Trojan Tech

Discussion and debate concerning the privatization of public schooling in the US often revolves around vouchers and charters. But the chipping away at school autonomy and public commitment to private financing began quite some time ago. One of the "stealth" areas of public tax money going to private companies that often flies under the radar is "educational" technology. It was, without doubt, the greatest trojan horse foisted on the education establishment since the mega publishing of textbooks. (And often the same companies own both.)

When I was beginning my education classes in higher ed., the technology "miracle" was just beginning to be touted (post overhead projector miracle, that is.) A supposed revolution from the humble chalkboard, the overhead was supposed to add volumes of time to instruction since rewriting on a board wouldn't be necessary. You could also project transparencies and add images to classroom teaching.

Every room ended up with an overhead, whether used much or not. And, not surprisingly, it wasn't a silver bullet for educational improvement. Once classrooms were full of overheads, the publishers of books added overhead transparencies to their collection of "must buys."

Computers were the save-all in my education classes. Their potential seemed to be unlimited and most everyone was convinced that students somehow were so enthralled with computers and their screens that you could buy motivation and interest. First came the hardware and limited functions like simple math programs and word processing. Soon the educational software came, often, like transparencies, correlated with the textbooks. Then Microsoft began addicting the educational establishment to their products by "giving" discounts or whole computers to schools. Everything became essential to student learning and educational improvement. The newest software, the newest design, the newest motivator all were sold as if without them, education would be in the dark ages.

I can't conceive of the billions/trillions of dollars that have flowed into the educational technology products of the last few decades. And Microsoft's addiction strategy, like a good drug dealer, worked tremendously well. Do they work? Some do, and quite well. But why hasn't the educational establishment produced them? And, if education is so hallowed, why didn't companies offer the educational products for free?

Microsoft XP, Office, Powerpoint, Student Information Systems, curricula supplements, and full curricula delivery, on and on, billions of dollars spent from local school districts straight to corporate America. Often at extremely inflated prices, even at pretended "educational discounts." The Trojan horse was to shove the hardware into the classroom, and soak education for all it was worth for the actual content.

Before the corporate assault on the Internet (which continues), there was a small shining light out there that believed in collaborative software offered free to the community of users. As districts struggle under funding limitations, they need to reflect on whether they can afford something like Microsoft Office, or if a free, open source software package like OpenOffice.org couldn't save millions for more important use elsewhere. Firefox should be the standard educational browser; Wikipedia [and other Wiki projects] the standard encyclopedia; free web hosting services the standard for teacher/educational web pages; free internet classroom spaces such as Nicenet.org. There are thousands of programs and software packages out there available for education that would circumvent the Trojan Tech world. And the more educators use them and become involved, the less money will have to be fed to the educational corporate machine.

Let's not be suckers.