483. How Big Tech Captured Classrooms (ft. Jessica Winter)

We are joined by Jessica Winter – writer at The New Yorker covering edtech and education policy — for a wide-ranging conversation about how school systems have become totally integrated with big tech companies like Google. Not only have schools become dependent on these corporate platforms, with the rise of AI they also have been captured by pedagogical ideas of vibes-based learning. We chat about the edtech experiments in schools, the discredited learning frameworks, the conflicts of interest and corporate capture, the lack of progressive policy visions, and much more.
••• What Will It Take to Get A.I. Out of Schools? https://www.newyorker.com/culture/progress-report/what-will-it-take-to-get-ai-out-of-schools
••• What We Lost When Big Tech Took Over the Classroom https://www.newyorker.com/culture/progress-report/what-we-lost-when-big-tech-took-over-the-classroom
••• Does the D.S.A. Have a Vision for Public Schools in New York? https://www.newyorker.com/culture/progress-report/does-the-dsa-have-a-vision-for-public-schools-in-new-york
••• The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/the-rise-and-fall-of-vibes-based-literacy
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)