The Chromebook Learning Movement, Save the Public School System

-- By SamuelPittman - 17 Dec 2024

Can Teachers Teach?

Learning in law school is overshadowed by an emphasis placed on exams, institutional deadlines and university regulations. However, this phenomenon is not exclusive to the institution of law school.

Learning within the public school system suffers under similar conditions. K-12 teachers are underpaid and have little control over curriculum. Federal laws such as No Child Left Behind, replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act, have turned K-12 education classrooms into a standardized testing echo chamber.

Looming over the conversation on how to combat the erosion of privacy and maintain freedom for students within the internet society is the impact emerging technology has on K -12 education.

Sherry Turkle puts it best: “we often stopped asking what we really wanted students to get out of class.”

When reconciling how to implement better technology for K-12 students’ utilization we must consider how we sustain the public school system, especially in the face of the “School Choice” movement. This essay argues a free internet will be possible in our public school system only if public schools are sustained as institutions.

A Chromebook Mandate? 1:1 Chromebook Initiative

Libraries now hand out Chromebooks instead of books.

The Georgia Department of Education refers to the integration of Chromebooks into the classroom as: “Chromebook learning." Many local school districts have woven such language into the curriculum and refer to distribution of Chromebooks as the 1:1 Chromebook initiative. Moreover, some school districts mandate students to possess a Chromebook.

Software that monitors levels of “student productivity” is more common. Students are taught to conduct a Google search in lieu of consulting an encyclopedia. The COVID-19 pandemic all but solidified the shift toward Chromebook learning.

As a result of Chromebook learning, intellectual curiosity has taken a hit. Students consult a Chromebook instead of engaging with a librarian. Academic research is conducted under the supervision of ChatGPT? . Essays are written with A.I. software.

Moreover, disparities in some parts of the U.S. public education are getting worse – especially when considering the disparities between high and low-income areas implicating racial and ethnic minorities. Chromebook learning, which is fundamentally rooted in for-profit learning, has devastating consequences on K-12 learning.

Two questions arise: what do we want students to get out of the classroom? how can we empower teachers to transform the classroom into place for learning?

Sustaining Public Schools in the Face of School Choice

The paradigm of Law, Politics, and Technology provides a basis for analyzing how the internet impacts our society.

A free internet cannot be the stop-gap solution for mitigating the harm of Chromebook learning. Implementing free internet which protects the privacy of students is the starting point but cannot be the endpoint of our conversation. Especially when considering the estimated 50 million students in the U.S. who attend a public school.

Students can utilize computers to benefit their learning and maintain respect for their privacy. Yet, the forum in which students learn is critical and under attack.

With most K-12 students learning in the public school system, the free internet should be considered in conjunction with the institutions it’s utilized.

The internet students utilize has fallen into the hands of private tech companies. However, the institutions in which students pursue have fallen into the hands of Trump's presidency. The GOP platform calls for “universal school choice.” Interpreting what school choice entails doesn’t require too much reading between the lines.

The school choice movement is the blueprint for gutting public schools. Trump’s Agenda 47 aims to eliminate the Department of Education, which coordinates federal assistance to education and provides programs such as Title I.

The tension between Law, Politics, and Technology is illustrated in the school choice movement, the Trump administration's plan to dismantle the Department of Education, and the seeping influence for-profit learning has on our public school system.

Software engineered to facilitate fee communication, safely and securely must be examined with an additional dimension. If we consider an internet founded in the preservation of privacy in conjunction with public schools as an institution, establishing free software we can trust takes on another dimension.

A World without the Department of Education

While abolishing the Department of Education would require Congressional approval, it isn’t a far fetched reality.

An imperfect institution to be sure, but the Department of Education has made strides in the purist of equity by providing funding to Title I schools. As someone who went to a Title I public high school, federal funding provided me with an education that would otherwise be in jeopardy.

Without the Department of Education, students with disabilities would suffer, students’ civil rights would be at risk, federal financial aid would be negatively impacted.

A Free Internet, Only as Good as Our Institutions

Free and open-source software which is inexpensive and immune from the whims of government has immense value. But so do the institutions which intersect and interact with the internet. We must ensure public schools are sustained.

Chromebook learning, the potential dismantling of the Department of Education, and the impact of developing technology in classrooms implicate privacy concerns within the educational forum.

Two issues merge: preserving the privacy of students who are entering a critical turning point in their education and sustaining the public school system as an institution that enables learning for students.

My affinity and sensitivity towards the public school system derive from personal experience. I am a proud product of the public education system. Columbia Law is the first private institution I have attended. My mother was a public-school educator for sixteen years, working through Stage 2 cancer to keep a roof over our heads.

Chromebook learning and software that surveils students will harm academic curiosity and student privacy. When considering how to combat the erosion of student privacy, it is worth taking a step back to evaluate our institutions as well.

Learning cannot thrive if students are staring at screens. Preserving the public school system means just as much as pursuing a free internet.

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