Emily Cherkin, The Screentime Consultant
@emilycherkin.bsky.social
Author, speaker, teacher, consultant, mother, rabble-rouser. for more: thescreentimeconsultant.com
Next week! Join me and @andyliddell.bsky.social for this important conversation about EdTech and the law! firstfish.substack.com/p/new-webina...
*New* Webinar: "EdTech and the Law"
Join us for a live Q/A webinar with Emily Cherkin and Andrew Liddell of EdTech Law Center
firstfish.substack.com
Nice coverage of our efforts to push back the tech in Seattle Public Schiols. www.seattletimes.com/education-la...
These students have gone tech-free in Seattle schools
Despite district policy, parents and students are finding ways around the ubiquitous technology in classrooms.
seattletimes.com
We should not be forced to choose between our child’s right to an education and their right to privacy, yet here we are. The letter I sent to my district: firstfish.substack.com/p/an-impossi...
An Impossible Choice: When Schools Make Families Choose Education or Safety
Most students are now required to use 1:1 internet-connected devices for school, in spite of well-documented risks. Here's what I asked of my own district.
firstfish.substack.com
Hey everyone, in case you needed more evidence that Alpha School is full of shit, here’s @ddmeyer.bsky.social with the empirical receipts: students in their NON selective charter school ended with proficiency rates FAR BELOW state averages. danmeyer.substack.com/p/does-alpha...
Does the Alpha School Model Work for Regular Kids?
Here is some new evidence.
danmeyer.substack.com
Denise Champney and I are back with PART 2 for our Beware the EdTech Industry Rebrand: Extreme Makeover Edition— this time, featuring ISTE. Read it and weep. Actually, read it and act. That’s more productive. open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
Beware the EdTech Industry Rebrand: Part 2
Extreme Makeover: EdTech Edition (ft. ISTE)
open.substack.com
"I asked a contact who is the president of a billion-dollar tech enterprise, what would you teach your sons? He said he wouldn’t teach his children to use AI, because it will prepare them for nothing. He would teach them the humanities." www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...
‘I hate what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young’: Katherine Rundell on the view from the classroom
Education is at a crossroads, argues the author and academic. Should we embrace new technology in the name of efficiency, or is it time to fight back?
theguardian.com
I’m reminded of Audrey Watters’ argument that we need to view school shooting technologies as educational technologies. "What happens if we refuse to talk about these as 'ed-tech', if we refuse to address the practices of surveillance and control as well as products of surveillance and control?”
School Shooting Simulation Software (and the Problem with How People Define 'Ed-Tech')
Last week, The New York Times wrote about a new simulation program, funded by the Department of Homeland Security, that aims to teach teachers how to respond to an active shooter on school grounds ...
hackeducation.com
Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 3w agoSchools are adding pepper-spraying drones to help combat active shooters The plastic, non-lethal aircraft, which can smash windows and ram attackers will be at the ready at certain schools in Colorado, Florida and Georgia www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...
The centrality of discernment to productive AI usage is obvious, and that's why I find the insistence that AI can be used as a teaching assistant (or worse, a *teacher*) so baffling. By definition, a student *isn't* an expert on the subject they're studying. 44/
My colleague and I have noticed some recent changes in how EdTech companies market their products (but no changes to the product itself, of course) in response to the growing resistance. We’re calling it out for what it is— an Extreme Makeover: EdTech Edition! open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
Beware the EdTech Industry Rebrand
Extreme Makeover: EdTech Edition
open.substack.com
Please join me on Thursday, August 6 at 5 pm PST/8 pm EST for an information-packed webinar to help you feel informed, empowered, and ready to resist the EdTech onslaught as we jump back into a new school year. open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
Am "i-Ready" for Back-to-School?
Join Emily for a Webinar about School-Based Screentime!
open.substack.com
"America wins the AI era by diffusing it into the workflows of factories, hospitals, farms, classrooms, and main street businesses." -- Jensen Huang The hell it does.
Vincent Carchidi@vcarchidi.bsky.social · 4w agoHuang writes propaganda piece in favor of open weights models. x.com/i/status/208...
My IP is being co-opted by the EdTech industry. I am fighting back. open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
Snake Oil in a Medicine Bottle is Still Snake Oil
EdTech companies are trying to co-opt "tech-intentional"-- I'm fighting back
open.substack.com
companies are sourcing millions of printed books for AI labs that scan them for training data, then destroy them. printed books are more valuable because they're free of AI slop, and AI labs know destroying them is an "optics problem." www.404media.co/ai-companies...
AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop
ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”
404media.co
How do you use it responsibly? That's easy, you DON'T. That is not the advice from UW-IT though: >>
As a robotics researcher, learning scientist, and author who has followed Realbotix for years, I'm compelled to do a Bluesky thread on this whole pivot that Realbotix is now trying, turning from humanoid sex robots to classroom "education" robots. Buckle up. nysfocus.com/2026/07/14/n... 🧵
Rural NY School To Launch Humanoid Robot Teacher
Plans to deploy a "lifelike" robot and avatar teaching assistant at Salamanca High School have sparked debate over the role of technology in schools.
nysfocus.com
There is only one thing schools should know before implementing AI into classrooms: open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
The One Simple Thing Schools Need to Do When it Comes to Implementing AI into Classroom
An important answer to one of my most-asked questions
open.substack.com
“We will be piloting a coordinated approach to classroom and examination policies for the core 1L curriculum during the 2026–2027 academic year. Across all 1L sections, we will prohibit the use of electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, and phones in the classroom...[with] limited exceptions.“
Rethinking Legal Education in the AI Era | University of Chicago Law School
OverviewArtificial Intelligence is already impacting higher education and the legal profession, and the pace of change appears only to be accelerating. It is thus critical for us to use this moment to...
law.uchicago.edu
The inimitable UK actress and reformer Sophie Winkleman has kindly shared with our audience her written remarks from the recent ARC Conference in London. Last year’s speech went viral, hitting over 2 million views. This year’s speech is no less brilliant. open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
The Best Preparation for a Digital Future is an Analogue Education
Written Transcript of the Speech by UK Actress and Campaigner, Sophie Winkleman, at the ARC Conference in London
open.substack.com
absolutely insane story, and yeah, just looking at this chart... with the exception of maybe two people, this entire class was cheating like motherfuckers
Jacob T. Levy@jacobtlevy.bsky.social · last mo.Children don’t need technology; technology companies need children. My testimony to Kentucky state legislators. open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
Protecting Children Protects Democracy
Children Do Not Need Technology; Technology Companies Need Children- My Testimony Before the Kentucky Senate
open.substack.com
Fighting the onslaught of EdTech isn’t just about protecting children; it’s about protecting democracy, too. It’s a republic, if we can keep it. open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
Our Republic, If We Can Keep It
The fight against EdTech is a fight for the Future of Democracy
open.substack.com
AI in Ed is not a foregone conclusion. Teatimony by Dr. Kelly Clancy in NYC. open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
AI in Education is Not a Foregone Conclusion. Stop Acting Like it Is.
Passionate testimony by Dr. Kelly Clancy, founder of the Parents for AI Caution in Educational Spaces (PACES), advocating for a moratorium on AI in New York City Public School
open.substack.com
When Gemini’s school-sanctioned chatbot went from math help to dating advice in a single question. Ick. open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
"It Sounds Like Your Mind is on a Different Kind of Angle..."
How a learning chatbot pivoted from math help to dating advice in a single question and a whole lot of other reasons to question Google Gemini's "Guided Learning" AI platform for education
open.substack.com
Does the Superintendent know that SPS is using AI to grade student work?! Either way that question is answered is not good for him, the district, or our kids.
Emily Cherkin, The Screentime Consultant@emilycherkin.bsky.social · 2mo agoShuldiner’s response to me last week: “I’m curious how, if at all, SPS is using this software.” Today on Facebook:
A Lincoln HS student explains how SPS no longer assigning whole books in middle school and moving instruction to laptops has huge, damaging ripple effects on student learning into high school and beyond:
Students need more books, not fewer
Students are rarely required to read full books anymore, leaving them unprepared for the future, Student Voices contributor Alice Prokop writes.
seattletimes.com
Signs of change when parents decline the 1:1s! Also; Bring back poster board! open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
Three Signs Things Are Changing Around EdTech
A guest essay by a parent who has opted her 6th grader out of the 1:1 Chromebooks-- and the ripple effects that are occurring in the classroom
open.substack.com
A reminder that while we won’t win every battle, we’re winning the bigger fight. Keep swimming, friends! open.substack.com/pub/firstfis...
Keep swimming, friends. This is hard. But it's working.
Losing one battle doesn't mean we aren't winning the war. Stay strong.
open.substack.com
