I’ve written about digital curriculum movement before. There are pros and cons to such a movement. Do parents really get the full ‘digital education’ picture though?
Digital education has the ability to be farther reaching and more adaptable to both changes in information and student needs; it can offer wider school choice. Digital Education can also possibly be cheaper in the long run than printed texts and materials.
On the other hand, the use of digital materials requires devices which, especially for young learners, can have a detrimental developmental impact.
Digital materials also have the potential to kill what’s left of transparency. Parents these days have a hard enough time as it is just getting a look at a book their child is using in class without being subjected to a tribunal style meeting at their child’s school. Now imagine all materials residing at school on a device parents never see.
Digital learning is largely data driven – which means more data collection on kids. Take a moment to read about Technology-enabled personalized learning (TEPL).
The push for it in North Carolina is being driven by outside groups tied to Common Core promoting groups. That’s not conjecture, that’s fact.
[Related: 5 Questions on Digital Learning]
Check out Rep. Craig Horn, talking to yet another outside group about ‘digital education’:
Please click on this correct link to see comments I recorded for The Learning Counsel on digital education: https://t.co/5saQByB7e7
— D. Craig Horn (@dcraighorn) August 29, 2015
Remember, Bill Gates is currently flooding the market with digital material related grants. 
Gates was also involved in the Shared Learning Collaborative — which was renamed to inBloom.
The main purpose of which was to help market educational products using student data. Parents rightly flipped out and inBloom went poof.
It’s also not coincidence the Common Core testing consortiums (PARCC/SBAC) use online testing methods.
The profit to be made from such a venture as digital curriculum is astronomical.
Just think about how Microsoft makes its money off licensing, training and other related fees. Think about the built-in data collection in their products.
Now apply that to digital curriculum products and then consider a policy like Wake County’s “all or nothing” digital access policy.
Do you get the digital picture now?
Related Reading
- Down the Digital Learning Rabbit Hole – Part One, Part Two, Part Three
- House Bill 660 Transition to Personalized Digital Learning
- WCPSS Enters Into “Digital Promise League”, Tied To Gates Foundation
- CMS Received 200k From Gates For “Strategic Plan”
- ‘Gaming’ The Education of Our Children
- Here Comes The Common Core Curriculum
LL1885 
Pingback: Bill and Melinda Gates Still Think They Know What's Best For Your Kid - Stop Common Core NCStop Common Core NC