mastodon 4.7.2sociology of education + digital | Monash University | ... tough on ed-tech and the causes of ed-tech since 1995
Just finished checking the proofs for this new book (which should be out around Easter 2027 I think).
I was very reticent about writing a book on AI (given how much noise there has been over the past few years), but this has turned out really well I think.
The idea is to (i) look beyond the GenAI hype and focus in on the AI that is set to really matter in education; and (ii) see this all as something to be challenged, resisted and reimagined.
Other ways of doing AI are possible!
ICYMI - London bus stops with sub-vertising from the 'No-one Likes Elon' group
Greenwashing AI in Higher Ed: An environmental argument for universities’ resistance to Big Tech
... new essay by Matthew Riemland
AI Resist List - nine different ways (and lots of practical examples) of how you can contribute to the fight against AI ... https://airesistlist.org
Ed-tech as climate criminal?
Colm O’Neill is doing some really interesting work around the need to rethink ed-tech in light of its environmental costs ... I got to talk to him about the environmental harms associated with ed-tech and the possibility of taking alternate ‘perma-computing’ approaches:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1301377/episodes/18914799-ed-tech-as-climate-criminal
'What's At Stake? Young People's Take on AI and Education' .... brilliant looking zine produced by young people in the UK telling education leaders & teachers what they want 'responsible AI' to look like in their classrooms.
https://ai-and-education.shorthandstories.com/zine/index.html
Caroline Sinders' 'Potato Internet' - a provocation to think otherwise about what scaled-down, environmentally-sensitive networking might look like:
New doctoral position on the Environmental Impact of AI at KTH (Stockholm)
Deadline Oct. 23.
one of the great things about still having a functional public broadcaster here is Australia is their willingness to host a half-hour radio program on topics like of "existential hope" & "digital degrowth" - very happy to have been involved!
Link to listen is here: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/futuretense/existential-hope-fear-s-j-beard-neil-selwyn-consumer-capitalism/105690310
"Ruinous EdTech – higher education and computing's excesses" - Colm O'Neill is giving an online seminar at Edinburgh Uni (Dec 11th) exploring how ed-tech can engage with ideas of digital degrowth, decolonial computing etc.
Book your place now!
https://www.de.ed.ac.uk/event/colm-oneill-ruinous-edtech-higher-education-and-computings-excesses
We are running a small survey to better understand why academics are increasingly feeling the need to turn to GenAI to do things that they know/feel they should ideally be doing themselves (e.g. write peer reviews, draft papers, write student feedback etc.)
We've got a very short (3 minute) & totally anonymous drop-box where academics can share their own examples and reasons for turning to GenAI. Find out more and complete the survey at this link:
More than 200 killed in coltan mine collapse in eastern DRC
This tragic incident highlights the completely exploitative underpinnings of our dependency on digital devices, and the limits of any talk in the global north of 'digital ethics', 'ethical tech' etc.
We don't need Big Tech's growth-fuelled vision of tech - other approaches to tech are possible!
"the idea isn’t so outlandish – it only feels impossible because big tech firms want us to think it is. What is most outstanding about frugal innovation is not just that its technologies are impressive, but that it might actually prompt systemic change by showing people that tech can be developed locally, and not just imported from Silicon Valley."
Critical studies of ed-tech are becoming increasingly popular ... but how can they be a useful force for change?
New report outlines 8 main areas that the CSET community needs to get discussing!
"The current AI hype bubble is being driven by little more than emotions. Instead of being awed by speculative promises around AI futures, we need to engage with current forms of AI in terms of their values and politics. Above all, we need to step up the fight for new democratised forms of AI governance and development"
https://criticaledtech.com/2025/07/12/we-need-to-talk-about-ai-in-terms-of-values-not-vibes/
Great starting point from which to radically reimagine what AI might be from a degrowth perspective ...
"Degrowth helps us surface the logics underlying AI–from its material footprint to its epistemic assumptions—and invites us to imagine more relational, regenerative, and plural ways of designing and governing digital systems"
https://aiplanetaryjustice.com/publications/a-degrowth-perspective-on-ai
Digital Degrowth session tomorrow afternoon in Warsaw! Do come if you are in the area ...
"Veremos una intensificación de la militarización y el autoritarismo de las nuevas tecnologías" - una nueva entrevista conmigo ha sido publicada en El Asombrario & Co... una discusión muy interesante sobre el futuro de la tecnología digital