The latest episode of “Gee, What could possibly go wrong?”… In a move that should surprise Absolutly no one. Summit Learning, a digital learning platform funded by the “left-leaning” Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, co-founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his philanthropist wife, Priscilla Chan, recommends that schools monitor parents’ online activity — from “critical comments” to public Facebook groups.
Not at all! Big BrotherishAt the very least.
As reported by Fox News, the platform is used by hundreds of schools around the U.S. and was developed, in part, by Facebook engineers — who knew? — who continued to work with the platform until Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s foundation entered into the partnership in 2017.
Summit recommended that schools should “listen to online conversations” from parents and provide instructions on how to do so. This Orwellian little tidbit was found, but how did it happen?
As Fox News reported, Fox News Digital uncovered Summit Learning’s recommendations in the internal portal that is not available to the public but to educators who use the platform. You can control your shock, amazement and anger.
Fox News Digital attempted to contact the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. However, they did not get any response.
What are parents’ reactions to this shocking revelation?
Fox explains that parents should expect the following from their children:
Schools attempting to implement Summit have met pushback from parents concerned about students’ data security, among other aspects of the program. For example, after Cheshire Public Schools in Connecticut entered into Summit in 2017, parents’ “opposition” caused the program to be terminated, according to Summit.
The Cheshire superintendent acknowledged that the platform would have access to students’ names, emails and analytics on their performance.
Furthermore, research from The National Education Policy Center, which is housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, alleged that Summit’s contracts with schools “presents a potentially significant risk to student privacy and opens the door to the exploitation of those data by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and possibly by unknown third parties “for purposes that have nothing to do with improving the quality of those students’ educations.”
Summit Learning, of course, dismissed the researchers’ “incorrect” observation, telling Fox Digital:
Our top priority is protecting student privacy. We take this very seriously. [We] “don’t use student personal information for anything other than educational purposes. De-identified information (i.e. We may use de-identified information (i.e., information that is not used to locate or contact an individual) in certain cases to help improve the Learning Services experience.
“Educational purposes,” as developed by whom? “To improve your experience,” as defined by whom?
Pardon my skepticism, but parents — along with conservative America as a whole — are finally waking up to today’s reality of “education” in our public school systems.
Let’s get to the bottom.
The irony of teachers and schools monitoring parents’ online activities and conversations should not be surprising. Parents should have the ability to track online activities and conversations of their children’s teachers. That is what I meant, but it was mostly a joke. no one’sMonitor private communications and online activities. Period.
Does that mean it doesn’t happen? Rhetorical question.
However, every classroom in America should be fitted with a live TV monitor, visible to parents and anyone else while teachers are “teaching” and students are “learning.” It’s called accountability. Unfortunately, teachers’ unions, school boards, and many teachers themselves remain strongly opposed to the idea.
Why is that?
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