Skip to content

The Classroom/Technology Pipeline

October 21, 2026 · 33 min

Show notes

OTM producer Molly Rosen has been on a mission to find out what technology her two-year-old kid will confront when he’s old enough to go to school. Today, big tech companies permeate schools, from the Google Chromebooks that most students are using, to the apps and software that schools run on, to the computer science courses that students and teachers are taking. To understand the decades-long campaign that got so much tech into schools, Molly spoke to Natasha Singer, who covered tech in schools for The New York Times for more than a decade. She lays out the history of how big tech got into schools in her new book, Coding Kids: Big Tech’s Battle to Remake Public Schools. 


 

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

All episodes of On the Media

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.