The Rise and Fall of EdTech

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
0:29 Privacy Concerns
1:48 Too much screens
2:33 Dependence on specific software
3:24 Benefits of EdTech
4:24 Rise/Fall

[Undefined.]

My comment section glitched out and was randomly disabled, but I figured out how to enable it again...sorry about that, hope you enjoyed the vid!

[TheCyanScreen]

As someone who's currently doing an eduTech Seminar at uni, this video seems scarily fitting. You do make some good points on digital caution. :)

[lucasm]

I finished highschool a little less than a decade before EduTech took off, but got some early experience with it in teaching for a brief period of time using things like Scratch later on.
It always felt neat but probably not effective for every kind of student, which I think is a bigger problem than just EduTech by itself (catering to a generic majority and leaving any kids that won't adapt behind).
By the time the pandemic started I was long gone working elsewhere but it is shocking how many accounts they need now, more and more data gathering all around.

[phoneheaded]

The decline of edtech has not been subtle. Most programs have been getting worse for years, with additional data harvesting, advertising, surveillance, and over commercialization. Quizlet is a perfect example of this. The website first had no ads, then non-intrusive sidebar ads, then ads during activities, then video ads and ad breaks between studying and paywalled content. They have become more rabid in advertising Quizlet Plus while the service as a while has been completely destroyed. The paywalled or got rid of the features that made the service worthwhile, like tests and Gravity.

[Taikamuna]

As they saw school results radically declining in Finland, they have now started negotiating about banning smart devices altogether. And I think that is a good thing. Smartphones are too much of a distraction nowadays

[moister]

Never knew EdTechwas was this relevant in first world countries. At least in schools.

We're still relying in old reliable paper for the most part. Only in Uni it gets more relevant ( if not totally necessary).

[SpitterChan]

I finished highschool (secondary/elementary school) when I was 19 on 2021 but i'm gonna explain my experience on quarantine when I was at the 4th year of secondary:

1- The Blended platform: At first this platform I had a lot of issues on 2020-2021 (bugs, bad update changes) and the worst part: Some of my teachers couldn't understand everything.

2- Zoom Platform: In this one I was totally alright with those online classrooms and I used to teach my teachers how to use the software. And yes, you may remember when joking and trolling on zoom was relevant and my classmates managed to cancel another exposition of Psychology but my group exposed first because my classmates were ready to do the exam.

3- I used to have a lot of homework made with Word, Excel or Powerpoint, however I didn't enjoy making videos on there.

4- Google Meet: In 2021 until september of that year, we were still on quarantine and sometimes I had to use this platform for 1 subject, the thing is that It was nice to have online classes without noises of my classmates screaming out but unfortunately, I went back to school and I got more stressed than before. So the Quarantine was better.

[mallorinad]

In the CIS (Belarus, Russia, etc.) with Edtech the situation is quite interesting. Teachers are just starting to like educational software, while many schools do not allow it. The EdTech audience is also interesting - the main users of educational courses are not schoolchildren, they are people aged 18-25. I'm sure the EdTech era is just beginning in eastern Europe, it's just that our old-fashioned managers don't want to accept it (calculators in mathematics are banned in our country to this day, xd).

(The Finest channel about technologies of the past, lmao)

[BopperBippity]

The funny thing is where I live we never really utilized edtech (aside from Quizlet, a computer lab login, typing games, and a game that I think was called "mathletics" or something) until highschool, I don't even think I had a school Gmail until then (atleast one I knew existed) which I find funny since COVID didn't happen since I was in grade 11 and it continued until I graduated and mask mandates didn't stop until my second semester of the first year of uni.

Also speaking of defunct EdTech that would be an interesting video I'm excited now 👀


Edit: Omg I've been noticed

[The_Empty_Shadow]

Id love to see you do a video about late 90's to mid 00's "futuristic" UI/UX design. Its such an interesting era.

[TM-sbtr]

Your videos are very very well organized and the motivation here to make genuine informative content is admirable. Keep going! You deserve all the success coming your way!

[mettakindness]

Good points in this video. I don’t think it will go away because those applications will likely become even more invasive by recording keystrokes and measuring the velocity of mouse movements etc so that they can judge whether or not a student is cheating.

Also a lot of those applications could require that a webcam be on while they type out their answers etc. So even if a student tried to do a ctrl + C and ctrl + V from chatGPT that could be logged.

I don’t disagree that AI will have a big impact on education apps like that in general though I don’t think they will go away. Government and tech companies are addicted to recording all data from people in general so I doubt that’s going to stop when it comes to schools and education software.

Possibly handwritten work could be scanned into those apps and the app would convert it to typed text?

[ALekToRemember]

One of the things I hate is stuff like linewize that blocks useful websites thinking it’s “offensive” to help “protect” is from harmful things, which is ok… but some can be bad

[lukeblaker]

I love the insights you provide into such interesting topics. Always happy to see an upload from you. Looking forward to the next one :)

[lilmamagc]

I'm glad I was finishing school when this was starting to take off

[ImZenny]

why does my youtube converter bring me here? :(

[everysecond]

Darn, now that you mention it I'm kind of surprised EdTech isn't talked about more amongst those who are concerned about digital privacy. Or maybe it's already talked about a lot and I just haven't been paying attention. I have to say though, it would be kind of interesting to see mass protest from parents who care deeply about their own privacy and use Linux/VM for everything only to see their own children getting sold out to Google/Apple/Microsoft. Maybe we're not seeing too much of that because of an insignificant overlap between today's parents and digital privacy neat-freaks?

[DrKoneko]

I will never forgive Quizlet for becoming paid. No one uses their service because it's that good, they use it because it's free learning software.

[limarchenko]

I think that some day in future computers will become much better at teaching than actual human teachers. Just imagine how AI would be able to analyze a person and generate perfect book/tutorial that will explain stuff perfectly.

[captainchris]

It seems like kids don’t really care about their privacy, they just sign up for services and don’t ever know that they are using their data
I still think kids should still get a choice for their privacy and should get proper education about it