I am in the process of creating an online toolkit for parents, teachers, and community members fighting the Ed Reform 2.0 agenda of digital curriculum, learning ecosystems and outsourced/badged education. My intent is to: organize the research I have been doing and make it more accessible; link to related work being done by others; provide informational materials (handouts/slide shares) that people can use in their communities; and feature personal stories of digital takeovers and acts of resistance. I have the general framework up now and will gradually fill out the content. It’s called WrenchesOfResistance.
We know that implementation of digital curriculum has been ramping up since the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act. Parents are often not aware of how much time their children are spending on technology daily, what programs are being used, or how this shift is impacting the culture of the classroom.
I see the online form linked here and embedded below as serving three purposes:
- If you have a story to tell right now, this is a space to share it! I want to use excerpts from some of the narrative submissions on the testimonials page of the toolkit. They would be anonymous, but include city and state so we can see the wide distribution of these programs. If you choose to submit a form, please do not include anything you prefer not be made public.
- If you need help thinking through the new place of technology in the classroom, these questions can be used to spark conversations: parent to parent, parent to teacher, or teacher to teacher.
- If you are motivated, print out the questions, arrange a time to talk to your child’s teacher, gather as many responses as you can, and then share your findings with us using the online form so we can start to get a picture of what this looks like nationwide. Teachers, you are welcome to use the form and share this information with us directly. None of the responses are required, so feel free to answer as many or as few as you like.
Parents, teachers, and even students are welcome to make a submission.
For those who are not teaching in or who do not have children enrolled in a fully-implemented, “personalized,” 1:1 device, “Future-Ready” district, it can be hard to visualize the harm being done. I have created this online form to gather information and stories. I hope some of you will be willing to share your experiences with digital curriculum and its impact on our humanity. Thanks in advance!
