EdTech Companies Are Preying on Our Children

This episode of Falling for Learning Podcast focuses on the risks associated with popular educational technology tools like iReady, including data mining practices and their effects on learning. This episode sheds light on lawsuits, advocacy efforts, and practical steps for safeguarding students' privacy and fostering genuine learning connections.

Resources & Links:

• Schools Beyond Screens - Advocacy for safe EdTech policies
• Distraction Free Schools California - Initiative combating EdTech overreach and distraction
• iReady Curriculum by Curriculum Associates - Official site for the product discussed

Key topics:

• The legal case against Curriculum Associates over data mining and privacy concerns
• How mandated use of EdTech, like iReady, impacts teaching autonomy and student learning
• The influence of EdTech on student engagement, achievement metrics, and long-term development
• Critical analysis of corporate claims that technology alone boosts academic performance
• Alternatives and advocacy groups fighting for safe, effective EdTech policies
• The long-term effects of excessive screen time: attention fragmentation, dysregulation, deterioration of handwriting and deep reading skills
• Practical advice for parents and teachers to balance technology with traditional learning and human interaction
• The importance of community involvement in decision-making about EdTech contracts and policies

Transcript

0:01

Thank you so much for joining another episode of the Falling for Learning podcast. I am TD Flana. Today we're going to delve into a serious issue that has to do with the ed tech that our students are using in their classrooms. So there is a new lawsuit against a major ed tech company that is making its way across the United States. So we're going to get into it. Is your children's information safe? What do we need to do as parents? What can we do as educators? And so you don't want to miss this episode. If you're a parent, if you're an educator, you're a caregiver, you need to watch this episode so that you can make sure that you know what to do to make sure your children stay on track for learning. and stay on track for success. Okay, so here is what's happening. There is a new lawsuit against curriculum associates. So if you don't know what curriculum associates is, it is a digital, it is an ed tech company that makes digital products for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It's used in the school. so what this new episode, this new policy with this new uh Let me get my words together. This new lawsuit is alleging is that uh there is data mining. Okay, so I'm gonna read from this lawsuit that has been uh filed against curriculum associates so that, and once I say the name, a lot of you are going to know exactly which product this is, and they are really involved in the school. So we're gonna talk about it. So, Curriculum Associates' core business is generating and collecting as much information about the student to use its products as is technologically possible and monetizing that information. So this is what this lawsuit is alleging. The products that are the subject of this complaint are the iReady suite of products which provide student assessment, instruction, and data analytics. So those of you all who are educators, those of you who are parents, you probably know about iReady. And because I have a podcast that focuses on education, I have been in contact with administrators as well as educators in the... state of Florida, in the state of California, in the state of Texas, in the state of Ohio, and all of these places have iReady. So there's four parts that I really want to talk about, really about how it affects teaching and learning. So again, the major problem is in this lawsuit that they are suing for damages is that they are mining data from kids and as much data as possible and selling it to third parties. So that is what this lawsuit is alleging. And, but just to get some understanding about how it is showing up in our schools, how it's affecting teaching and learning is that, so first of all, in all of these states where they use iReady, there is a mandate for it to be used. Meaning that monetarily... Got it. So there's a little issue there. I was trying to see if my microphone was working. It's working. Okay. So monetarily it is having an issue with Um. Let me get regroup, sorry. So with this, is making people use, making teachers use it. They are requiring a certain amount of minutes. And when those minutes don't have, aren't happening, they are sending messages to superintendents, district leaders. And those district leaders are sending information to administrators. Administrators are sending messages to teachers saying those specific kids that do not have the minutes that are required. and really holding teachers accountable for not having those minutes. Now, this is not normal. A lot of times in the past, teachers had some autonomy about what to teach their students based on expertise and experience, right? But IREDi curriculum associates is really taking that autonomy away by the way that they're rolling out this program, making it mandatory for people to use it. and the kids to use it and naming those specific kids that aren't getting those minutes and really making that part of evaluations or part of directives from administrators. So it is very much being pushed as a mandatory thing. So even though it's being sued, and this is not the first lawsuit against IRED or Curriculum Associates, it is still being mandated in the schools. despite that it may be doing harm, it may be doing things against parents and families knowledge and against educators best interest as far as them knowing what our kids need because they have the expertise. Now there are several places that have taken up this issue and there are a couple of them I want to talk to you about today. So there are There is a place called Schools Beyond Screens and it's in and it is calling for teachers and parents to come together to talk about acceptable use policies for educators and for this EdTech. And just to let you know a little bit about their goals, their near-term goals is to reestablish a technology advisory committee comprised of parents, teachers, students, and independent experts. We're not talking about industry influence from EdTech. We're talking about professionals and parents and educators, including students, because we're gonna talk about its effect on students in just a moment. They also are calling for them to block YouTube on student devices at least in TK through five. So allowing teachers to show educational videos, but not having it for students. Now, of course, YouTube has a lot of great things, but obviously with the ads and just the continuous streaming, sometimes it leads students into watching things that they're not supposed to be watching. Also requiring opt-in for any generative AI tools such as Google Gemini or Chat GPT. And providing parents with a weekly report of their students' online activity akin to the weekly schoolager report. Okay, so like whatever their learning management system is for their schools. The long-term goals is to review all EdTech products and policies to ensure they're safe, effective, and legal and place kids' needs over corporate profits. So again, the way that they are giving a mandate that parents and educators need to have their kids on iReady, right, is not always in the best interest of kids because when we're talking about that human to human learning and the expertise of the teachers is being overlooked because of this district contract that they have. for kids to use iReady and it's pushing that if you're using iReady minutes, you are achieving. So that is a big issue, right? As an educator, I feel like we need to really be clear about student achievement. Student achievement is not based on just having students be um on a particular app, right? And a lot of times people work together, right? There's some afterschool tutoring. There are teachers, there's parents, there's interventionists, there's all these different people that come in and work together. And I do not hear at schools where one person is coming in and taking all the credit for the improvement, right? I work with students who are struggling with reading. I do not say, these kids have improved because everything that I've done. negating anything that the teacher has done, negating anything that the parent has done. I don't do that. But when we talk about iReady, oftentimes they're saying because of iReady, these kids have improved. These scores are improving. And that is what's using to draw, they're using that information to drive getting more sales, more district contracts, and it's simply not the truth. Kids, to be educated, to be raised correctly, it takes a village. It also takes a village to educate children. It's what the parents do. It's what the teacher does. It's what all those extra people do. The interventionist, the, all those things. So it's working together. It's a work of collaboration, listening to what the students needs are, trying new things, mixing it up, repeating it, keeping it going consistently. It's not about an ed tech company by itself, but yet you'll see the data. touting just the EdTech company. It would be disingenuous for one person to take all the credit for a student's achievements, yet this is what they do all the time. Here's something else that we need to talk about. When we talk about students, a lot of students, and we're talking about high achieving students who have already fallen in love with learning, they begin to have an aversion to learning, okay? they start thinking that, uh you know, learning has to do with these ed tech companies, these apps. And again, what we know is that they're pushing the apps more than they're pushing some of the student to student interaction, the teaching, the teacher and the student interaction, and they are ignoring the students' preferences. So students are getting an aversion to learning. Now students, if they're struggling, let's say they're new to the country or something like that. And they're maybe on second grade level, third grade level, but they might be a lot older. They might be in high school. They might be in middle school. What we're hearing are reports that the students experience on these apps is the same as a kindergarten would be. So it's very condescending for me to be a 10th grader that's new to the country that may need to practice my skills in English. And I'm getting little baby. uh graphics and sounds and all of that. So again, this company that gets billions of dollars of contracts from around the country is not adjusting its learning experiences for kids who are struggling that are older, but are at lower grade levels. They're just giving them the same experience. That doesn't even make any sense given the amount of influence they have on kids. But they're still, again, mandating that they do that even though they are feeling condescendant, you know, they're feeling like it's very condescending. So what are the implications for this and how much money is being spent, right? So I'm really thinking about money. We know that there's a lot of contract negotiation talks going on for teacher salaries and educator salaries as well, because teachers unions often cover nurses, they cover uh psychologists, psychologists, counselors, all of these people. And we're seeing cuts in these areas, but we are seeing a growing reliance on technology. And again, we're finding out that that growing reliance on technology often is adverse to what is best for students. So we really need to really have districts be accountable for the ed tech that they're purchasing, how it's being used and the mandates that are coming out of it. So we do need to know like how much money are these contracts? And if you do like a quick cursory search, you will not find how much Curriculum Associates is getting for these different districts. And I'm talking about there's districts and there's charter schools that are using this. How much money, right? When you're talking about cutting salaries or not giving the teacher salaries increases and. or the counselors and all of that, but we are ramping up the money for EdTech, that's not the best thing, right? And just this proliferation of this idea that these ed tech companies by themselves are the ones that are raising student scores is really a narrative that is permeating in the schools. I hear it a lot. yeah, if they're using iReady, they're improving. If they do this, they're improving. And we sit back sometimes as educators and just accept that, but we really need to say, on. That is not true. Everybody working together has to do with this. And often it's not at all the EdTech company, this app, because the kids don't wanna use it. They are actually uh responding to it by just clicking around and just getting through a lesson, not really doing what they're supposed to do. And actually it causes their scores to be lower because they're so disengaged from the process. Now the whole purpose is for them to engage them and get information about them so that they could sell it to third parties and then they could pop up on their YouTube ads, right? And sell, sell, sell, sell, sell and have the kids lured into an addictive cycle and algorithm that just draws them in. And then really what we wanna talk about is some of these. other effects that happen long term for the kids. So I'm going to speak real quickly about. Another one, organization that is really standing up against these EdTech companies is Distraction Free Schools California. And they have EdTech reform priorities. And on their website it says, California schools have rapidly adopted one-to-one device programs and EdTech platforms, often without meaningful parental input, teacher autonomy or clear safety standards for children. As districts increasingly mandate these devices to access core curriculum, parents, educators, and childhood development experts are raising concerns about distraction, attention fragmentation. We're gonna talk more about that in a moment. Dysregulation, loss of handwriting, and deep reading skills, privacy risks, and the erosion of essential human-to-human learning. So all the things that I've been talking about is... is kind of being put to the wayside so that these ed tech companies can really, you know, just run rampant, right? They're not being checked. And even with lawsuits, they're continuing. We as individual educators can't just continue with lawsuits against us and all of that. They're going to look at us. They're going to make us go on leave. They're going to lay us off or whatever it is. But yet, these companies, despite multiple lawsuits, this is not the first one, they are still being able to go forward and in fact expand. In some cases, the iReady platform and their testing and their diagnostics have recently replaced other um assessment uh tools and assessment platforms. and instead have been replaced by iReady's uh assessment. So really problematic when we know that this company is really about the money, right? Really about mining our students for data so that they could sell it to the highest bidder and get the money. So again, these are allegations, but we know that these allegations have been brought because there is evidence. to show that it is real. So we'll see what happens with this lawsuit and how it goes, but this is some serious situations that we need to consider as teachers. And I really need to think um about this as teachers, as educators, like as technology changes and grows and gets more aggressive and more smart. we do see that there are some research coming out that it is making our students not as smart. So one of those things that were talked about in the distraction free schools California is the attention fragmentation, right? As kids get older, they're supposed to be able to pay attention more, but when they are constantly trained, right? Their brains, if they're just watching a lot of online and different things like that when their minds are trained a certain way, they aren't able to concentrate on, you know, just like normal conversation or a teacher lecture. And I'm not saying that they should be listening to a teacher lecture for 80 minutes, 20 minutes, you know, like not too long. but some information is something that you just kind of need to zero in on and pay attention to. Not everything is going to be kicks and giggles and fun and bright and shiny and exciting. uh It's just not reality and it doesn't set them up for success. but when we have constant exposure to online platforms that are quickly, quickly, quickly flashing before them and it's really quick and it's really, they are getting what we call attention fragmentation. Then there's also dysregulation, right? When they're able to just sit and read quietly or sit and do something quietly and concentrate, think about their own thoughts, then they're. Growing up, they're maturing, they're able to regulate themselves. The dysregulation comes from when they have these constant exposure to screens and flipping through one image to the next and videos all the time. It is not something that is developing their brain in a way that allows them to regulate themselves. So, I have a lot of kids with hyperactive disorders and different things like that. Another part we need to talk about is the loss of handwriting and deep reading skills. So handwriting, again, I have talked to lots of parents who do, have used, have really relied on EdTech, like especially for like homeschooling parents, right? There's different levels to teachers, there's different levels to homeschooling parents as far as the quality of education that they're providing to their children. And some people have, you know, put students on, em apps and set it and forget it. And they thought that that was going to give their children the access to education that they needed. And then we find out that they can't write. And we know that there's a lot of brain work and a lot of coordination and a lot of uh development that goes into when you are learning how to write and learning how to write better and better as you improve. Deeper reading skills, right? oh So sometimes, you we could know how to sound out a word, but do we really know how to break down what we're reading? And when your brain is trained just to flip from one thing to another and just to watch videos and things like that, we are missing out on that deep reading skills, the higher level reading skills and the comprehension. And again, lots of implications for our students as we're trying to get them ready for success and be thought leaders. not is going the opposite way. And so we really need to be careful about EdTech. Now I am a proponent of technology and teaching our students that, but I will say over and over again, moderation and balance are the keys. Not just we're going to give them an iPad and everything is, you know, we're automating our learning. That's not how it happens. Our kids really need to interact with us. And we often see students not develop the way they need to do, need to be developed because They have done a lot of online stuff and been focused on a computer instead of like playing with their parents. Simple things like peek-a-boo or whatever, you know, just really hand games, just interacting. Instead, they have been on some iPad or some device and said it and forget it. And they have become addicted to it. And again, just cautioning parents out there just to... to be careful and to really do your own research, really pay attention to what your kids are engaged in, what they're watching and what it means for what they're watching, right? um It gets real scary out there when we're really thinking that our kids are not able to engage um the way that they're supposed to as they're getting older and they are, you know. really having these long-term deficits and the ability to regulate themselves, the ability to gain an amount of attention, right? em And just being distracted from learning overall because of course the teachers are not going to be video quality. They're not gonna be an animated character, but there are so many things that they need to learn and grow and develop. And again, if we are giving our students too much exposure to these kinds of at-tech and then allowing, you know, basically to be preyed upon by third parties who are really adjusting that algorithm just so, so that kids are addicted to it. Now, again, I really want you to look out for these things and... There are some new initiatives coming out for different districts. And if it's not, of course, as parents, you could use your voice to let, uh speak up at district meetings, at school board meetings, let people know you are concerned and you want uh to take a look at what your kids are using. You wanna know more about these contracts that they have and is it really helpful for your kids? And at home, of course, give them a balance as well. you know, give them some limits on the screen time and help really engage them human to human. So again, thank you for joining the Falling for Learning podcast. I encourage you again to do something today that gives your child the competitive advantage, whether that is researching what tech they're being exposed to, reading to them, having conversations and really making sure that that relationship is intact. with your kids as they grow up and they are navigating all the things that will prepare them to be an adult one day. So again, thank you, have a great week and thank you so much for joining us.