There are three giants stalking schools in Scotland, their names are Shoogle McGoogle, and Billy McMicrosoft and Macintosh Fitzapple. They are rallying their clans around shiny beacons and building protective dykes around their fiefdoms. The youngsters growing up in the shadow of these defences are being indoctrinated into the customs and ways of each clan. In 2009, Scotland earned international acclaim for the creation of Glow. As the world's first national intranet system for schools, Glow aimed to connect Scotland's 800,000 pupils and teachers online and allow them to pool resources and share educational materials. By 2014 the system had suffered a number of issues and was taken offline. Its successor GLOW365 moved away from editable HTML modules instead becoming a launch page for a national Microsoft Office 365 tenancy and gateway to other platforms, including Google Workspace for Education. This national adoption of Microsoft 365 marked a turning point in digital education in Scotland. Paired with the emergence of 1:1 device rollouts, the giants were now welcomed into our schools. Over the past 9 years, they have carved out fiefdoms, their territories protected by under-resourced Local Authorities and labour-intensive Data Protection requirements. As a result, schools and teachers, rather than having a feast at a digital banquet, find their menus reduced. Their ability to choose the best tools replaced by resourcefulness, the most competent making the best of what is available. This brand loyalty is rewarded with digital credentials which indicate proficiency in the tools proffered by their clan giant. Whole schools are equally recognised with awards and titles. As a result, our schools are becoming test grounds for new products, with the data of every child and adult being fed to the Giant to ensure their further dominance and success.

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