Schools have embraced apps and remote classes in the past year. Some see benefits in virtual learning but others fear the impact on disadvantaged children and privatisation by stealth
CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on The Guardian
Edtech companies, both large and small, have seen major user number growth, thanks to COVID-19. Critics fear this could lead to the erosion of some core principles of state provision. “If we understand privatisation as the provision by the private sector of services traditionally provided by the state then, during the pandemic, a vast part of schooling in the UK has been privatised,” says Ben Williamson, an education researcher at the University of Edinburgh.
“Getting into schools, at very large scale, positions Google, Microsoft and others to keep rolling out their new model of ever-more digital schooling, based on data analytics, artificial intelligence and automated, adaptive functions.”
Ben is not alone in warning that the pandemic is driving a form of stealth privatisation. “Once schools become dependent on the tech giants’ systems for teaching in class, homework, management and communications – and once a certain threshold is reached in the number of schools they operate in – then the state delivery of education becomes entirely dependent on private companies,” says Jen Persson of the campaign group Defend Digital Me.
Meanwhile, there has been a huge growth in the direct-to-consumer digital education market during the pandemic, as highlighted in “Commercialisation and privatisation in/of education in the context of COVID-19”, a report co-authored by Ben Williamson and published by the international teaching union umbrella organisation Education International in July.
While edtech has many critics, there are also plenty who highlight potential benefits. Bukky Yusuf is a senior leader and science lead at the Edith Kay Independent School, an independent secondary in Brent, north London, which specialises in special educational needs provision. She was concerned about switching to greater edtech use because many of her pupils thrive through active, hands-on engagement.
Pleasantly surprised
Bukky was, however, pleasantly surprised, saying it helped students engage better, gain more control over their learning, and work in ways that suited their needs. “A virtual learning set-up also helped minimise anxieties for some, as they had options about when and how they could engage, through video, audio or a chat feature.”
Having organised their own digital training sessions, staff at Barham Primary School, in Wembley, say they now feel better prepared to teach remotely. Teachers there have found that combining traditional classroom and online teaching has increased parental engagement, enhanced pupils’ computer skills and improved monitoring of teaching standards.
“We’re forever changed,” says senior leader Laura Alexander. “Blended learning works for both staff and children. Sometimes, on Google Classroom, you see a child saying, ‘I’m not sure how to do that’, and then you see a trail of children saying ‘Try this, try that, I did this’. Five minutes later, you go on as class teacher and they’ve sorted it out themselves.”
Those voicing concerns stress they are not against digital tools per se; rather they question the growing role of those with financial interests in edtech in determining how they are used and in shaping the way schools are run. “Big-tech billionaires have an oversized influence in shaping education policy,” says Audrey Watters, a US journalist who has been covering edtech since 2010. “Some of these companies pay very, very low taxes, and their responsibilities are to start contributing properly in taxes, not to provide free Chromebooks.
“We need schools to be more about what the public wants and not what edtech companies want them to look like.”
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