 1990s, Silicon Valley companies and philanthropists gave desktops and laptops to schools while districts also purchased loads of personal computers. The influx of machines was often CONTINUE READING: A Few Thoughts about Classroom Technology Then and Now | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

In the wake of man bringing live bombs, zip gun to Sac elementary school, major leap announced in campus protection tech • Sacramento News & Review

In the wake of man bringing live bombs, zip gun to Sac elementary school, major leap announced in campus protection tech • Sacramento News & Review

In the wake of man bringing live bombs, zip gun to Sac elementary school, major leap announced in campus protection tech

Authorities are being tight-lipped about what might have motivated Gustavo Aguilar, the 57-year-old man arrested last week for allegedly bringing two improvised, working bombs and a loaded homemade gun to Ethel Baker Elementary School in South Sacramento. Meanwhile, on the global front, a Canadian company confirmed that it’s racing ahead with a novel technology designed to stop such threats to school campuses.   

The investigation into Aguilar began shortly after 8 a.m. on March 2, after a program manager working at Ethel Baker noticed two suspicious devices resting on a sidewalk near one of the entrances.

Children were due to arrive at the school that morning. Even with COVID-19 restrictions, Ethel Baker has been one of the Sacramento City Unified School District’s learning hubs, a place where community groups partner with school staff to offer distance-learning support to students. This generally involves providing computer access to roughly 40 kids at a time, with an adult supervising as they log-in for classes.  

According to SCUSD Chief Communications Officer Tara Gallegos, the students hadn’t arrived on campus when the first menacing devices were uncovered.

“Our principal was able to get ahold of the students quickly, and made sure they knew to stay home,” Gallegos told SN&R. “Because this happened so early, most of the staff hadn’t arrived yet, either.”

Sacramento Sheriff’s personnel converged on Laurine Way. An Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team soon approached the devices. Sheriff’s Sergeant Rod Grassmann said that one was a 2.5-inch diameter steel pipe, sealed at both ends, with an improvised fuse on it. It was packed with metal shrapnel, clay putty, firecrackers and gasoline.

The other device was a “zip gun” made from a steel pipe. It had a spring-loaded cap that could fire a 12-gauge shotgun round. The zip gun was loaded.

No one was harmed as the Sheriff’s team neutralized both devices.

Another live pipe bomb was found on the campus on March 19.

Five days later, Sheriff’s detectives arrested Aguilar.  He was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on CONTINUE READING: In the wake of man bringing live bombs, zip gun to Sac elementary school, major leap announced in campus protection tech • Sacramento News & Review

Being Skeptical of Technology | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Being Skeptical of Technology | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Being Skeptical of Technology

Over the years, readers and students have asked me about the work I have done on school reform and especially reform-laden technologies. I answer some of them in this post. But first some background.

I began doing research and writing on teacher and student uses of technology in the early 1980s when the first personal computers appeared in classrooms. That writing turned into Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology since 1920. I then began working on a larger study of teacher and student uses of new technologies in preschool and kindergarten, high schools, and universities. That became Oversold and Underused: Computers in Classrooms (2001). In 2009, one chapter of Hugging the Middle: How Teachers Teach in an Era of Testing and Accountability dealt with teacher and student uses of technologies across four school districts. The last book I wrote exploring classroom use of technology by examining over 40 teachers in Silicon valley who used technology in daily lessons. In The Flight of the Butterfly and the Path of the Bullet (2018), I described those teachers who, in my opinion, had mastered the technology to the point where it was in the background, not foreground, of a lesson.

Those writings on teaching and technology put me squarely in the bin labeled Skeptic. And comments early on were testy. Promoters of new technologies, be CONTINUE READING: Being Skeptical of Technology | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

CURMUDGUCATION: Is This How Post-pandemic Ed Tech Will Be Different

CURMUDGUCATION: Is This How Post-pandemic Ed Tech Will Be Different

Is This How Post-pandemic Ed Tech Will Be Different

Andreesen Horowitz is a silicon valley venture capitalist investment firm looking to strike it rich in the ed tech world. That is more than enough reason to distrust them (here's just one article laying out how vc firms--particularly tech ones--are wrecking our world). But they want to play in the ed tech sandbox, which is another reason. But they have some thoughts about how ed tech will look after the pandemic, and it is always important to keep an eye on where the vultures are circling.

"Edtech's Answer to Remote Learning Burnout" comes from Anne Lee Skates and Connie Chan. Chan is a specialist in Chinese consumer tech investment, while Skates graduated from Princeton, started a failed company, went to work for McKinsey, and ended up with Andreesen Horowitz (she also came to the Us from Taiwan to become a violinist and performed a solo at the 49th Grammy Awards, so that's cool). No education background in either case.

As always with investment articles, this is less about prediction and more about selling. Consider this paragraph from the introduction:

Public schools’ budget limitations have created a surge in alternative avenues of education, for CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Is This How Post-pandemic Ed Tech Will Be Different

Teachers often pay out of pocket for remote teaching tech

Teachers often pay out of pocket for remote teaching tech

Teachers forced to “MacGyver” their own tech solutions

When states don’t reimburse teachers for supplies, they have to figure out ways to make remote teaching work and how to pay for it

Editor’s note: This story led off this week’s Future of Learning newsletter, which is delivered free to subscribers’ inboxes every other Wednesday with trends and top stories about education innovation. Subscribe today!

When Audrey Green, a middle school teacher in Broward County, Florida, began the year working remotely with her students, she had a lot to think about.

She had to establish a personal connection with students she’s never seen face to face and help children develop tools to cope during a pandemic. And she had to handle emotionally heavy issues, like the student who hung around after class online because she said she didn’t want to be alone. All of that while also ensuring they were being challenged academically.

But before she could do any of the hard work of teaching students through a screen, she had to solve another problem. How would she set up those screens in the first place?

Teachers have long spent their own money to outfit their classrooms — on average, teachers spend $459 out of pocket on school supplies annually, according to an analysis of 2011-12 data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics. Some teachers get some of that money back: Several states provide at least partial reimbursement for these expenses and the federal government allows a $250 tax deduction, according to Alyssa Evans, a policy researcher at the Education Commission of the States.

But the national economic crisis means that teachers might be out of CONTINUE READING: Teachers often pay out of pocket for remote teaching tech

Ed Tech Spending Rampaging through North Carolina Public Schools | tultican

Ed Tech Spending Rampaging through North Carolina Public Schools | tultican

Ed Tech Spending Rampaging through North Carolina Public Schools

By Thomas Ultican 10/27/2020

A North Carolina cabal of school superintendents, republican politicians, consultants and technology companies has gone wild over the past seven years. In Chapel Hill, Education Elements obtained an illegitimate $767,000 contract. Chapel Hill-Carborro City Hills Schools (CHCCS) Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance, Jennifer Bennett, supposedly ignored school board policy and agreed to the contract in secret. It seems that when the state and local schools are spending on education technology, policies and law are being ignored.

After the Education Elements negotiations, Bennett sent a message to their Managing Partner, Jason Bedford, saying, “Need to get you guys to modify the [contract] if you can since if we include the whole potential payment value, then we have to take this to the Board since over our $90K threshold ….” This seems very damning, however, local citizens think they are being gas lighted. In the comments section on the school boards web site, several parents expressed the same opinion as parent Jeff Safir who wrote,

“I find it hard to believe that Jennifer Bennett acted alone and was the only person aware of the money being spent on the Education Elements engagement and I don’t understand why she is able to serve out the rest of her contract in an alternate capacity when the position is at-will ….”

Education Elements was created with funding from NewSchools Venture fund and a few other venture capital groups that invest in education startups. As noted in a previous article, “There are few districts in America that do not have CONTINUE READING: Ed Tech Spending Rampaging through North Carolina Public Schools | tultican

Does Classroom Use of Computers Cause Gains in Students’ Academic Achievement? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Does Classroom Use of Computers Cause Gains in Students’ Academic Achievement? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Does Classroom Use of Computers Cause Gains in Students’ Academic Achievement?

A decade ago when a surge of interest in placing computers in classrooms was joined to available public and private money, U.S. schools went on a rampage of buying and distributing devices to students and teachers. At that time I wrote a post about a puzzling fact that was overlooked  or simply ignored:  With increased access to new technologies, there is little reliable and valid evidence showing that these technology investments have yielded gains in student achievement.

That was then and this is now. Amid a pandemic-induced shift of face-to-face lessons to online instruction, the question is irrelevant. The need is that every single public school child must have a device to use for remote instruction.

While there was certainly a digital divide a decade ago even amidst the splurge spending for devices, school closings due to the pandemic have pushed districts to triple-time distribution of devices and Internet connections to families lacking either or both.  Yet, the lack of solid evidence that student computer use–especially now when lessons are online–is strongly associated with increased test scores and other academic outcomes remains puzzling. So I updated that post and publish it now.

After decades of school and classroom use of new technologies, some facts have CONTINUE READING: Does Classroom Use of Computers Cause Gains in Students’ Academic Achievement? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

NYC Educator: The Tech Jaguar Catches Me

NYC Educator: The Tech Jaguar Catches Me

The Tech Jaguar Catches Me

 My last class was the biggest disaster I've experienced in decades. It seemed like anything that could go wrong, did. I wrote a multi-day lesson based on a great video on Apple TV plus. They have a series I've just discovered called Little America, and the second episode is called The Jaguar. 



The story is about a young woman, undocumented but absolutely fluent in English, who's clearly spent most of her life in the United States. She is fairly lost in the beginning of the show, but finds meaning and future by embracing squash, of all things. She falls into this almost entirely by coincidence. I thought it might be inspiring to my students, and I saw multiple aspects worth writing about. I figured I'd spend a few days working on this and make it into a project I could grade.

The first thing that went wrong was when I went to grab my lesson plan from the printer. I'd printed it out earlier, I thought, but it wasn't there. In fact, not only was it not there, but my printer was not even on. Pushing the power button didn't help at all. I finally figured out that the little Dyson hot/ cool thingie I have in my home classroom had blown the power.

My wife decided to help, and went to play with the circuit breakers. Unfortunately, she played with the wrong one, and my internet simply dropped dead. I lost my entire class for a few minutes until she switched it back on. My printer still wasn't working, though, so I grabbed my second laptop and pulled up the document. My printer was still out for some reason, but at least I'd be able to continue my lesson.

So there I was, ready to begin my first video segment. I had a few issues screen sharing that precluded my getting to Apple TV plus, but I finally figured it out. When I got there, though, it kept directing me to the next entry in Little America. I'd stupidly watched a few more episodes, and it didn't seem to want me to review ones I'd already seen. For CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: The Tech Jaguar Catches Me

NANCY BAILEY: Learning Management Software: Necessary Tool, or Wasteful Cash Cow in the Time of Covid-19?

Learning Management Software: Necessary Tool, or Wasteful Cash Cow in the Time of Covid-19?

Learning Management Software: Necessary Tool, or Wasteful Cash Cow in the Time of Covid-19?

By Darren Victory

One thing is clear: Teaching in the age of COVID is no picnic. Teachers, students, and caregivers are struggling to navigate the ongoing crisis in ways that preserve their emotional and physical health. It all feels so chaotic, so disorganized, and at times so… impossible. No wonder wine sales have shot through the roof!

Organization and consistency are difficult to come by when you’re suddenly thrust into the unknown. When I hear from frustrated teachers and caregivers, I often picture a fish (I know, I know… stay with me), swimming upstream against the rapids, racing alongside millions of other fish in a frenetic fight to somehow forget everything it knows about the river in order to build a new home on the shore. Confusing. Terrifying. Overwhelming. But certainly not organized and consistent.

The answer? We need tools to keep us organized, right? We need tools to track student progress, communicate with caregivers, collect student work, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice if a company could offer a solution?

*cue trumpets* Enter the mighty Learning Management System (LMS for short, because education desperately needs more acronyms, initialisms, and other such CONTINUE READING: Learning Management Software: Necessary Tool, or Wasteful Cash Cow in the Time of Covid-19?

CURMUDGUCATION: AI: Still Not Ready for Prime Time

CURMUDGUCATION: AI: Still Not Ready for Prime Time

AI: Still Not Ready for Prime Time

You may recall that Betsy DeVos sued to say, often, that education should be like hailing a Uber (by which she presumably didn't intend to say "available to only a small portion of the population at large). You may also recall that when the awesomeness of Artificial Intelligence is brought up, sometimes in conjunction with how great an AI computer would be at educating children.

Yes, this much salt

Well, here comes reminder #4,756,339 that this kind of talk should be taken with an acre of salt. This time it's an article in The Information by Amir Efrati, and it starts out like this:

After five years and an investment of around $2.5 billion, Uber’s effort to build a self-driving car has produced this: a car that can’t drive more than half a mile without encountering a problem.

We're talking $2.5 billion-with-a-B dollars spent with nothing usable to show for it. Unfortunate for something that has been deemed for Uber as "key to its path to profitability." Meanwhile, corporations gotta corporate-- a "self-driving" Uber killed a pedestrian in Temp, Arizona back in 2018, and the court has just ruled that while Uber itself is off the hook, the "safety driver" will be charged with negligent homicide. She mad the not-very-bright assumption that the car could do what its backers said it could do.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has absorbed partnered with OpenAI, the folks whose GPT-3 language emulator program is giving everyone except actual English speakers chills of excitement. Not CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: AI: Still Not Ready for Prime Time

Worlds of Education: "The Edtech Pandemic Shock", by Ben Williamson & Anna Hogan | National Education Policy Center

Worlds of Education: "The Edtech Pandemic Shock", by Ben Williamson & Anna Hogan | National Education Policy Center

Worlds of Education: "The Edtech Pandemic Shock", by Ben Williamson & Anna Hogan

The Covid-19 pandemic was the context for two major disruptions in education. The first was the disruption to schooling for millions of students worldwide, and a rapid shift to remote learning online. The second, closely related disruption was the entry of the commercial education technology sector into public education at worldwide scale, and its attempts to profit from the shock of the pandemic.

In our recent project for Education International on commercialization and privatization of education in the context of Covid-19, we mapped the range of ways in which the private sector and commercial businesses capitalized on the crisis of school closures. Our findings suggest that commercial companies were not only seeking short-term profit during the pandemic. They were active participants in multisector networks that are fundamentally committed to ‘reimagining’ and transforming how public education as a sector is organized in the future.  

Reimagining education

The experience of the pandemic in education has been characterized by some as a historic opportunity for reform. Pivoting to remote learning was the ‘greatest edtech experiment’ in history, claimed some media sources. Digital learning was a ‘microcosm’ of the future in the making. The OECD’s director of education, Andreas Schleicher, said it was ‘a great moment’ in which all the ‘red tape’ stifling innovation in public education had been cut away.

These imaginaries of historic opportunities quickly manifested in practical actions. In New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo drafted in the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to ‘reimagine education’ for the state, and to put Gates’s longstanding reformatory ideas into action.

 ‘The old model of everybody goes and sits in a classroom and the teacher is in front of that classroom, and teaches that class, and you do that all across the city, all across the state, all these buildings, all these physical classrooms – why, with all the technology you have?’ asked Cuomo. The alternative path, it seemed, was obvious—tear down the existing system of CONTINUE READING: Worlds of Education: "The Edtech Pandemic Shock", by Ben Williamson & Anna Hogan | National Education Policy Center