Cisco

‘’‘Cisco Systems’’’, or ‘’‘Cisco’’’ is a global technology firm, with its interests concentrated on computer networking and hardware.

It is one of the most prominent commercial actors in educational technology, alongside Microsoft, Apple, HP, Dell and Intel.

In education it provides many products and services, such as ‘solutions’ to help schools make the transition to Common Core State Standards in the US; cloud computing and data services for schools; video facilitates and other digital tools for classrooms.^[1]

Lobbying for education ‘reform’

Cisco has developed an extensive involvement in technology-based educational reform. It says:

Cisco is committed ... help reform and renew education throughout the world... We believe that the same technologies that created the internet and the information revolution have the power to transform education for the twenty-first century.’

Its lobbying efforts to reform education systems around the world are focused on areas such as thought leadership and strategic communications (aka public relations), as well as “building leadership capacity”.^[2]

Below are some of the key projects Cisco has initiated or funded.

Global: pushing technology into schools

Cisco initiated and funds the Global Education Leaders’ Partnership (GELP), a group of lobbyists for education reform operating across countries with a particular focus on getting more technology in teaching and learning.

GELP is described as arising from a set of ideas in a series of Cisco ‘white papers’ published 2008-2010, which asserted that the current system of schooling is failing today’s students, and call for education systems to be ‘transformed’ through technology.

See Global Education Leaders’ Partnership for more.

Courting Brussels officials

Cisco is one of many corporate partners in the Future Classroom Lab, a project of European Schoolnet, which is supported by 30 education ministries and corporates. The Classroom Lab is a physical space in Brussels and a virtual environment with six ‘learning zones’ that allows visitors - policy-makers, companies and teachers – to ‘explore the essential elements in delivering 21st century learning’.^[3]

Post hurricane Katrina

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Cisco worked with schools districts in Mississippi and Louisiana to, in Cisco’s words, ‘revamp their long-term priorities and improve student performance by introducing technology to classrooms.’

The $80m programme (in cash, equipment and Cisco staff time) that ran till 2009, called ‘21st Century Schools Initiative’, equipped schools with the internet and interactive tools, trained teachers to bring those tools into teaching and coached school leaders.^[4]

New York City

In 2008, Cisco and the New York City Department of Education launched NYC iSchool. (IBM did similar in 2011).

New York’s iSchool is heavily orientated towards technology, with all classes involving some form of online study.^[5] According to Cisco it is helping New York City’s leaders with ‘their 21st century education agenda by leveraging technology to equip students with the skills needed to thrive in the global knowledge economy.’ ^[6]

Victoria, Australia

Cisco has a long-standing relationship with the State of Victoria Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in Australia. For example:

2005: the state rolled out wi-fi across 1700 schools using Cisco technology;
2008: Cisco – alongside Microsoft and Intel – became a partner in the Department of Education’s ‘Ideas Lab’, which aimed to encourage new thinking about ‘education for 21st century learning’.^[7]
January 2010: Cisco and the Department signed a memorandum of understanding for ‘systemic education reform to help improve learning outcomes for underprivileged students at more than 1500 schools.’ ^[8]
September 2010: Cisco won a major contract which saw the Department standardise on Cisco equipment throughout its operations.^[9]

Defining what is taught and how

Cisco is a founder member, along with Microsoft and Intel of the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) project, which ran from 2008-2012, which aimed to ‘transform education for the 21st century’.

ATC21S sought to define what pupils needed to be taught today - commonly referred to among reformers a ‘21st century skills’ - how to test pupils’ skills (assessment being seen as a central means of changing what is taught and how it is taught).

According to the project:

what is learned, how it is taught and how schools are organized must be transformed to respond to the social and economic needs of students and society as we face the challenges of the 21st century.

The three technology giants sponsored research and ‘mobilized the international educational, political and business communities’ around this 21st century skills agenda. The project summarises the 21st century skills, broadly, as: communication and collaboration, problem-solving, IT literacy, creativity and ‘innovation’.^[10]

Pushing 21st century skills agenda

Cisco is also a founding member of the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (formerly the Partnership for 21st Century Skills), or P21, which was founded in 2002 to lobby for the ‘21st century skills’ agenda.

Reforming the teacher workforce

Cisco is among many corporate and right-wing foundations that support Teach for America, an organisation that has received criticism for its efforts to ‘privatize, voucherize, and generally dismantle free and universal public education in America’.^[11]

Teach for America

Cisco tops Teach for America's list of corporate donors, giving the organisation more than a $1million in in-kind or pro-bono support.^[12]

Teacher development in African countries

Cisco – alongside Microsoft, Intel, again, and the World Bank Institute – says it has helped education officials develop policies in a number of sub-Saharan African countries, as well as helping to implement ‘ICT-enabled teacher development programs’. According to Cisco, Government officials from nine countries – Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda – participated in the programme in September 2009. ^[13]

Cisco is also a major funder to the e-Schools programme of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), through which it promoted the use of digital education content and teacher training in Algeria, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa; and pushed for the installation of internet access and satellite connectivity in schools in these countries.^[14]

Cisco has also funded the teacher development Teachers Without Borders

Teacher quality in Mexico

In 2009, Cisco and the Secretaria de Educación Publica ran two pilot programs at the middle and high school levels, ‘as a model of systemic transformation’. The pilots, according to Cisco, focused on ‘teacher quality, accountability, and 21st century skills’. ^[15]

People

Phil Smith: CEO, Cisco UK & Ireland; Smith is also chair of the government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK
Peter Cevenini: education and workforce development lead for the consulting arm, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) in North America.