I think this is a good post, but I think the part that is missing is the community between teachers that Flipgrid created. This post very focused on functionality here, but not as much on people. People weren't sad because they lost functionality. I mean if we're talking about strict functionality, Seesaw will do the functions of Flipgrid, but it cannot duplicate the content, outreach and community that the Flipgrid education team spent YEARS building. That's what drive the frustration and sadness on this one. That and Microsoft's corporate greed and breaking it's word.
I knew the Education team and how devoted they were to outreach with teachers, students, and partners. They built community within and between schools and educators. They worked with partners like museums, National and California Parks to bring special events and content to teachers and student all over the globe. They held events at schools with what must have been tens of thousands of students. They supported teachers like crazy throughout the quarantine.
What Microsoft wrecked when they broke their promise to the people who founded Flipgrid and all the educators all over the WORLD who helped build Flipgrid into the amazing platform it became was a vast community and a ton of educational partnerships the opened up new worlds and perspectives to students all over the world.
FigJam+vimeo is great. But functionality is the easy part. Community is hard. To me the takeaway here is that all the dewey-eyed optimism in the "purpose" and "mission" of the large edtech companies who made us feel like we were part of something and that they wanted us there a decade ago is all gone. They have shown they true colors and what and whom they really care about. Your point in brand loyalty is spot-on.
In 2018, Tom Greenwood wrote a really great article about who is really the product and who is the customer. And while I wonder if 2024 Tom Greenwood would still agree with is his 2018 conclusion, there is a part of the article that sticks with me, and applies here:
"A phrase that’s been around for years and that has been used a lot in relation to this latest Facebook scandal is, “If the product is free, then you are the product.” It’s an eye opening statement and reflects an obvious truth, that if a company is making billions of dollars and you never have to pay them a penny to use their services, then you are not actually their customer. "
As educators, we need to wake up to this and stop calling vendors "partners." We need to remember if it's free it could go away and, thanks to late stage capitalism, probably will in it's free form.
Hey Josh, thank you for the comment. I purposely left the community aspect out of it. I suspect most Flip users were not part of the community. I also think communities are becoming somewhat exploitative. They are moving from bestowing prestige on the teacher to free publicity for the tech companies. I agree with you that Capitalism is the root of the issue. Without it, a company that endeavors to create something like Google Expeditions would keep it alive as an iPad app for sure.
I think this is a good post, but I think the part that is missing is the community between teachers that Flipgrid created. This post very focused on functionality here, but not as much on people. People weren't sad because they lost functionality. I mean if we're talking about strict functionality, Seesaw will do the functions of Flipgrid, but it cannot duplicate the content, outreach and community that the Flipgrid education team spent YEARS building. That's what drive the frustration and sadness on this one. That and Microsoft's corporate greed and breaking it's word.
I knew the Education team and how devoted they were to outreach with teachers, students, and partners. They built community within and between schools and educators. They worked with partners like museums, National and California Parks to bring special events and content to teachers and student all over the globe. They held events at schools with what must have been tens of thousands of students. They supported teachers like crazy throughout the quarantine.
What Microsoft wrecked when they broke their promise to the people who founded Flipgrid and all the educators all over the WORLD who helped build Flipgrid into the amazing platform it became was a vast community and a ton of educational partnerships the opened up new worlds and perspectives to students all over the world.
FigJam+vimeo is great. But functionality is the easy part. Community is hard. To me the takeaway here is that all the dewey-eyed optimism in the "purpose" and "mission" of the large edtech companies who made us feel like we were part of something and that they wanted us there a decade ago is all gone. They have shown they true colors and what and whom they really care about. Your point in brand loyalty is spot-on.
In 2018, Tom Greenwood wrote a really great article about who is really the product and who is the customer. And while I wonder if 2024 Tom Greenwood would still agree with is his 2018 conclusion, there is a part of the article that sticks with me, and applies here:
"A phrase that’s been around for years and that has been used a lot in relation to this latest Facebook scandal is, “If the product is free, then you are the product.” It’s an eye opening statement and reflects an obvious truth, that if a company is making billions of dollars and you never have to pay them a penny to use their services, then you are not actually their customer. "
(https://www.wholegraindigital.com/blog/you-are-not-the-product/#:~:text=A%20phrase%20that's%20been%20around,are%20not%20actually%20their%20customer.)
As educators, we need to wake up to this and stop calling vendors "partners." We need to remember if it's free it could go away and, thanks to late stage capitalism, probably will in it's free form.
Hey Josh, thank you for the comment. I purposely left the community aspect out of it. I suspect most Flip users were not part of the community. I also think communities are becoming somewhat exploitative. They are moving from bestowing prestige on the teacher to free publicity for the tech companies. I agree with you that Capitalism is the root of the issue. Without it, a company that endeavors to create something like Google Expeditions would keep it alive as an iPad app for sure.