This weekend I relished the opportunity to meet up with some wonderful activists with whom I have been collaborating online for many months. Virtual worlds provide useful starting points for building networks and sharing information, but nothing beats being able to be in the same physical space, shake hands, share a hug, and discuss the future of education looking directly into each […]
Earlier today I posted the following comment on Diane Ravitch’s March 12 post “Send a Message to Betsy DeVos: Opt Out of Federally Mandated Testing.” I second Former Teacher’s comments regarding the damage interim assessments are doing to the educational process. Opt Out can no longer simply be focused on end of year testing. It MUST expand […]
From this week’s newsfeed: Chicago schools may end classes three weeks early due to lack of funding. Several dozen Detroit schools close temporarily due to a “boil water” advisory. Some Boston schools anticipate 20%+ cuts to already meager budgets. Philadelphia teachers crowd-fund a billboard explaining they’ve been working without a contract or raises for nearly […]
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Future Ready Schools: How Silicon Valley and the Defense Department Plan to Remake Public Education: A talk by Alison McDowell
03
Mar
Mar
Do you live in the Seattle area or have friends who do? I’ll be presenting there on March 25th.
“DeVos doesn’t think we should be funding school buildings as much as students.” The line caught my eye as I scrolled through social media this weekend. How could it not? I’ve been working hard over the past year to try and convince other education activists that the true endgame of the reform movement is to […]
30
Jan
Jan
Those seeking to privatize our schools know framing the conversation is key. That’s why institutions like the MacArthur Foundation have put serious time and money into social science research. Focus group results have been refined into sophisticated campaigns designed to convince us that digital education for children is superior to face-to-face instruction with a certified teacher. The […]
You cannot fully understand what is happening with Future Ready school redesign, 1:1 device programs, embedded assessments, gamification, classroom management apps, and the push for students in neighborhood schools to supplement instruction with online courses until you grasp the role the federal government and the Department of Defense more specifically have played in bringing us […]
Knowing that not many people are going to dive into a one-hour talk, I tried to distill the main points from “Ed Reform 2.0-Personalized Learning in Orwellian Times” down to a 4-minute video introduction. Forgive my terrible handwriting and sketching. But that aside, do you think I’m getting closer to a message that people can […]
I gave this talk yesterday to a couple of groups of Philadelphia teachers and activists who wanted to better understand the ways education reform will be changing post-ESSA. The push for conditioning and compliance will continue as we finalize the transition to an education system where surveillance is branded as data-driven “personalization” and devices monitor our children’s classrooms continuously. […]
This post was originally written this past fall as a FB note, but I am posting it here now so that it can be more widely available. “Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning” is a book and an educational program developed by education theorists Charles Schwahn and Bea McGarvey. Is is one of a number of “personalized” […]