By Paul Horton. It is clear to most critics and economic commentators that digital technology is displacing work and cheapening much of the work that remains. Amazon is likely to replace many warehouse jobs with robots once robots are created that can grasp packages. The consulting firm McKinsey predicts that …
By Paul Horton. Technopoly and Addiction In his recent novel,Purity, Jonathan Franzen nearly kills off an expert hacker who is addicted to a video game that he plays without sleep or food to compete at higher and higher levels against players from all over the world. The hacker is not aware that he is dying as …
By John Thompson. Part One of Two. Read Part Two here. The theme of the Network for Public Education’s fifth annual conference was that corporate reformers have lost the “David versus Goliath” battle over public education. We public school supporters have defeated the privatization campaign known as …
By Paul Horton. As concerns about a return of monopoly capitalism seem to be bubbling up in national political discussions from the progressive left and the libertarian right, in education circles a growing counter-discourse is emerging to challenge the digitalization of the education and learning. Teachers have …
By John Thompson. Why do underfunded, high-poverty urban school districts keep diverting the energies of educators to experiments pushed by consultants? For example, Tulsa is led by Broad Academy alumnus, Deborah Gist, who has stuffed the TPS administration with Broadies. Tulsa has a lot of funding advantages …
By John Thompson. David Callahan’s The Givers begins with the first politicized think tanks of the 1960s and 1970s, such as the American Enterprise Institute. At least these rightwing organizations were open about their desire to maximize profits. But as Callahan shows, they led the way to neo-liberal …
By Anthony Cody. Bill Gates has posted a blog in which he argues for government investment in various sectors, including educational technology. He suggests that the government should: Provide everyone on earth with affordable energy without contributing to climate change. Develop a vaccine for HIV and a cure for …
By Anthony Cody. Some have argued recently that the Opt Out movement is dead because it has actually become helpful to those promoting constant online testing, since it interferes with the annual standardized tests. Since the annual tests can be replaced by online monitoring of student performance, this will be …
By Anthony Cody. The rise of Competency Based Education as a supposed alternative to schooling driven by standardized tests is prompting an interesting debate. I first wrote about CBE last November, in response to a version offered by tech-ed entrepreneur Tom Vander Ark. My primary concern was that teacher and …
By Anthony Cody. I was recently invited to speak at a conference in another state. Since I could not make it there in person, I recorded my thoughts on this video. Here is the text of my remarks: Privateers and Profiteers: How and Why are they Undermining Public Education? As we near the end of the Obama …