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The EdTech Backlash Is Here, and It's Just Getting Started (jacobin.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Tech vendors promised personalized, frictionless learning. What American schools got instead was mind-numbing, data-hungry junk software that devalues teachers and shortchanges students. A growing movement, led by alarmed parents, is saying enough.

Technology’s allure is always future oriented: Personal computing was going to supercharge productivity; social media and smartphones would strengthen interpersonal connections; and now AI will streamline the world of work. And for three-quarters of a century, education technology vendors have promised to optimize student learning and eliminate the busywork of teaching. But as Charles Logan, T. Philip Nichols, and Antero Garcia recently argued in Kappan, “the future they’re selling has not arrived — and perhaps it never will. But de-skilling, surveillance, and extraction — all of that is happening now, in our classrooms, today.”

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[–] 56 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Like healthcare, education and tech should be a good pairing but money is always driving the tech, which leverages the learner for profit. - Money should not be in healthcare, education and of course other sectors. There are some good uses, assistive tech, Moocs etc but anything commercial is predatory. Khan sold out years ago with the app and gamification.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Gamification per se is not a bad thing. Gamification is anvalid way to get better engagement and retention.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago*

    According to recent research, yes.

    But research is lacking in the retention of skills and knowledge once the gamification is removed.

    Does Duolingo create life long learners, or is it just something to pass the time and feel good about getting a score streak.

    My theory is almost all Duolingo users would quit learning if Duolingo went away tomorrow and everyone has to restart at 0 on a new app/service.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    When gamification is used to persuade or hold a user into a subscribed service. Its predatory. It can be used to influence or motivate learners, classroom or online. But when used to further you being on the app, its not good.

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    • [–] 21 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    Is there any other useful edtech than the FOSS app Anki?

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  • [–] 17 points 5 months ago

    Came here to say this: Anki is infinitely better than some scammy ai enabled nonsense.

    The challenge is Anki relies on the student being motivated to pursue the education. The solution to that is the student seeing the value and fun in what they're learning. That can partially be provided by gamification, but really a passionate teacher with genuine enthusiasm is the best.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago

    My hot take is that mainstream software technology hasn’t worked out how to be useful enough to be good in education and is now currupyrd by get rich quick start up mentalities, when really it needs the kind of open ended research that created the PC in the 60s & 70s.

    Generally speaking, in a Bret Victor kind of way, enhancing human thinking behaviours and practices just feels like a purpose that has been left behind, probably since web and big data took over.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Khan academy

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  • [–] 22 points 5 months ago

    Khan Academy has been on the enshitification journey for a while now.

    Sal Khan in 2023 proudly proclaimed that AI could revolutionise EdTech with highly personalised tutoring, and made Khan Academy go all in on AI with their Khanmigo AI assistant tutor. Part of this ted talk explicitly has the AI pretend to be historical figures for assistance in history.

    Three years later, Sal Khan admitted what all teachers already knew: that the AI tutor failed because most students didn't even both with it. Digging through forums reveals the similar suite of reasons: factual inaccuracies, inability to understand basic arithmetic, and opaque pricing based on "usage."

    Didn't stop him from partnering with big tech to offer $10K bachelor degrees though.

    Sal Khan: How AI could save (not destroy) education | TED Talk - https://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_how_ai_could_save_not_destroy_education

    Why Sal Khan is rethinking how AI will change schools - Chalkbeat - https://www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/09/sal-khan-reflects-on-ai-in-schools-and-khanmigo/

    This CEO has teamed up with Google, Microsoft, and McKinsey to build an AI degree that could rival Harvard—and it will cost only $10,000 to attend | Fortune - https://fortune.com/2026/04/15/sal-khan-ceo-khan-academy-google-microsoft-ted-ets-higher-education-institute-bachelors-applied-ai-gen-z-college-upskilling/

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    • [–] 9 points 5 months ago

    all downhill from maths invaders https://archive.org/details/MATHSINV_zip

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    [–] 5 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Kolibri is dope

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    • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    ABOUT FUCKING TIME

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    1 comment in c/enshitification@slrpnk.net view that post
    [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    My school has done a complete 180 over the last few years from having iPads for each student and tech heavy lesson plans to pen and paper, cursive, and physical math manipulatives.

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    1 comment in c/technology@lemmy.zip view that post
    [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    Jacobin Mugatu?

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