Rod and Karen discuss the effects of tech in schools, Coronavirus News, LGBTQ News, police officer says he’ll shoot mayor, PPP went to businesses that didn’t pay employees, Meek Mill on Clubhouse, Booger McFarland, charges dropped in Tamir Rice case, officers in Breonna Taylor case may be fired, father gives toddler Smirnoff ice, men playing with guns, woman pulls gun in drive-thru and sword ratchetness.
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It felt like Booger said what he’s jealous. These younger players are getting endorsements and making a lot of money much more than he had did when he was playing. I’m sure if he would have played in the era of tech and social media he would have been a brand too.
Hey Co-Pastors Karen and Rod!
In the opening of episode 2245, you talked about tech in schools. This has been a mess since the internet was introduced to schools. In the early 2000’s this data mining was called ‘School-Based Action Research’. Schools received a considerable discount on software if they allowed us to do this ‘research’. Every district I visited (up and down the East coast), allowed it.
Here’s what I know. As of 2020, school districts vet software hard. This is why it takes a while for anything to be purchased and implemented district wide. Prior to the last 8-10 years, a lot of school districts didn’t really see their data as worthy of being stolen so the focus was mainly on keeping the kids away from child predators and porn.
During those 8-10 years, when software that was approved and purchased, the companies would tack on ‘free extras’ AFTER implementation. Eventually, IT Departments realized that the free features are really sneaky data collection techniques or low-key sales pitches (hook students and teachers so they can demand district wide licenses to include the ‘free’ features). Now that districts know, we turn the data mining piece off at the district level and add provisions in contracts that they can not turn on ‘extras’ and the data belongs to us (operated on our servers).
Additionally, individual schools have their own budgets. If they keep their spending below a certain number (determined by each district), a school can basically purchase whatever they want. The software companies know this so they will invoice the schools just below the the amount. Example, if the max for a school-based purchase to make it through procurement is $1000, the software company will bill the school for $900 several times to cover the total cost ($4000), and stay under the radar. They can tack on any data mining crap they want because most principals only care about security when it comes to child predators and bullying. If the IT Department finds out but has weak leadership, the schools get to keep the software including the data mining piece.
With regard to the free software, a lot of that classroom teachers are targeted by companies to trick them into turning over student data. Unknowingly, teachers use the web-based software and apps for instruction and record keep on without considering how the data is used because they too are only focused on keeping the kids from bullying and sexual predators. While we can block the sites from being accessed through the schools’ networks, teachers use these sites from home AND use their own devices in the school buildings coupled with their own internet source (hot spots and tablets). But during Covid, teachers are using these sites more and more to assign supplemental lessons and so kids are using these site from their home.
It’s a mess.
Signed,
An Anonymous Source