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Silicon Valley Courts Brand-Name Teachers, Raising Ethics Issues
- gnicholas 9y agoGlad to see this issue discussed. I work in edtech and have been somewhat uncomfortable with the way things work. There's a lot of paid-but-undisclosed promotion going on, and some people feel that "it's just the way business gets done." As an entrepreneur, I feel that companies bear the primary responsibility for keeping their noses clean. If you're paying someone to promote your product, and it's not clear to others that there's a quid pro quo, that should set off warning bells that there may be an ethical problem. I've actually had long discussions with other entrepreneurs who insisted — even after seeing the FTC regulations on undisclosed promotions — that it was ok to do. Why? Because they'd seen kickbacks in other industries, so it must be ok here. And after all, we're helping kids, right? But teachers bear some of the responsibility as well — especially the ones who heavily monetize their social media presence. I've been approached by teacher bloggers who allegedly write both product reviews and sponsored posts. When I replied asking about their product review process (and noting the many awards that my company's products had won), they sent back only a rate card. In reality, there were no unpaid product reviews — every post was bought and paid for. This particular teacher actually added a disclaimer to her site, indicating that some posts might be paid for. But there was no indication of which posts those were — probably because then it would be obvious that they were all sponsored. I hope this article sparks a conversation in edtech and education circles. In the context of the recent NYT article on the lack of efficacy of many edtech tools, the rampant quid pro quo is even more disturbing.