Meet the Mom Winning Against AI in Schools

You in the last few months have become, how shall I put this, a thorn maybe in the side of some unsuspecting public school officials who made the mistake really of thinking that they could very casually roll out technology in a school district without much thought to really anything it sounds like.

We're asking everyone we talked to this month if they can like describe or define in their words like what EdTech is.

I

think that my definition of EdTech is very different from most people's because where I see it from is my first year at Google in 2015 when I was working there and there was a big push to get Chromebooks in every school.

And internally, the understanding was not only is this a way to buy goodwill with policymakers in the school districts and states where these are passed out, but this is a way to develop lifelong Google users.

Because the earlier you are introduced to a platform or hardware, the harder it is for you later on to switch to something else, which is, in my opinion, I've never worked at Apple.

But part of the reason why Apple was like, oh, shoot, all of these schools are using Chromebooks.

Now we need to get iPads in the schools because if all of the kids are used to...

The big bubble Mac computers.

It was the only time you used a Mac was in school.

Exactly.

And those were devices that you had to go either to a separate space like a computer lab to use, or you had one in the classroom and kids would have to share.

Those were not one-to-one devices.

But what one-to-one device use does, even though the claim from the companies was, oh, equity and we're getting devices in front of kids whose parents wouldn't be able to afford them.

is ensure that these kids become loyal users for whatever platform is in front of them and presented to them as young as five.

For me, when I think of educational technology at tech, I think of ways that companies have figured out to funnel public funds towards massive contracts that are rarely vetted, where there's rarely transparency and Almost never consent from the individual users because you have consent being provided by a district usually because usually that's the lowest level of consent.

You're not even getting consent from individual principals or individual teachers because, God forbid, we ask teachers what they think and what they believe is helpful in their classroom.

Yeah.

So you have district level consent, sometimes state level consent for massive contracts.

And this to me at the end of the day is about money.

Are there instances where EdTech may have been helpful? Sure.

Is that a fair trade-off for the amount of money in our public school system that we all pay for, whether you have kids in the system or not? If you are a taxpayer, you are contributing to these contracts that are going to companies that have been the good guys in the tech industry from the beginning.

but really have fewer checks, honestly, than some of the biggest tech companies because they're seen as being additive and helpful and there's no questioning those claims.

You in the last few months have become, how shall I put this, a thorn maybe in the side of some unsuspecting public school officials who made the mistake really of thinking that they could very casually roll out technology in a school district without much thought to really anything it sounds like.

We're asking everyone we talked to this month if they can like describe or define in their words like what EdTech is.

I

think that my definition of EdTech is very different from most people's because where I see it from is my first year at Google in 2015 when I was working there and there was a big push to get Chromebooks in every school.

And internally, the understanding was not only is this a way to buy goodwill with policymakers in the school districts and states where these are passed out, but this is a way to develop lifelong Google users.

Because the earlier you are introduced to a platform or hardware, the harder it is for you later on to switch to something else, which is, in my opinion, I've never worked at Apple.

But part of the reason why Apple was like, oh, shoot, all of these schools are using Chromebooks.

Now we need to get iPads in the schools because if all of the kids are used to...

The big bubble Mac computers.

It was the only time you used a Mac was in school.

Exactly.

And those were devices that you had to go either to a separate space like a computer lab to use, or you had one in the classroom and kids would have to share.

Those were not one-to-one devices.

But what one-to-one device use does, even though the claim from the companies was, oh, equity and we're getting devices in front of kids whose parents wouldn't be able to afford them.

is ensure that these kids become loyal users for whatever platform is in front of them and presented to them as young as five.

For me, when I think of educational technology at tech, I think of ways that companies have figured out to funnel public funds towards massive contracts that are rarely vetted, where there's rarely transparency and Almost never consent from the individual users because you have consent being provided by a district usually because usually that's the lowest level of consent.

You're not even getting consent from individual principals or individual teachers because, God forbid, we ask teachers what they think and what they believe is helpful in their classroom.

Yeah.

So you have district level consent, sometimes state level consent for massive contracts.

And this to me at the end of the day is about money.

Are there instances where EdTech may have been helpful? Sure.

Is that a fair trade-off for the amount of money in our public school system that we all pay for, whether you have kids in the system or not? If you are a taxpayer, you are contributing to these contracts that are going to companies that have been the good guys in the tech industry from the beginning.

but really have fewer checks, honestly, than some of the biggest tech companies because they're seen as being additive and helpful and there's no questioning those claims.