21 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
How to Create and Maintain Civil Society Space
This policy memo was submitted to the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights in September 2015, in response to a call for consultations on the international challenge of how to create and maintain civil society space. The authors review the commercial colonization of public space, particularly in schools, and discuss how the city of Sao Paulo's experience with its "Clean City Law" demonstrates both how unrestrained commercial communication constrains the public sphere and how that constraint may be effectively removed. They recommend a parallel policy banning commercial communication in schools, in order to provide students with the space in which to consider visions for themselves other than as consumers and to contemplate social and cultural values that have no commercial purpose
Recommended from our members
Adrift: Schools in a Total Marketing Environment. The Tenth Annual Report on Schoolhouse Commercialism Trends: 2006-2007
Commercialism appears to be alive and well, in society at large and in schools. In 2007, we see a marketing environment that recognizes few boundaries. Advertisers ply their trade wherever they can and even engage consumers as collaborators in their marketing strategies. This “total environment” of marketing is enabled in part by new technologies that allow advertisements to appear in places they could not have been before, such as video games, social networking websites, and cell phones. It is also the result of greater cultural acceptance of marketing as an everyday fact of life, a friendly political environment, and a willingness on the part of marketers and advertisers to breach boundaries that previously limited their activities. Whereas, for example, there used to be a clear boundary between “editorial content” (e.g., television programming, magazine articles, or school curricula) and advertisements, we now see the judges on American Idol sipping from Coca-Cola cups, the debonair cavemen from Geico commercials starring in their own television program, and Disney Publishing providing comics to schools for a reading program
Recommended from our members
On the Block: Student Data and Privacy in the Digital Age
Computer technology has made it possible to aggregate, collate, analyze, and store massive amounts of information about students. School districts and private companies that sell their services to the education market now regularly collect such information, raising significant issues about the privacy rights of students.
Most school districts lack the resources to manage all of the student data that federal and state laws now require that they collect and report. As a result, they are likely to hire private vendors to identify, collect, manage, and analyze student data. This has opened up opportunities for private vendors to access student information and to share it with others. Further, the computerization of student work offers opportunities for companies that provide education technology and educational applications to obtain and pass on to third parties information about students.
Which information may be appropriately collected, who has a right to see it, how long the information may be held, and how errors and inaccuracies are to be corrected have become critical policy issues. Important in this mix is that student information, even information in the form of “anonymized” meta-data (or massive amounts of data reported without linking specific information and individuals), is valuable to marketers interested in selling products and services to students and their families.
Because of these critical concerns, this year’s report on school commercializing trends reviews the policy landscape related to student data and assesses the dangers associated with the dearth of policies to protect students and their families from third parties who wish to profit from access to information collected through schools
Recommended from our members
Learning to be Watched: Surveillance Culture at School
Schools now routinely direct children online to do their schoolwork, thereby exposing them to tracking of their online behavior and subsequent targeted marketing. This is part of the evolution of how marketing companies use digital marketing, ensuring that children and adolescents are constantly connected and available to them. Moreover, because digital technologies enable extensive personalization, they amplify opportunities for marketers to control what children see in the private world of their digital devices as well as what they see in public spaces. This year’s annual report on schoolhouse commercialism trends considers how schools facilitate the work of digital marketers and examines the consequent threats to children’s privacy, their physical and psychological well-being, and the integrity of the education they receive. Constant digital surveillance and marketing at school combine to normalize for children the unquestioned role that corporations play in their education and in their lives more generally
Recommended from our members
Schoolhouse Commercialism Leaves Policymakers Behind
The Sixteenth Annual Report on Schoolhouse Commercializing Trends finds that, in a context of fierce corporate opposition to regulation, lack of concern in the education sector about commercialism, and a general assumption by stakeholders that school participation in marketing programs is a constructive way to raise money little state or federal legislation related to school commercialism was signed into law in 2012 or 2013. Advocacy groups within the United States and internationally are, however, increasingly aware of the threats that marketing programs pose to children, especially in the areas of nutrition and privacy. The report outlines the threats that commercializing activities in schools pose to the health and well-being of students and to the integrity of schools’ educational programs, and recommends that policymakers ban them outright unless an independent entity certifies that a proposed commercializing activity will cause no harm to children or otherwise undermine the quality of their education
Recommended from our members
Big Claims, Little Evidence, Lots of Money: The Reality Behind the Summit Learning Program and the Push to Adopt Digital Personalized Learning Platforms
Virtual learning and personalized learning have been at the forefront of education reform discussions for over a decade. Backed by almost $200 million philanthropic dollars from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, the Gates Foundation, and others, Summit Public Schools has aggressively marketed its Summit Learning Platform to schools across the United States since 2015. As a result, the Summit Learning Program is now one of the most prominent digital personalized learning programs in the United States. Its rapid spread—despite a lack of transparency and the absence of convincing evidence that it can deliver on its promises—provides a powerful example of how policymakers are challenged when faced with a well-financed and self-interested push for schools to adopt digital personalized learning programs. There is now an urgent need for policymakers to move quickly to protect the public interest by establishing oversight and accountability mechanisms related to digital platforms and personalized learning programs.</p
Recommended from our members
The Educational Cost of Schoolhouse Commercialism
Over the past several decades, schools have faced increasing pressure to partner with businesses, both to be seen as responsive to the business community and out of the hope that partnerships would help make up budget shortfalls as states reduced public funding for education.
Often, school-business partnerships are little more than marketing arrangements with little if any educational benefit and the potential to harm to children in a variety of ways. The 2010-2011 Annual Report on Schoolhouse Commercializing Trends considers how commercializing activities in schools harm children educationally
Recommended from our members
Asleep at the Switch: Schoolhouse Commercialism, Student Privacy, and the Failure of Policymaking
Digital technologies used in schools are increasingly being harnessed to amplify corporate marketing and profit-making and extend the reach of commercializing activities into every aspect of students’ school lives. In addition to the long-standing goal of providing brand exposure, marketing through education technology now routinely engages students in activities that facilitate the collection of valuable personal data and that socialize students to accept relentless monitoring and surveillance as normal. This year’s 19th annual report on schoolhouse commercialism trends examines how technological advances, the lure of “personalization,” and lax regulation foster the collection of personal data and have overwhelmed efforts to protect children’s privacy.</p
Recommended from our members
Time for a Pause: Without Effective Public Oversight, AI in Schools Will Do More Harm Than Good.
Ignoring their own well-publicized calls to regulate AI development and to pause implementation of its applications, major technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Meta are racing to fend off regulation and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their platforms. The weight of the available evidence suggests that the current wholesale adoption of unregulated AI applications in schools poses a grave danger to democratic civil society and to individual freedom and liberty. Years of warnings and precedents have highlighted the risks posed by the widespread use of pre-AI digital technologies in education, which have obscured decision-making and enabled student data exploitation. Without effective public oversight, the introduction of opaque and unproven AI systems and applications will likely exacerbate these problems. This policy brief explores the harms likely if lawmakers and others do not step in with carefully considered measures to prevent these extensive risks. The authors urge school leaders to pause the adoption of AI applications until policymakers have had sufficient time to thoroughly educate themselves and develop legislation and policies ensuring effective public oversight and control of school applications.</p
Recommended from our members
Personalized Learning and the Digital Privatization of Curriculum and Teaching
Personalized learning programs are proliferating in schools across the United States, fueled by philanthropic dollars, tech industry lobbying, marketing by third-party vendors, and a policy environment that provides little guidance and few constraints.
In this research brief, authors Faith Boninger, Alex Molnar, and Christopher M. Saldaña consider how we got to this point. Beginning with an examination of the history of personalized learning and the key assumptions made by its proponents, they review the research evidence and reflect on the roles and possible impacts of the digital technologies deployed by many programs.
Despite many red flags, the pressure to adopt personalized learning continues to mount. The authors thus recommend that schools and policymakers pause in their efforts to promote and implement personalized learning until rigorous review, oversight, and enforcement mechanisms are established