There are several things Murdoch is good at: making boatloads of money, influencing politics beneficial to his financial empire, and influencing thought and beliefs and artificial facts and directing them into less-than-diligent thinkers’ minds through various media.  In other words, Murdoch has an agenda, and he’s highly successful at fulfilling it.

On Novemeber 22 he announced that he had purchased 90% of a company called Wireless Generation for $360 million, an ‘educational software’ company begun ten years ago by Rhodes Scholars Oxford classmates Larry Berger and Greg Gunn, who teamed up to create programs for schools that would link K-12 students, technology and teachers with individual learning plans for students and track their progress.  Here’s part of News Corps’ announcement:

"When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching," said Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of News Corp., which includes The Wall Street Journal and Fox Broadcasting Co. among its holdings.

A recognized leader in the movement to personalize the educational experience through the use of data and technology, Wireless Generation also builds large-scale data systems that centralize student data, give educators and parents unprecedented visibility into learning and foster professional communities of educators with social networking tools. The Company is a key partner to New York City's Department of Education on its Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS) as well as on the City's School of One initiative, named by TIME Magazine as one of the Best Inventions of 2009.”

Two weeks earlier New York City Chancellor of Schools Joel Klein announced he would be taking a VP job with News Corp “to pursue business opportunities in the education marketplace.”

 Wireless Generation’s home is in Brooklyn, and is involved in a pilot program called School of One, whose purpose is to create individual programs through software for students and track their progress, allegedly freeing up teachers and allowing them to teach to kids’ strengths and mitigate their weaknesses.  It sounds great on the surface, at least.

According to the LA Times, “New York City's Department of Education uses Wireless Generation's technologies as part of a Klein-led education reform initiative that gave local principals greater autonomy to run their schools -- but required heightened accountability for student performance. Among other things, the technology enabled parents to go online to check a child's attendance records and test results.”

Wireless Generation is used by over 200,000 teachers and 3 million students, two/thirds of whom are in New York.

According to The Financial Times, “Murdoch’s acquisition puts News Corp in competition with established education companies including Pearson, the owner of the Financial Times, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt.  Figures vary, but the US education materials market is between eight and 28 billion dollars, and ‘only’ roughly 15% of that is digital, according to Harry Henry  of Outsell , an information industry analyst.

All parties questioned staunchly maintain that Klein has and will continue to avoid legal or ethical conflicts of issues pertaining to his new job and his old job and the wealth of information, data, and contacts he now holds.  Appointed by Mayor Bloomberg, he and Klein seem to share a business approach to education, and think that student results can be readily measured; the same for teacher productivity.

Many others involved in education, would and do disagree, or remain skeptical that standardized testing is always an accurate reflection of knowledge.

We’re left to wonder more about what sort of influences Murdoch software might have on public education, in particular.  I find it disconcerting that companies can not only design programs to improve student performance, but also evaluate their own program’s effectiveness.

I wonder if they will branch into actual subject areas in the ways that Neil Bush’s Ignite! Software program so famously did, making learning fun by teaching history in cartoon form, etc.

I wonder if NCLB and now Arne Duncan’s ‘Race to the Top’ reliance on test results and often even being tied to funding and recertification is being locked into the system as I type, with a corresponding increase in charter schools.

I wonder if those charter schools will end up being homogenous in terms of race, class, culture and religion, thus discouraging kids’ social and cultural awareness of each other.

I wonder how many school boards across the nation, increasingly heavy with conservatives and Christian fundamentalists will sign on to Wireless Gen programs.

I wonder what, if any, ideological or skewed information might be included in their curriculum subject areas.  My mind imagines some horrific and possibly paranoid possibilities.

 Joel Klein’s tenure as Chancellor was stormy and controversial, as was Michelle Rhee’s at the Washing D.C schools.  They both can point to increased test scores and increased graduation rates.  Here’s Klein being interviewed by Jeffrey Brown.

He was rumored to have been on Obama’s short list for Secretary of Education, and praises Arne and his program.  Detractors organized to dissuade the President from appointing him, citing various objections to his changes.

Does he give any hints about the future of the Wireless Generation projects?  Or will he just be the legal and sales arm to Murdoch’s Vision?  What IS his vision and agenda?  (to be cross-posted at MyFDL)