ABSTRACT
In the context of accelerated digitization of education, most public schools are using commercial digital platforms such as Google or Microsoft. This phenomenon, intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, needs to be understood and analyzed by different perspectives and actors to find answers that allow for more sensible and secure use of these tools in educational contexts. In this scenario, this article explores the narratives on the protection of the privacy of users of digital platforms in schools and the protection of children's rights by the main actors in the educational field. The qualitative study is based on 14 interviews with key informants and analyzes their positions and statements concerning the use of commercial digital platforms in schools, the management of data, children's rights and the right to privacy. The results of this research shed light on the discursive tensions between the different educational actors around the entry of digital platforms of technological corporations in public schools. © Univ Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED). All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple educational contexts experienced a sudden and accelerated digital transformation. However, this is not a new phenomenon. For years, public and private initiatives have been designed and tested in Spain. In this regard, the role and use of cell phones in the classroom has been a key and, at the same time, controversial aspect. In Barcelona (Catalonia), for example, recent educational policies have promoted the pedagogical use of cell phones. Within this framework, this article analyses whether these initiatives to promote the use of mobile phones are effectively transferred and implemented in the classroom. Using qualitative research, based on co-design, case studies and content analysis, we examined the reality of three educational centres in Barcelona. In these three contexts, field observations, interviews with management teams and ICT coordinators, and discussion groups with teachers were conducted. The information generated was grouped into five main categories of analysis. As a result, it was observed that the mobile phone has been losing prominence in the classroom. Schools tend to prohibit the use of cell phones and prefer computers to give priority to the control of technological tools in order to use the Internet safely. Mobile phones, in this sense, are only used at certain times when there is a pedagogical objective, although there is still a need for more pedagogical and digital training for teachers. © 2022 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
The cultural domination of capitalism and its influence on the construction of modern democracies could not have been possible without educational institutions becoming one of the main territories for discursive, material and power disputes. This fact has conditioned the existence of a model that educates "from fear" and that, based on this, has ensured the non-expansion of emancipatory and supportive subjectivities. To explore this idea further, and as an epilogue to this dossier "Social movements, activism and resistance from the school", we spoke with Professor Boaventura de Sousa Santos to reflect on the role of education in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and what the main challenges are for building more democracy and educational justice through resistance and emancipation.