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Patrick Masson

From a discussion on a major forum by a senior campus leader,

"We are a school…"

If the comment was, "We are a Coca-Cola school," I suspect we'd hear concerns: marketing products to students, corporate influence in , even health & safety/quality (all BTW applicable to Google).

If you believe Google (or , ) is a "global standard," the same case can be made for Coca-Cola (Pepsi). I doubt stating such an alignment would be so promoted.

@massonpj You can't attend public schoolboard meetings unless you're wearing Nike shoes.

@massonpj I disagree.

I have concerns about technology indoctrination in school, but Google provides enterprise class products that students use to learn real world skills.

In addition, when someone says "We are a Google school..." my first question would be "How many teachers are certified and at what level?" Certifications show that teachers are proficient in leveraging technology to improve learning. There may be non-Google options but I've not heard of a Pepsi certification.

@tommorris @scerruti

I don't know what "enterprise class" means.

After 25+ years in EdTech & HigherEd, I've come to believe "enterprise class" is marketing jargon—not a technical term—most often employed by procurement managers to justify a contracting decision.

TBH I don't know if I've ever met a software development team—open source or proprietary—who wouldn't claim their work is "enterprise class." Although I'd note proprietary vendors often disparage OSS options as, not enterprise ready.

@tommorris @massonpj Ahh, stop trying to make me think, it's my day off.

MW says, "Enterprise-class refers to the ability of a given tool or product to handle complex processes or services."

As a CTE teacher one of my goals is preparation for the workforce. There's a bit of crystal ball gazing, but I need to focus on the tools I believe will be in common use, not use my position to attempt to shape our collective future. That's what I mean by the term.

@scerruti @massonpj Pretty much everything I've used that's described as enterprise software wouldn't satisfy that definition. </troll>

Seriously though, I'm not convinced learning the "wrong" tool is a problem. When I was in school, we used MS Office from the Win 3.1 then 9x era - generic office suite skills are pretty transferable to GDocs, iWork, LibreOffice etc.

The concern is the lack of meaningful choice about privacy if every student has to use Google (or Microsoft's) cloud service.

@scerruti @massonpj It's sad that the first interaction many young people are going to have with tech is their school requiring them to agree to an end-user license agreement with Google, Apple, Microsoft etc.

But, yeah, schools and teaching has to match reality, I guess.

@tommorris @massonpj are you current on FERPA?

How do you feel about these statements?

@scerruti @massonpj No, I'm in the UK. I've sort of vaguely been tracking the equivalent in UK/EU land around GDPR, the Age Appropriate Design Code and so on. I'm glad that's being sorted.

@scerruti @tommorris

(Sorry not sure if you're asking me.)

I feel those statements represent excellent marketing collateral:

I feel this is reality:
firewalltimes.com/google-data-

I don't doubt Google's or any other organization's commitment to security and privacy ("security and privacy," another subjective phrase).

Indeed I've yet to see any company state anything other than something similar to the examples above (much like I've never seen anyone say their software is not "enterprise ready").

Firewall TimesGoogle Data Breaches: Full Timeline Through 2023In January 2023, some data pertaining to Google Fi customers was compromised in a breach of T-Mobile. Otherwise, the most recent Google data breach occurred in December 2018, when a bug exposed the…

@massonpj @tommorris if you are worried about data breaches of student information I would argue, based on recent events and the overall trends, that school districts would do worse alone than partnered with Google. When you buy Workspace for Education you do it through a partner who is supposed to help you deal with threats.

And again, if you want to look at school systems that have been compromised it's typically not Google or Microsoft but PowerSchool and other SIS/LMS.

@scerruti @tommorris

I suppose the perspective I've tried to thread through this entire exchange, i.e., what I am worried about (apparently unsuccessfully), is that over-resourced corporations are manipulating under-resourced organizations (i.e., schools) in order to achieve their real objectives.

While promoting educational value, credentialing, real-life/job skills, enterprise readiness, etc. they actually deliver vendor lock-in, proprietary standards, rising costs, inflexibility, etc.

@massonpj @tommorris I think you have a valid point, but criticizing how schools present themselves is problematic.

In the US, much of what is done at schools with technology is via the e-rate program which requires competitive bidding. This favors established organizations over open source. There has to be specific changes made in how funds are allocated rather than school decision making to effect this change. Additionally in the US, IT staff in schools are typically paid less.

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@massonpj @tommorris real change may have to come from countries like Brazil that have recognized the need to control their own digital infrastructure. Now we just need to figure out how to develop and/or integrate a broad range of tools into a system built for teachers and students.

@massonpj Are McDonalds canteens still a thing in US schools?

@smithjonathan
Even better…

Schools can take advantage of, "McDonald's Education - Free Teacher Resources," including a "From the Farm" module where students "Design a new hot breakfast product."

Perhaps "We're a McDonald's School"—and the obvious(?) detriments—is easier to grasp than the analogy of, "We're a Coca-Cola school" and "We're a school."

Same issues: marketing to students, influence, they even site Gatsby benchmarks (certification).

mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/teacher

www.mcdonalds.comMcDonald's Education - Free Teacher Resources | McDonald's UK

@massonpj the weird thing is that my high school was "a Pepsi school", tho nobody would actually say it like that.

The school had vending machines for snacks and drinks, and they contracted that service out - and the company that handled that was Pepsi.

I wonder if that's changed since I was in school. I know there was some pushback against the sugary drink problem.

On the other hand, the vending machine briefly stocked Pepsi Blue, which was pretty awesome…