Paper short abstract:

Drawing upon decades long debates about the uses of technology in K-12 public schools, the paper surveys the adoption of commercial Cloud computing as a new environs for teaching and learning, discussing the controversies such reforms have spawned.

Paper long abstract:

Budget cutbacks brought by neoliberal austerity policies within public schools of the US and other countries have sparked teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and other adaptations. In response, many K-12 school systems are exploring the use of corporate services offered by Cloud computing, ones that offer new, comprehensive environs for teaching and learning. A survey of the products and methods of global firms that have entered the "ed-tech" market, the current extent of adoption of these applications, and the responses by prominent educators, pro and con, provides an outline of the key issues and questions about the installation, use and consequences of the Cloud in schools. Concerns about standardized learning, teach-to-the-test methodology, erosion of teacher creativity, and privacy of student data are among the issues now hotly debated even among those who are enthusiastic about basic features of the new systems. The paper builds upon historical and social research in STS about technologies in education from the early 20th century to the present. Once again the notion that education consists of discrete packages of knowledge delivered to the mind through some technological conveyance is the one preferred by commercial interests and resisted by those who view education a place for open, diverse, widely creative varieties of human interaction.