The future of value in digitalised higher education: why data privacy should not be our biggest concern.
TLDR
It is argued that the authors urgently need public scrutiny and political action to address issues of value extraction and redistribution in HE and proposed to move from commodification to assetisation, and from prices to rents.Abstract:
Universities around the world are increasingly digitalising all of their operations, with the current COVID-19 pandemic speeding up otherwise steady developments. This article focuses on the political economy of higher education (HE) digitalisation and suggests a new research programme. I foreground three principal arguments, which are empirically, theoretically, and politically crucial for HE scholars. First, most literature is examining the impacts of digitalisation on the HE sector and its subjects alone. I argue that current changes in digitalising HE cannot be studied in isolation from broader changes in the global economy. Specifically, HE digitalisation is embedded in the expansion of the digital economy, which is marked by new forms of value extraction and rentiership. Second, the emerging research on the intersection of marketisation and digitalisation in HE seems to follow the theories of marketisation qua production and commodification. I argue that we need theories with better explanatory power in analysing the current digitalisation dynamics. I propose to move from commodification to assetisation, and from prices to rents. Finally, universities are digitalising in the time when the practice is superseding policy, and there is no regulation beyond the question of data privacy. However, digital data property is already a reality, governed by ‘terms of use’, and protected by the intellectual property rights regime. The current pandemic has led to ‘emergency pedagogy’, which has intensified overall digitalisation in the sector and is bypassing concerns of data value redistribution. I argue that we urgently need public scrutiny and political action to address issues of value extraction and redistribution in HE.read more
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The rise of education rentiers: digital platforms, digital data and rents
TL;DR: The education sector is fast digitalising all of its operations as mentioned in this paper and a large part is driven by proprietary digital products and services developed and offered by for-profit companies that form the education sector.
Journal ArticleDOI
Assembling New Toolboxes of Methods and Theories for Innovative Critical Research on Educational Technology
Linda Castañeda,Ben Williamson +1 more
TL;DR: The field of educational technology has always been rather a complicated one, involving a diverse mix of academic learning scientists, educationalists, instructional designers, educational technologists, managers, and commercial companies as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Networked learning in 2021: : A community definition
Lesley Gourlay,José Luis Rodríguez-Illera,Elena Barberà,Maha Bali,Daniela Gachago,Nicola Pallitt,Chris Jones,Siân Bayne,Stig Børsen Hansen,Stefan Hrastinski,Jimmy Jaldemark,Chryssa Themelis,Chryssa Themelis,Magda Pischetola,Lone Dirckinck-Holmfeld,Adam Matthews,Kalervo N. Gulson,Kyungmee Lee,Brett Bligh,Patricia Thibaut,Marjan Vermeulen,Femke Nijland,Emmy Vrieling-Teunter,Howard Scott,Klaus Thestrup,Tom Gislev,Marguerite Koole,Maria Cutajar,Sue Tickner,Ninette Rothmüller,Aras Bozkurt,Tim Fawns,Jen Ross,Karoline Schnaider,Lucila Carvalho,Jennifer K. Green,Mariana Hadžijusufović,Sarah Hayes,Laura Czerniewicz,Jeremy Knox +39 more
TL;DR: The Networked Learning Editorial Collective (NLEC) published a paper entitled "Networked Learning: Inviting Redefinition" (2020) to open up a broad discussion about the current meaning and understandings of NL and directions for its further development as mentioned in this paper.
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Big Tech: Four Emerging Forms of Digital Rentiership
Kean Birch,DT Cochrane +1 more
TL;DR: In late 2020, the US government initiated legal suits against two Big Tech firms, Google and Amazon as discussed by the authors, and the US Department of Justice and 11 State Attorneys General filed a lawsuit against Google.
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