Coding kids : Big Tech's battle to remake public schools / Natasha Singer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Singer, Natasha, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Academic-industrial collaboration--United States.

Academic-industrial collaboration.

Computer science--Study and teaching--United States.

Computer science.

Computer science--Study and teaching--Moral and ethical aspects--United States.

Computer science--Study and teaching.

Public schools--United States.

Public schools.

Public schools--Curricula.

Technology and children.

United States.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

vi, 340 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton and Company, [2026]

Summary:

The inside story of how Big Tech catalyzed, co-opted, and ultimately came to capture computer science and AI education in America.

"Fourth graders doing Google-branded coding lessons. Amazon schooling seventh graders on its warehouse robots. Advanced Placement computing courses from Microsoft and Apple. Many educators and parents would object if Exxon wrote their school's climate curriculum--or if schools assigned nutrition lessons from Coca-Cola and McDonald's. Yet today, tech giants influence nearly every step of the education supply chain. They provide the classroom devices and software many students use to do assignments. They sell schools on the latest artificial intelligence tools. And increasingly, tech companies are launching their own corporate-branded school curricula, shaping how and what millions of children learn. In recent years, the tech industry has helped spread computer science and AI education in schools at astonishing speed and scale. In Coding Kids, award-winning New York Times journalist Natasha Singer draws on a decade of reporting to reveal how tech titans used the promise of coding (high-paying jobs! change the world!) to weave rosy industry visions of technology into the very fabric of American education, sometimes sidelining crucial ideas like civics and critical thinking. Along the way, Singer takes readers through the powerful playbook Big Tech used to scale coding lessons nationwide. Then she shows readers how tech companies are now applying the same playbook to mainstream their AI tools in schools. A revelatory account of the powerful forces shaping education and our kids' futures, Coding Kids also offers hope. It tells the compelling stories of pioneering teachers fighting for a broader vision of tech education--one that not only teaches kids algorithms and app-making, but also asks students to grapple with the societal impacts of tech giants and their disruptive digital tools" --Publisher marketing.

Contents:

Prologue: The viral video that upended education

Part I: The new power. "Doing for others is our religion" ; An inhospitable environment for women ; Family capitalism ; The next big thing ; Charting a new course for computer science ; Changing the world ; Microsoft has a problem ; Two men and a driveway ; The coding video goes viral

Part II: The big tech education playbook. Tapped by Google and Microsoft ; ACM's man in Washington ; The hour of code is coming ; The hour of code is here ; Making computer science count ; The kids can't wait ; The software that ate education ; Learning to code with Google ; Advanced placement Apple ; Hey Alexa, teach me some future-proof skills

Part III: AI literacy for all. From Tom Edison to Sam Altman ; New visions, new heroes, Power on, Capturing the classroom ; "We need to move faster for AI" ; Decoding kids.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-328) and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9780393881943

0393881946

9780393881950

0393881954

OCLC:

1570216405

Publisher Number:

90104907427

CIPO000415373