Remote learning is a phenomenon that has penetrated our educational system in 2020. Covid-19 emptied our classrooms, so schools were forced to provide online alternatives. Fortunately, a lot of great tools, like Microsoft Teams and Zoom emerged, which provide us with the opportunity of attending virtual classrooms. Not only virtual classrooms have become a crucial part of education. We use grading tools, educational games, plagiarism software, attendance checks, communication tools, and lots more. US Tech Giants are becoming more and more important stakeholders in educational systems over the world. Not only do they provide software tools, but they also have their own philosophy regarding the way we educate our students. Reoccuring themes among companies like Google and Microsoft are that we should shift focus from knowledge-based to skill-based learning and focus on ‘personalized learning’. A question we should ask ourselves, is: what role do we want businesses to fulfill in education?
‘The future of learning will be profoundly social, personalized, and supported by teachers and technology.’ This is how Microsoft foresees the ideal future of education. By putting more focus on emotional and cognitive skills, students will not only be ‘work-ready’, but also ‘life-ready’.
For private-sector businesses, profitability and efficiency are some of the most important factors. With their vision, the private sector can have a major impact on making education more efficient, and, more generally speaking, make younger generations more resilient towards challenges that our future will bring. A problem with public schools is that, although it’s clear a lot of educational systems are outdated and non-efficient, reform is very slow.
On the other hand, do we really want big tech companies to impact our educational systems? A major issue that should be considered is that one can have little impact on private companies. In our public system, one can vote for a party that serves one’s interests when it comes to one’s preferences regarding education. It also might be out of place to have a foreign company’s vision taking on a major role in a child’s education.
Another important factor is that companies are economically driven, so their goal will possibly be to educate in a way that will enhance skills best suitable for economic purposes that align with their own businesses.
Privacy is another issue people are concerned about. By learning interactively from a very early stage, with devices like the iPad, all information is being saved and added to a profile. This profile could take over the teacher’s view on the level of a pupil.
Taking everything into consideration, schools should be openminded as well as critical towards tech companies and their interference in the educational system. They should consider if the visions of both parties correspond. I think the keyword is cooperation. The publicly arranged school system must partner up with tech companies to develop a shared vision on how upcoming generations can be educated to deal with challenges the future will bring.
References:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2018/06/20/the-three-steps-to-make-google-vision-for-education-a-reality/#1ab6b39973aa
https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2020/08/disruptions-and-opportunities-navigating-hybrid-education/https://
www.microsoft.com/en-us/education
https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/
Hi Rutger!
Your article is interesting to read! Due to COVID-19 we as students are also receiving a different kind of education. In our bachelors the focus always was on het exam (say 70%) and less on the projects, papers etc (about 30%). This was more an education, where if you knew ‘the trick’ (buy a summary and learn this for 1 week straight) you could pass your exam. I know from personal experience this was the go-to-plan for a lot of students. The problem was that after 3 weeks you had forgotten everything.
Now however, exams only count for 30% or 40%. We are ‘forced’ to dive deep into the subjects in order to pass the projects, home-work write ups, blog contributions. These are now almost 70% of your grade. Automatically, while making these assignments, we are becoming more aware of the subject we are studying on and receive deep learning. This is in my opinion a way better form of education, because in your future job you don’t have to make an exam… you have to work in teams on a business case or … you get the point.
The problem is indeed, where do you lay your focus on. I think universities should not be lead by hub firms.
It is instead better to reshape our educational system, so we’re not depending on these hub firms. I think these first forms of education are the building blocks for how our future education shall and should be.
Hi Rutger,
Thanks for your interesting read! I totally agree that a good collaboration between schools and private tech giants who provide learning tools as well as the government is key to create a future proof educational system without experiencing harm from the negative effects you mentioned. One thing I see as important is that the focus in education should not shift to online online learning where gaining knowledge on a solo basis is the only thing that happens, I think in physical classes learning by interaction and collaboration with fellow students provides you with the skills that can’t be missed besides all the knowledge gained. Also curious about the difference in the way American private universities will deal with these innovation compared to public Dutch Universities for example.
Gijs
I find your article very interesting. This relates with the issues of the hub economy spreading across more industries and collecting more and more data and value. The power will be in the hands of a small number of firms employing a tiny fraction of the workforce. An opportunity exists for hub firms to lead our economy. But this will require hubs to fully consider the long-term societal impact of their decisions and to prioritize their ethical responsibilities to the large economic ecosystems that increasingly revolve around them. At the same time, the rest of us, whether in established enterprises or start-ups, in institutions or communities, will need to help shape the hub economy by providing critical and informed input and, as needed, pushback. If not, everything, and now even education, will be controlled by only a few major people. Education is what shapes the mind of all the population, making it very important.