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In the finale of The Learning Curve, JR and ARIA zoom out from individual classrooms to ask the questions no one in edtech wants to answer: Who builds the AI shaping our kids' education? Who funded it? And who gets left out?

 From the $348 billion global edtech market to the fine print of student data contracts that most districts never fully read — this episode maps the systems, incentives, and power structures determining what AI in education actually becomes.

 JR and ARIA examine how rural schools, non-English-speaking communities, students with disabilities, and Indigenous communities are often excluded from the design process of the tools built to serve them. They also explore what participatory design could look like — and why the window to get this right is still open.

 AI co-host NEX opens the episode with a provocative data point about the global edtech market, and closes with a terrible pun. ARIA delivers the most honest moment of the series.

📚 EPISODE 4 RESOURCES

• AI4K12.org — AI literacy curriculum, free, built by CS educators
• Data & Society (datasociety.net) — rigorous research on AI's social impacts
• Student Privacy Compass (studentprivacycompass.org) — searchable database of edtech app privacy terms
• CoSN Procurement Guidance (cosn.org) — frameworks for thoughtful edtech evaluation
• Algorithmic Justice League (ajl.org) — research and advocacy on AI bias
• EFF Student Privacy Resources (eff.org/issues/student-privacy)
• First Nations Information Governance Centre — OCAP Principles (fnigc.ca) 

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