Search

Amid the increasing digitisation of schools, relatively little work has examined the ways in which digital technologies are reconfiguring the work of school principals. With an approach based on the sociology of work, this paper draws on 19 in-depth interviews with Australian school principals to examine their everyday experiences of digital work—with particular attention paid to the enduring influence of email as a key work tool. On one hand, email was seen as a constant and unremarkable feature of ‘modern’ school leadership. Yet, these accounts also highlighted how the intensification and extension of individual principals’ labour practices were being exacerbated by multiple layers and technologies of surveillance, expectations of constant availability, and increased accountabilities imposed through email. Of particular significance were the detrimental ways in which email-based work was described as reshaping the affective dimensions of principals’ work. Against this background, the paper considers what steps might be taken to mitigate such pressures, and perhaps move towards alternate forms of digitally-supported work that are more sustainable.

Anatomy educators are often at the forefront of adopting innovative and advanced technologies for teaching, such as artificial intelligence (AI). While AI offers potential new opportunities for anatomical education, hard lessons learned from the deployment of AI tools in other domains (e.g., criminal justice, healthcare, and finance) suggest that these opportunities are likely to be tempered by disadvantages for at least some learners and within certain educational contexts. From the perspectives of an anatomy educator, public health researcher, medical ethicist, and an educational technology expert, this article examines five tensions between the promises and the perils of integrating AI into anatomy education. These tensions highlight the ways in which AI is currently ill-suited for incorporating the uncertainties intrinsic to anatomy education in the areas of (1) human variations, (2) healthcare practice, (3) diversity and social justice, (4) student support, and (5) student learning. Practical recommendations for a considered approach to working alongside AI in the contemporary (and future) anatomy education learning environment are provided, including enhanced transparency about how AI is integrated, AI developer diversity, inclusion of uncertainty and anatomical variations within deployed AI, provisions made for educator awareness of AI benefits and limitations, building in curricular "AI-free" time, and engaging AI to extend human capacities. These recommendations serve as a guiding framework for how the clinical anatomy discipline, and anatomy educators, can work alongside AI, and develop a more nuanced and considered approach to the role of AI in healthcare education.

In light of the growing need to pay attention to general public opinions and sentiments toward AI, this paper examines the levels of understandings amongst the Australian public toward the increased societal use of AI technologies. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of 2019 adults across Australia, the paper examines how aware people consider themselves to be of recent developments in AI; variations in popular conceptions of what AI is; and the extent to which levels of support for AI are liable to alter with additional exposure to information about AI. While a majority of respondents consider themselves to have little knowledge and familiarity with the topic of AI, the survey nevertheless finds considerable range of relatively ‘plausible’ basic understandings of what AI is. Significantly, repeated questioning highlights a willingness among many people to reassess their opinions once having received further information about AI, and being asked to think through issues relating to AI and society. These patterns remain relatively consistent, regardless of respondents’ political orientation, income, social class and other demographic characteristics. As such, the paper concludes by considering how these findings provide support for the development of public education efforts to further enhance what might be termed ‘public understanding of AI’.

As in many areas of society, educational institutions are beginning to adopt all manner of automated decision-making (ADM) technology. This chapter examines one such example – a facial recognition system that promises to automate the registration of students’ in-class attendance. The chapter explores how this seemingly innocuous system foregrounds a range of ways in which initial aspirations of ADM designers and developers can bump up against context-specific practices and understandings. In particular, the chapter explores how the ADM technology is designed around a simplified codification of classroom processes which itself leads to the insertion of new rationalities and ontologies into teachers’ workplaces. With teachers and students tending to be sidelined in this process, the ADM constitutes a subtle ‘de-professionalising’ presence in the working lives of educators. While ADM usually promises to overcome a number of human-related frictions, in the case of the automated ‘roll call’ these frictions are a key element of the relational work that make classrooms continue to function relatively smoothly on a day-to-day basis.

En el presente capítulo hemos puesto el énfasis en algunas cuestio- nes que habría que debatir y analizar entre profesorado y alumnado de universidad, sobre todo en aquellas facultades de Educación que forman a los futuros educadores, maestros y maestras de Educación Primaria y Secundaria. Mediante estas preguntas, proponemos que docentes y estudiantes puedan analizar en conjunto las consecuencias de la creciente digitalización de la educación. A la vez, buscamos favo- recer una comprensión más sensata sobre los límites y las posibilidades del uso de tecnologías digitales en el sistema educativo, lo cual resulta esencial para que profesorado y alumnado puedan reconstruir expe- riencias representativas y enriquecedoras de aprendizaje para el futuro. [Chapter 11 en: Rivera-Vargas, E., Miño-Puigcercós, R. and Passerón, E., (eds) ‘Educar con sentido transformador en la universidad’ Barcelona, Octaedro (pp.137-147)]

This paper explores the role of material design as a form of institutional power within contemporary school settings. Drawing on concepts of ‘coercive design’ and ‘hostile architecture’ from design studies, the paper examines three ‘innovative’ designs for classroom chairs – relatively mundane but integral elements of the regulation and disciplining of school space. It is argued that the design intentions of these material objects reveal a number of constrained, conservative intentions to maintain the traditional ordered notion of the classroom as a place where students stay in their seats and engage in work. Tellingly, however, this corporeal manipulation and moderation is now couched in claims around desirable physiological and cognitive conditions for learning – with students’ bodies seen as objects to arrange and constrain in ways deemed conducive for learning. The paper problematises this de-socialised view of classrooms, alongside the underpinning sense of design solutionism and (mis)appropriation of ‘learning science’ by product designers to justify their products’ capacities to somehow cause learning to take place.

In this paper we analyse data gathered through facial recognition tradeshow ethnographies and interviews with members of the biometrics industry, as we consider recent shifts in industry discourse towards promoting the ‘ethical’ use of biometric technology. As the biometrics industry increasingly moves towards a ‘Video Surveillance as a Service’ (VSaaS) model, the study of facial recognition infrastructures is becoming a crucial aspect of the interrogation of the Internet of Things. We demonstrate that the facial recognition industry is acutely aware of critiques of facial recognition cameras and biometric technologies as enabling social harms related to intrusiveness and bias (see Stark, 2019), and that members of the industry are keen to promote a more prosocial public image of the technology. Towards this end we find that biometric monitoring of children has gained a prominent place in the promotion of facial recognition technologies as a mode of ‘careful’ surveillance. We identify three key ‘use cases’ in which the face of the child takes on a prominent role as justifying and legitimating the use of facial recognition technologies – in the auditing of humanitarian food supply programs, in the detection of so-called ‘staging’ of family units at the US border, and in the detection of underage gambling in Australia. We argue that the immanent ‘ethical’ framing of the child’s face in this context serves to obscure the political ramifications of the extension of facial recognition and of biometric surveillance tools more broadly.

This article addresses the deliberately speculative question of ‘What might the school of 2030 be like?’, with a specific focus on the influences of digital technologies. The article adopts the met...

Facial recognition technology is now being introduced across various aspects of public life. This includes the burgeoning integration of facial recognition and facial detection into compuls...

There is now an emerging worldwide trend for mobile phones being banned from classrooms and schools. While some academics working in the area of educational technology have raised concerns, many others have so far failed to respond to what is a significant shift in the ongoing development of digital education. The paper considers how academic researchers and other educational technology stakeholders can respond to what might be perceived as the curtailment of some forms of digital education. In particular, the paper argues that this current turn away from digital devices offers an opportunity to advance understandings about a number of seemingly problematic issues regarding the continued use of digital technologies in schools. In particular, the paper reconsiders five such areas of concern that are associated with banning phones from school: (1) technology addition; (2) digital distraction; (3) cyberbullying; (4) surveillance capitalism; and (5) environmental sustainability of digital education.

In many ways, the passing of another decade is nothing remarkable. The world does not transform periodically every ten years. Nevertheless, the fact that the 2020s are now upon us provides good rea...

This paper explores the ways in which students perceive digital technology as being helpful and/or useful to their schooling. Drawing upon survey data from students (n=1174) across three Australian high schools, the paper highlights seventeen distinct digital ‘benefits’ in domains such as information seeking, writing and composition, accessing prescribed work, scheduling and managing study tasks. While these data confirm the centrality of such technologies to students’ experiences of school, they also suggest that digital technology is not substantially changing or ‘transforming’ the nature of schools and schooling per se. Instead, students were most likely to associate digital technologies with managing the logistics of individual study and engaging with school work in distinctly teacher-led linear and passive ways. As such, it is concluded that educationalists need to temper enthusiasms for what might be achieved through digital technologies, and instead develop better understandings of the realities of students’ instrumentally-driven uses of digital technology.

The past decade has seen the expansion of personal digital technologies into schools. With many students and teachers now possessing smartphones, tablets, and laptops, schools are initiating one-to-one and ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) policies aiming to make use of these ‘personal devices’ in classrooms. While often discussed in terms of possible educational benefits and/or organisational risks, the actual presence of personal devices in schools tends to be more mundane in nature and effect. Drawing upon ethnographic studies of three Australian high schools, this paper details ways in which the proliferation of digital devices has come to bear upon everyday experiences of school. In particular, the paper highlights the ways in which staff and students negotiate (in)appropriate technology engagement; the ordinary (rather than extraordinary) ways that students make use of their devices in classrooms; and the device-related tensions now beginning to arise in schools. Rather than constituting a radically ‘transformational’ form of schooling, the paper considers how the heightened presence of personal technologies is becoming subsumed into existing micro-politics of school organisation and control.

This article summarizes some emerging concerns as learning analytics become implemented throughout education. The article takes a sociotechnical perspective — positioning learning analytics as shaped by a range of social, cultural, political, and economic factors. In this manner, various concerns are outlined regarding the propensity of learning analytics to entrench and deepen the status quo, disempower and disenfranchise vulnerable groups, and further subjugate public education to the profit-led machinations of the burgeoning “data economy.” In light of these charges, the article briefly considers some possible areas of change. These include the design of analytics applications that are more open and accessible, that offer genuine control and oversight to users, and that better reflect students’ lived reality. The article also considers ways of rethinking the political economy of the learning analytics industry. Above all, learning analytics researchers need to begin talking more openly about the values and politics of data-driven analytics technologies as they are implemented along mass lines throughout school and university contexts.

In Applied AI, or ‘machine learning’, methods such as neural networks are used to train computers to perform tasks without human intervention. In this article, we question the applicability of these methods to education. In particular, we consider a case of recent attempts from data scientists to add AI elements to a handful of online learning environments, such as Khan Academy and the ASSISTments intelligent tutoring system. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS), we provide a detailed examination of the scholarly work carried out by several data scientists around the use of ‘deep learning’ to predict aspects of educational performance. This approach draws attention to relations between various (problematic) units of analysis: flawed data, partially incomprehensible computational methods, narrow forms of educational knowledge baked into the online environments, and a reductionist discourse of data science with evident economic ramifications. These relations can be framed ethnographically as a ‘controversy’ that casts doubts on AI as an objective scientific endeavour, whilst illuminating the confusions, the disagreements and the economic interests that surround its implementations.

This short paper reflects on some pressing issues that Australian education is set to face over the next decade. In particular, we will explore a series of substantial challenges that are likely to come to the fore during the 2020s. These include:* making a persuasive case for retaining traditional models of ‘school’ and ‘teacher’ in the face of compelling alternatives* develop broader notions of ‘skills’, ‘competencies’ and ‘aptitudes’ that help students to flourish in an age of precarious employment, misinformation and an increasingly fragmented society* engaging with digital technology in ways that strengthen the character and values of public education* renegotiating relationships between educational institutions and the corporate actors that are shaping education agendas around the world* engaging with public opinion, and fostering a genuine public understanding of (and support for) education* re-imagining educational provision and practices that are appropriate for an age of climate change.While these are all incredibly complex challenges, there is good reason to remain hopeful. In this spirit, the paper considers a variety of ways in which the Australian educational community might move forward in a realistic manner – allowing us to play a proactive part in how the 21st century continues to unfold.

“A circus of ideas: revisiting Archigram’s visions for education and architecture in the information age” Occasional paper by Neil Selwyn, London Knowledge Lab, University of London, UK June 2008

The much-discussed potential of ‘technology-enhanced learning’ is not always apparent in the day-to-day use of digital technology throughout higher education. Against this background, the present paper considers the digital devices and resources that students engage most frequently with during their university studies, what these technologies are being used for, and perceptions of ‘usefulness’ attached to these uses. The paper draws upon data gathered from a survey of undergraduate students (n = 1658) from two Australian universities. Having explored a variety of factors shaping student engagement with digital technology within these university settings, the paper considers how ongoing discussions about digital technology and higher education might better balance enthusiasms for the ‘state of the art’ (i.e. what we know might be achieved through technology-enabled learning) with an acknowledgement of the ‘state of the actual’ (i.e. the realities of technology use within contemporary university contexts).

This article originates from a presentation made to the Tenth Conferencia Internacional Encuentros, held at the University of Barcelona, on 26th though 28th October 2016.

This year has seen some editorial changes for LMT. Neil’s editorial role for the journal came to an end, and John joined as co-editor of LMT. Given this context, we thought it was an appropriate moment to take stock of the journal: where we were in 2010, where we are now, and where we hope to be in 2010. Below, each of us reflects on our experiences of editing LMT, and our hopes for its future.

Selwyn N., (2017) Um panorama dos estudos críticos em educação e tecnologias digitais. in Rocha, C., El Kadri, M. and Windle, J. (eds). Dialogos sobre tecnologia educatcional. Sao Paulo, Pontes (pp.15-40)

Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza, No.104, pp.51-77El texto que presentamos a continuación es una transcripción editada por Linda Castañeda de la conferenciade Neil Selwyn en la Institución Libre de Enseñanza el pasado mes de octubre de 2016, que transcurriócomo una sesión en la que el conferenciante desarrolló su planteamiento en tres partes, cada unade las cuales fue seguida de un debate conducido por la editora.

O uso de tecnologias digitais é um componente central da maior parte das formas de oferta e prática educacionais contemporâneas. Crucialmente, a tecnologia educacional é agora um negócio multibilionário que envolve corporações globais em nível de práticas e provisão locais. A necessidade de se questionar criticamente a Educação e a Tecnologia é mais premente do que nunca. Este capítulo apresenta algumas questões fundamentais que precisam ser verbalizadas diante de tais avanços. Em particular, retoma os sete desafios críticos propostos pelo teórico das mídias Neil Postman. Ainda que Postman tenha se preocupado com o efeito dos computadores e da Internet nas escolas durante a década de 1990, seus argumentos permanecem relevantes em nossa era de smartphones, big data e computação em nuvem. O texto examina as implicações dessa linha de questionamento crítico para a compreensão do estado atual da Educação e Tecnologia. Essas são discutidas em termos de: tópicos centrais; atores e interesses chave; métodos de investigação; e decorrências prováveis de se questionar criticamente a educação e tecnologia.

Wikipedia is now an established information source in contemporary society. With initial fears over its detrimental influence on scholarship and study habits now subsiding, this paper investigates what part Wikipedia plays in the academic lives of undergraduate students. The paper draws upon survey data gathered from students across two universities in Australia (n = 1658), alongside follow-up group interview data from a subsample of 35 students. Analysis of this data suggests that Wikipedia is now an embedded feature of most students' study, although to a lesser extent than other online information sources such as YouTube and Facebook. For the most part, Wikipedia was described as an introductory and/or supplementary source of information — providing initial orientation and occasional clarification on study topics. While 87.5% of students reported using Wikipedia, it was seen to be of limited usefulness when compared with university-provided library resources, e-books, learning management systems, lecture recordings and academic literature databases. These findings were notably patterned in terms of students' gender, year of study, first language spoken and subject of study.

Despite the ever-increasing use of digital technologies in contemporary society, education researchers have yet to fully get to grips with the ‘digital age’. While the topic attracts large amounts ...

Young people’s engagements with social media now generate large quantities of personal data, with “big social data” becoming an increasingly important “currency” in the digital economy. While using social media platforms is ostensibly “free,” users nevertheless “pay” for these services through their personal data—enabling advertisers, content developers, and other third parties to profile, predict, and position individuals. Such developments have prompted calls for social media users to adopt more informed and critical stances toward how and why their data are being used—that is, to build “critical data literacies.” This article reports on research that explores young social media users’ understandings of their personal data and its attendant issues. Drawing on research with groups of young people (aged 13–17 years), the article investigates the consequences of making third party (re)uses of personal data openly available for social media users to interpret and make critical sense of. The findings provide valuable insights into young people’s understandings of the technical, social, and cultural issues that underpin their ability to engage with, and make sense of, social media data. The article concludes by considering how research into critical data literacies might connect in more meaningful and effective ways with everyday lived experiences of social media use.