Audrey Watters: Take it or Leave it

     When researching about Audrey Watters, I was a little shocked when most of her writings/ posts included what many would consider vulgar language. While many would have been turned off by that, I loved it. It felt as though I could really understand her feelings and thoughts when it came to technology within education.

    When reading various articles from the Hacked Education website, I was under the understanding that she was not a big fan of many of the big websites and companies that promote themselves as educational platforms. Within her goodbye letter on Hacked Education, she mentioned that the buy your of DESMOS has fully pushed her out of the edtech narrative.  I found this very interesting as a math teacher who uses DESMOS often. I felt as though we both has a similar love for the platform and for the same reasons, but she was disgusted that it was bought out while I don’t really care (but maybe I should?). It seems as though she is more concerned about where the company will go now that it is out of the hands of a “local business owner”. 

    I also watched the video in which Watters is being interviewed and is talking about the educational crisis and was debating with the issue of “Is it fixable?” I feel like I sit in a similar boat as her when looking at my current position. I have been sitting and watching the flaws within the educational system fall and crumble around me, while often watching and trying to support the poor student that does not have anything in place to help them. I fully believe that we are failing many of our students, many within low income families. Doesn’t society already screw around with their lives enough? Why does the “free and appropriate” public educational system do the same? It makes my blood boil when I see the injustices many of these students face and the support they do not get, even when it gets advocated for and brought up numerous times. It feels as instead of fixing some of the fundamental problems that we have, that we instead focus on getting the new and shiny tech into the schools to try and entice the students. This seems to work, but only for about 5 minutes until the students are bored or give up because they dont know how to work them. 

    I would have to say I agree with many of Audrey Watters views on educational technology as well as the crisis we are facing in our schools/ educational systems.