For-profit tech company features Rodgers Forge Elementary students, staff in promotional video
A new promotional video for DreamBox Learning features Rodgers Forge Elementary staff and students talking about why they like the computer program. (Hat tip to the reader who posted video links as a comment in the recent post about the use of technology in the classrooms.)
My daughter enjoys using DreamBox and I personally am in favor of some (but not a lot of) technology in the classrooms, but there’s something about this video that’s creepy. It just so blatantly shows how our kids are part of the big business of education. The DreamBox rep’s reaction to a student’s grades (at about the 3:40 mark) was especially stomach turning to me.
(Parents were notified of the taping ahead of time and gave their permission to have their children filmed. This was in addition to the standard — and confusing — opt in/opt out form parents receive at the start of the year. BCPS says it received no money or discounts in exchange for participating in the video.)
In another video shared by the commenter, Superintendent Dallas Dance promotes BCPS’ partnership with HP.
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This video definitely has an “ick” factor. Were patents told that their children would be basically doing a commercial for this company? That they gave permission for their children to be filmed does not mean they knew exactly how it would be used. Also I wonder if statistics would bear out the contention that a child’s grades improved “because of using Dreambox.” Sounds like unsubstantiated advertisement mumbo jumbo to me!
Anyone concerned about this, will also want to know that a conference coming to Baltimore will be visiting Baltimore County Public Schools (for $80)
This is the conference:
http://www.cvent.com/events/mid-atlantic-conference-on-personalized-learning-macpl-connecting-innovative-educators-/agenda-0a690b9c98a44340aff005a7d72a071c.aspx
This is a post about it: https://statusbcps.wordpress.com
Even if the parents gave permission to have their children be videotaped, they might not be aware just how it would be used. This is inappropriate as a commercial. How widely is this being disseminated? Besides, isn’t this in a pilot program where outcomes should be evaluated, not promoted…
In my view, parental permission was obviously necessary, and hopefully it was obtained for all children visible in the video, not just the ones who were interviewed. Regardless, I do not believe this was appropriate for BCPS to do. This technology has not been shown to be effective. This is just a commercial. This video does nothing to help children in BCPS and was not worth the time spent on it.
This article’s bias is pretty evident. Regardless of your feelings about this video, it is clear that parents gave permission for the students to be featured in the video. Your use of parentheses around the sentence explaning this leads people to believe that this information is not important, when in fact it it is a critical component of the story. If you don’t want your child used in a promotional video, then you simply don’t give permission.
Correct, it is biased. I think it’s creepy because of the financial aspect of it all. I’m sure my daughter would have loved to participate in this video, and I might have even given her permission to do it had she been in that class. I just fear that when there are large profits involved in education, the best interests of the kids might not always be top of mind. I have similar feelings when it comes to defense contractors and for-profit prisons.
Why is the fact that students and their parents gave permission to be featured in the video contained in parentheses? This seems to be part of the actual story and not simply an anecdote. If you’re going to tell the story, tell the whole story in an impartial fashion. Parentheses denote that the information is relevant to be story, but not necessarily pertinent.
Thank you for posting this. I do not believe this is appropriate for BCPS to be doing, period. It is basically a commercial for the company.
It just doesn’t seem right. I can’t stand the emails we get from dreambox encouraging our kids to use it at home even though they use it during the school day. I am not against technology but too much screen time has been shown to be detrimental to developing brains.
Yeah, I’m not in favor of this. Kids shouldn’t be used as shills for these technology companies. Perhaps the technology is effective, but kids should not be roped in for these products of dubious educational value. (Also, what the heck is “Industry News,” the title beneath the “anchor” and “reporter” in this video? Blurring the lines between actual news and PR…..)