digital learning, emerging technologies, abundant data, and pedagogies of care
TRANSCRIPT
Emerging Technologies in Authen2c Learning Contexts Conference September 2015, Cape Town, South Africa
Digital Learning, Emerging Technologies, Abundant Data, and Pedagogies of Care!
George Veletsianos, PhD!!
Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning & Technology!Associate Professor!
!School of Education and Technology!
Royal Roads University!Victoria, British Columbia, Canada!
Research Focus
Learner, instructor, & scholar experiences
Emerging technologies & emerging prac2ces
Digital educa2on; online networks
To design excep2onal, empowering, & equitable learning experiences
Key takeaways
• The EdTech industry. A remedy? • Big Data, Analy2cs, and experimental/Quant approaches. Capable of explaining what, how, and why learning happens?
• Educa2on. A product to be managed, automated, and delivered?
• Edech is founded on technodeterminis2c thinking • How is all this supposed to foster contexts of care?
A worldwide economic downturn
Globaliza2on and compe22on à interna2onaliza2on policies
Increased demand for educa2on
Curtailment of public funding
Pressures for accountability
Impact of emerging technologies
Higher Educa2on Trends and Pressures
Automa2on à Work?
Priva2za2on
The rise of “EdTech as a remedy”
The rise of “EdTech as a remedy”
“Whether the practice is called
outsourcing, contracting out, or
privatizing, the impact is the
same. Food services, health
care, the bookstore…endless
array of activities that
universities used to manage…”
Kirp, .L (2003). Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bo3om Line: The Marke9ng of Higher Educa9on. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
The rise of “EdTech as a remedy”
Online program
management services
What are some of the most problema2c assump2ons of EdTech?
“What 6.9 million clicks tell us about how to fix online educa2on”
(Conner-‐Simons, 2014)
“We can see everything the students do”
(Chu, 2013)
Assump2on #1: Massive data sets will tell us all that we need to know about learning and teaching
Assump2on #1: Massive data sets will tell us all that we need to know about learning and teaching
Results from a 2013-‐2015 analysis of the MOOC literature: “Automated collec2on of secondary data (e.g., trace data) was used most frequently (73.2% of papers used this method). The second most popular data collec2on method was ques2onnaires/surveys, which were used in 55.7% of papers….Interviews (13.7%), secondary data collected by humans (13.7%), tests (8.7%), observa2ons (4.9%), focus groups (4.4%), and other (2.7%).”
Assump2on #1: Massive data sets will tell us all that we need to know about learning and teaching
What aspects of digital learning cannot be fully understood and improved using data trails?
What aspects of digital learning are invisible to algorithms, mining, and analy2cs?
A. Why do learners par2cipate in digital learning environments in the ways that they do?
B. How do learners overcome challenges in digital learning environments?
Embedded in seemingly innocuous descrip2ons like “managing scale” and “crea2ng efficiencies”
Assump2on #2: Educa2on is a product to be packaged, automated, & delivered
Assump2on #2: Educa2on is a product to be packaged, automated, & delivered
Assump2on #2: Educa2on is a product to be packaged, automated, & delivered
Assump2on #3: Techno-‐determinism
It’s not that automated methods are undesirable “…it is rather that the terms on which they are proposed are driven by a productivity-oriented solutionism which has been critiqued for decades now”
(Bayne, 2015)
Assump2on #3: Techno-‐determinism
The Silicon Valley flavor of EdTech à a naïve belief in determinism Void of the most basic foundations of Educational Technology as a field of practice.
Assump2on #3: Techno-‐determinism
Emerging Technologies and Emerging Prac2ces are defined by the contexts in which they occur.
Assump2on #3: Techno-‐determinism
Emerging Technologies and Emerging Prac2ces are defined by the contexts in which they occur. They share four characteris2cs 1. Not defined by newness 2. Coming into being 3. Not-‐yetness 4. Unfulfilled but promising poten2al
To what end?
The Silicon Valley flavor of EdTech
What needs does this EdTech serve?
Does this EdTech
create a context of care?
Does this EdTech foster pedagogies of care?
Pedagogies of Care
Care.
A core element of pedagogy (Noddings, 2003)
To what end?
What would an African flavor of EdTech look like?
What should home grown solu2ons look like &
what issues do they need to address?
To what end?
Thank you!
Research available at:
hnp://www.veletsianos/publica2ons
This presenta2on:
www.slideshare.com/veletsianos
Contact: [email protected] @veletsianos on Twiner