This report is a global investigation of the education technology (EdTech) endorsed by 49 governments for children’s education during the pandemic. They were only told by his teacher that he had to use these platforms every day to be marked as attending school during the Covid-19 pandemic. Neither Rodin nor his mother were aware that this was going on. Sophisticated algorithms review this trove of data, enough to piece together an intimate portrait of Rodin in order to figure out how he might be easily influenced. The social media platform Rodin uses to post his homework silently accesses his phone’s contact list and downloads personal details about his family and friends. The virtual whiteboard passes along information about his doodling habits to advertising technology (AdTech) and other companies when Rodin’s math class is over, trackers follow him outside of his virtual classroom and to the different apps and sites he visits across the internet. Within milliseconds of Rodin logging into class in the morning, his school’s online learning platform begins tracking Rodin’s physical location-at home in his family’s living room, where he has spent most of his days during the pandemic lockdown. Unbeknownst to him, an invisible swarm of tracking technologies surveil Rodin’s online interactions throughout his day. At the end of each day, he posts a picture of his homework to his teacher’s social media page. Later in the afternoon, Rodin opens up a website to watch the nationally televised math class for that day. He watches his best friend draw a cat he thinks his friend is much better at drawing than he is. He hopes that no one can tell that he’s a little sleepy, or that he’s behind on his homework.ĭuring breaks between classes, Rodin reads chat messages from his classmates and idly doodles on the virtual whiteboard that his teacher leaves open. By 9 a.m., he logs into class and waves hello to his teacher and to his classmates. He eats a bowl of chocolate cereal for breakfast his mother reminds him, as she always does, to brush his teeth afterwards. On school days, 9-year-old Rodin wakes up every morning at 8 a.m.
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