Apparently, Google announced that schools would be able to block Google’s AI tools. The catch is that doing so will mean they cannot use Google Search. My first reaction, like many people was “so what?” There are plenty of other good search engines out there. I generally use Bing. I know people whose first choice is Duck Duck Go.
There are deeper concerns though.
Many schools are deeply tied in with the Google ecosystem. If they can use search to (attempt to) force schools to allow their AI what else can they use as leverage? One has to ask if dependence on one major tech company is a good thing for schools? I don’t just mean Google either. Microsoft and Apple are also building platforms for schools to use. None of this, not even so-called free tools, is completely altruistic. As students grow up and out of school they tend to take the tools they learned to use in school into their adult life.
Now I am not against technology in schools. I am also not against using software from large tech companies. What I am for is balance and diversity. I know that some people are going to use Google’s actions as a reason to move to open source. I’m not opposed to that either. Although, I have reservations about open source products as well. Different reservations than what I have about commercial products but different is not always better or worse. It can just be different.
Ultimately, schools and educators have to decide what is best for the students. What tools help students learn the most in the best ways possible. If a company tries to force (they might say “encourage”) schools to do things that school leaders are uncomfortable with doing than they have options. Now is as good a time as any for schools to start looking at them.
