Too much tech, too little learning? | Episode 1033 of The Education Gadfly Show

[upbeat music] All right, gang, I, I know I'm getting right to business today.

I'm-- no, no small talk for me, but it's just 'cause we have so much to unpack here on this, uh, shameless self-promotion version of the podcast.

Hey, this, this is, if I say so myself, in a really super cool survey that we have designed and put into the field and got some really interesting responses to.

You know, I've, I'm sure I've said this before on the show, but I will repeat it, which is that when it comes to survey research, i- certainly in our field, but in general, I'm not a big fan of issue research when you ask, especially just sort of random voters or parents, "Hey, let me ask you about some complicated education policy topic you've never really thought about before," or, you know, and see what you think about some various forced choices.

And by the way, let me use some language and choose the wording so that you give the response I'm hoping you'll give so I can use it in my advocacy.

Uh, that, n- I, I don't find that super helpful.

Not to say that s- you know, tracking some opinions in education isn't valuable.

I think stuff that everybody can kind of understand and relate to, and maybe there's a controversy, okay.

But, but again, we know that a lot of these are, are push polls.

Here at Fordham, uh, when we get the opportunity to put a survey out there, what we prefer to do is use it to ask people in our schools what the heck is going on, uh, because we have so little information, right, about what is actually happening in America's schools.

Like, we see it through maybe our own kids' school, you know, and, and we see it through the lens of the media, the reporters who go out there and look in schools.

But, you know, those are anecdotes, right? So how do we know what's actually happening? Well, until people finally do what I'm asking and put videos or Alexas in every classroom so we can just watch and listen in and find out what's happening, you know, the camera, once we put fly cameras in every classroom, I mean, I think that'll be super.

That, that is the way I'm gonna sell it.

Until then, asking teachers or students what's happening in their schools is a pretty cool way to find out what's happening.

So in this case, we got to ask students as well as recent graduates.

These are high school students, recent high school graduates.

Worked with, uh, some great firms, Impact Research and Up One Insights, to ask a bunch of questions with a focus on technology, on AI, on grading standards, some things that we care a lot about.

And look, there's been a bunch of surveys lately.

N- not too many focused on kids, but some, and we think this one, though, you know, is, of course, the best that's been out there, uh, but also asked some questions that other people didn't ask.

So, phew, with all that lead in, let's get started.