20260429 Totale Anpassung statt digitaler Kompetenz

Total Conformity Instead of Digital Literacy – Schools Become Laboratories for Behavioral Analysis

A few days ago on tkp.at, Dr. Peter F. Mayer presented his observations on the demand for "digital literacy" and the actual reality in our schools. Instead of serving as a support for independent thinking, digital tools (introduced as a result of Digital Pacts 1.0 and 2.0) are being dumped on students, and their modes of use are accepted as if they were God-given.

Bad enough, this is just the tip of the iceberg, because beyond that, students are being drawn into an infrastructure of data collectors. He writes: " As Martin Armstrong sharply points out in a recent analysis, what we are witnessing in schools is nothing less than a massive, mandatory data-harvesting machine."

About 90 percent of common school apps transmit tracking data to companies. This data is used to create lifelong behavioral profiles, not only regarding factual knowledge but also attention spans, interaction patterns, and emotional reactions to specific content. In the EU, this goes by the euphemistic name "Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027." These guidelines make it increasingly difficult for teachers to refuse to use these apps. Furthermore, teaching staff even perceive them as helpful, as they facilitate the grading of tests — ostensibly only for the teachers.

Dr. Mayer compares the game Pokémon Go, which is nothing more than a massive test run for collecting movement data, to the requirement that every worksheet, every test, and every homework assignment must go through an app. In doing so, we normalize surveillance as a constant companion without even being informed about where our data ends up.