The data collected from digital platforms, social media, smart devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are very much rational proxies with proven predictive power when aggregated at scale. The real question is whether the knowledge extracted from these technological systems is a sound – indeed reasonable – representation of our lived experience, upon which we can build governance structures and autonomous “generative” agents that have real and life-changing impacts.– automatED
Random thoughts & notes
The future of data for education, or any future in fact, is not simply happening but instead something that is made. And, it's made through expectations, imaginaries, visions, and hopes that arise through discussion.
Future research
- Possibilities for opening up uncertainty and agency within data practices - engaging with the contradictions and multiplicities inherent in data practices
- Following the data assemblage further - families/homes, neighborhoods/regions, dispersed media landscapes, international policy-making, media discourses
- Role of emerging layers of data intermediaries and entrepreneurs - "data tamers"
Surveillance capitalism unilaterally claims human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data (Zuboff).
Data as currency: It is still very early days in this data-as-currency world, but it is an absolutely one-sided trade. The buyers at this point are amassing, assessing, consolidating data, and then using it.
On “data exhaust”: You know that you’re throwing off data everywhere you go. But do you know what’s happening to it? Do you know how it’s being monetized? Whom it’s being sold to? Did you know that there is a social map of you and your family and your friends and the places you go? I heard of an amazing story of a certain social platform that could tell just from phone locations whether people were having an affair — because their phones were technically too close to each other! So a lot of data is being thrown off and if people truly knew (a) the value of it, and (b) the implications, they’d maybe be a little more careful (Barratt).
Personal data is generated through people’s use of digital platforms and devices, yet this very interpersonal and relational dimension to data does not appear in popular metaphors. What are the consequences of this?
- Barratt, J. (2019). Data as currency: What value are you getting? Knowledge@Wharton. Retrieved from https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/barrett-data-as-currency/
- Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York: Public Affairs.
Data mining. Data harvesting. Data profiling.
This, coupled with student privacy in a digital world, is the focus of my research.
If you would like to read more about the ways social media impacts education, start here. If you are using Google Suite for Education, check out this research article [PDF] from 2016.
I am not opposed to digital learning, but I am concerned about the data that is collected. Who controls that data? Who makes decisions based on that data? And where is the line between enhancing collaboration (enhancing the user experience) and improving student learning? What is the real cost of all the data we surrender in the name of instructional technology?
The answers to these questions are not limited to one company. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and a host of other companies are all competing for a share of the education market. Corporate strategy in the education sector is nothing new (see below), but the speed and scale of the market has shifted...and the outcomes of these strategies run far deeper.
*image:18pt Century Schoolbook typeface | mirror image for legibility
Another immensely popular face for A.T.F. [American Type Founders] and [Morris Fuller] Benton, Century Schoolbook was either licensed or copied by all the makers of mechanical composition machines, including Linotype, Intertype, Monotype, and Ludlow. Linotype also commissioned Rudolph Ruzicka to design Primer, which was intended to compete directly with Century Schoolbook for the textbook market. -Wikipedia
There is a lot going on in this image below...and, I think this cut (print block) sums up my current situation in life. This image popped up on my facebook "memories" today as a reminder of the picture I snapped four years ago in my printshop.
My intent was to document and share with others this gorgeous vintage cut and type I rescued from a Fresno antique store. At the time, I had questions about the best cleaning methods for the copper plate and the type...and facebook was a big part of my print community. The letterpress and printing groups on facebook are full of wonderful, helpful people.
Thanks for the memories, facebook. I miss those people in the printing groups, the hobbyists, the artists, and the veterans of the craft. Why am I slowly leaving facebook? As part of my terminal degree, I am knee-deep (not a scientific term) in researching scholarly journal articles for my doctoral degree. Instead of printing and sharing to the communities on facebook, I am synthesizing main arguments within the texts and creating a matrix (spreadsheet). For this current project, I am curating approximately 14 articles around the topic of instructional technology ("edtech") and the ways technology impacts student privacy. It is a bit frightening, to be honest.
And, social media is the biggest offender next to smartphones and apps. The more I read about edtech and student privacy, the more I become concerned over my own. So, my "memories" are methodically being archived and summarily deleted. I am not jumping on the Big Data conspiracy train or sounding the social media alarm bells—I just want more control over my data. On that note: I'll post my findings here later if you're interested.