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Weekly summary: week 8

First week of the final block – that came round quickly! I was really excited to start this block as I find the topic fascinating.

After commenting on some brilliant artefacts from last week, I delved into the literature for algorithmic cultures. Interesting, but also slightly worrying to me, was the use of data collection in education that integrates ‘bodily events, such as facial expressions, biophysiological responses, or neural signals’ (Knox et al, 2020: 35). Investigating this trend further in my lifestream, I was wondering what significant benefits these technologies have. Can technologies really pick up emotions better than teachers? And even if they do, how would we use the data?

The article also discussed using technology to persuade learners to make better choices, in short ‘nudging’. Tracking of students’ behaviour and emotions can be used to ‘shape students’ choices and decisions’ (Knox et al, 2020: 39). As with all forms of data collection, we need to ask whether the use is ethical and in the students’ best interest. Letting machines make decisions for us, arguably takes away some of the freedom and creativity that graduates will need to be successful in later life.

Image from pixabay

I also started with my algorithm play after trying out some of these software algorithms. I decided to look into the YouTube recommends algorithm. It will be interesting to see if I can find out what factors other than viewing habits come into play and whether the results can be easily influenced.

References

Knox, J., Williamson, B. & Bayne, S. (2020). Machine behaviourism: future visions of ‘learnification’ and ‘datafication’ across humans and digital technologies, Learning, Media and Technology, 45:1, 31-45, DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2019.1623251.

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Weekly summary: week 7

This was the final week of our community cultures block. I’ve played around with Evernote for the first time but I spent most of my time to think back to MOOCs, what communities mean for learning and how to express my findings in my micro-ethnography.

It is understandable how the introduction of OER and MOOCs was embraced by many with the promise of accessibility and narrowing the global digital divide. Research now often highlights the limitations of MOOCs in particular. Ross et al. (2019) summarise the issue in their article Critical approaches to valuing digital education: learning with and from the Manifesto for Teaching and Learning: ‘The limitations around the re-use of some MOOC content; socio-political issues around who creates and who ‘consumes’ MOOCs; the status of for-profit MOOC platform providers; attempts to create walled gardens to better capture MOOC learner data: these and other issues have generated heated discussions about who benefits from this educational trend and to what extent the promise of openness is fulfilled by these courses (Almeida 2017; Bady 2013; Decuypere 2018).’

Community (by pixabay)

After investigating the community culture of my MOOC more closely, I had mixed feelings about who benefits. Undoubtedly, students can access well-thought out teaching materials and apply their knowledge by thinking about issues in their own cities, for example. With no tutor presence, hundreds of posts without replies and a Twitter handle that hasn’t been used for several years, I nonetheless felt that the course providers are the big winners. Once created and up-and-running, not much effort is needed to collect student fees year after year (if they choose the verified certificate route). I find it therefore easy to agree with Knox (2015) in that ‘[the] drive for technologies that facilitate our ‘community learning’ have simultaneously embroiled education in a Silicon Valley culture, motivated by data acquisition and profit.’

References

Knox, J. 2015. Community Cultures. Excerpt from Critical Education and Digital Cultures. In Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. M. A. Peters (ed.). DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_124-1

Ross, J., Bayne, S., Lamb, J.(2019).Critical approaches to valuing digital education: learning with and from the Manifesto for Teaching Online. Digital Culture & Education, 11(1), 22-35.