ABSTRACT
The use of digital platforms by the university communities to produce knowledge, research, teaching, and management has not only intensified but it has also diversified since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a context where higher education and the use of digital technologies are increasingly intertwined, universities can take advantage of this unplanned hiper-digitalization event to explore fundamental questions about learning and researching in a post-digital landscape. This article is the result of an exploratory study based on a co-design and virtual ethnography, analyzing the attributes and foci of 31 "data research center" in universities from 16 countries. Although the centers analyzed have different profiles and approaches, they all investigate the intensive use of data and its political-social implications, with a special interest in the fair and ethical use of data for administrative, research, and pedagogical activities. As result, this work provides 20 proposals, grouped into 4 dimensions of possible institutional areas of development for universities. These proposals aim to contribute to the critical analysis of how higher education institutions can play a central role to face the growing relevance of advanced data systems in our societies. © 2023 Grupo de Investigacion FORCE. All rights reserved.
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.
ABSTRACT
Digital platforms are generating the most significant advances in global educational innovation. The global pandemic of Covid-19 is accelerating the expansion of digital platforms in education. Google is the technology corporation that, through Google for Education, is leading educational innovation through its digital platforms. In this context, the objective of this article is to analyze innovation in educational practices and teacher training through Google's digital platforms. From a qualitative approach based on the implementation of a digital ethnography and a technography, eight Google websites related to teacher training and data have been analyzed in depth. The results of the study show that, through the Classroom API (1) new techno-educational control processes are being generated, (2) new extractive dynamics of data and (3) new relationships are forming with the technology industry. Alongside this, it is observed that teacher training for techno-educational innovation in Google is based on pyramidal professional development, through teaching certifications, and on "Google educational communities" that are self-formed and expand the tools and market logics of this technology corporation. © 2021 Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. All rights reserved.