Billionaires, Influencers, and Ed Tech
by Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna, and Adrienne Williams
New(ish) technology, same people and problems. This episode of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 explores the ways billionaires with little-to-no experience in education continue pushing solutions based on... what they guess teaching entails?
Adrienne Williams (former educator and current researcher/organizer) reflects:
Most of what I did as a teacher wasn't actually the learning. The kids pick up that learning very quickly if they're happy and they're comfortable and they've eaten food and they aren't being bullied.
...
When they have ten thousand other things going on in their head, the last thing that's going to help is some vacant AI bot just saying whatever, hallucinating whenever it wants to.
The whole episode is worth a listen, but if you're in a crunch you can read the transcript. Other highlights include:
- Bill Gates has a history of unilaterally pushing education "reforms" without consulting actual educators, only realizing and acknowledging they don't work after permanently altering the American education system
- Silicon Valley "disrupters" exclusively experiment on students in the poorest, least-funded districts because top-rated schools (where they likely send their own children) don't consider the products to be as revolutionary as they claim
- AI platforms tend to provide "blueprints" that are only effective when teachers put in time, energy, and expertise to fill in the gaps