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Educational Technology as Knowledge Commons: Bibliography

This bibliography of case studies of knowledge commons in the educational technology context was prepared by Junhao Chen, a student at the New York University School of Law, in February 2023.

Open Learning/Ed Tech

These articles argue that new technologies can enable people to learn effectively and encourage new modes of understanding. These articles also explore how new technologies have asserted more prominent roles in education policy making. For example, Tim Unwim offers six practical advice on how to make new technologies effective in Africa. David Mwambari discusses that while Open Access can enhance knowledge production and consumption in Kenya, Open Access can perpetuate epistemic injustice by dictating what kinds of knowledge will be freely circulated. Lee Yong Tay analyzes how an elementary school in Singapore implements and uses various open-source online platforms which help facilitate students’ engagement for independent and collaborative learning, enhance student–teacher interactions, and develop students’ technological skills. Williamson explores how educational technology companies and their promoters have become key policy actors in shaping educational policies.

Articles:

  1. Bettina Berendt, Allson Littlejohn and Mike Blakemore, AI in Education: Learner Choice and Fundamental Rights, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 45, Issue 3, (2020).
  2. Christine Greenhow, Education and Social Media: Toward a Digital Future (2016).
  3. Richard Hall, For a Political Economy of Massive Open Online Courses, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 45, Issue 3 (2015).
  4. Velislava Hillman, Bringing In the Technological, Ethical, Educational and Social-Structural for a New Education Data Governance, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 48, Issue 1 (2023).
  5. Malin Ideland, Google and the End of the Teacher? How a Figuration of the Teacher is Produced through an Ed-Tech Discourse, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 46, Issue 1 (2021).
  6. Karen Littleton, The Negotiation and Co-construction of Meaning and Understanding Within a Postgraduate Online Learning Community, Learning, Media and Technology Volume 30, Issue 2 (2005).
  7. David Mwambari, The Impact of Open Access on Knowledge Production, Consumption and Dissemination in Kenya’s Higher Education System, Third World Quarterly, Volume 43, Issue 6 (2022).
  8. Koutras, Nikos, Open Access as a Means for Social Justice in the Context of Cultural Diversity in Europe, Seattle Journal for Social Justice: Vol. 15: Iss. 1 (2016).
  9. Luci Pangrazio, A Patchwork of Platforms: Mapping Data Infrastructures in School, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 48, Issue 1 (2023).
  10. Carlo Perrotta, Assessment, Technology and Democratic Education in the Age of Data, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 38, Issue 1 (2013).
  11. Carlo Perrotta and Ben Williamson, The Social Life of Learning Analytics: Cluster Analysis and the ‘Performance’ of Algorithmic Education, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 43, Issue 1 (2018).
  12. Juana M. Sancho-Gil, PabloRivera-Vargas & Raquel Mino-Puigcercos, Moving Beyond the Predictable Failure of Ed-Tech Initiatives, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 45, Issue 1 (2020).
  13. Lee Yong Tay, Open-source Learning Management System and Web 2.0 Online Social Software Applications as Learning Platforms for an Elementary School in Singapore, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 36, Issue 4 (2011).
  14. Tim Unwin, Towards a Framework for the Use of ICT in Teacher Training in Africa, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, Volume 20, Issue 2 (2005).
  15. Ben Williamson, New Power Networks in Educational Technology, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 44, Issue 4 (2019).
  16. Ben Williamson, Governing Software: Networks, Databases and Algorithmic Power in the Digital Governance of Public Education, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 40, Issue 1 (2015).
  17. Kevin Witzenberger & Kalervo N. Gulson, Why EdTech is Always Right: Students Data and Matching: Preemptive Configurations, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 46, Issue 5 (2021).
  18. Elana Zeide and Helen Nissenbaum, Lerner Privacy in MOOCs and Virtual Education, Theory and Research in Education, Volume 16(3) (2018).

Post-Colonial Criticism (primarily from Global South/Africa)

These articles contend that current scholarship fails to take into account how technologies can disproportionately impact certain countries. Adam argues that dominant MOOC platforms created by Western universities can erode local and indigenous knowledge systems.

Articles:

  1. Taskeen Adam, Digital Neocolonialism and Massive Open Online Courses: Colonial Pasts and Neoliberal Futures, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 44, Issue 3 (2019).
  2. David Mwambari, The Impact of Open Access on Knowledge Production, Consumption and Dissemination in Kenya’s Higher Education System, Third World Quarterly, Volume 43, Issue 6 (2022).
  3. Tim Unwin, Towards a Framework for the Use of ICT in Teacher Training in Africa, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, Vol 20, Issue 2, 2005

Social Justice

These articles argue that open-access technologies and open learning platforms can be important tools for social justice. For example, Nikos Koutras argues that open access enables information resources to be shared with the wider public, helping to create a knowledge society composed of well-informed citizens. Richard Lyons identifies eight ways in which education technology can change how learning is facilitated and who will facilitate that learning. He also believes that Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be important for democratizing education.  

Articles:

  1. Richard Lyons, Economics of the Ed Tech Revolution, California Management Review, Volume 59, Issue 4 (2017).
  2. Nikos Koutras, Open Access as a Means for Social Justice in the Context of Cultural Diversity in Europe, Seattle Journal for Social Justice: Vol. 15: Iss. 1 (2016).
  3. Leesa Wheelahan and Gavin Moddie, Gig Qualifications for the Gig Economy: Micro-credentials and the ‘Hungry Mile’, Higher Education, 83, 1279-1295 (2022).

Big Data

These articles explore how big data help platforms reconfigure educational governance.  For example, the shift to data-based forms of digital education challenges the legitimacy of the social sciences in theorization and understanding of learning. Kevin Witzenberger analyzes how students are posited as sources of data. Their thoughts, opinions and intentions are of no concern to Edtech. Ben Williamson argues that new data-driven technologies appear to promise a new era of accuracy and objectivity in scientifically-informed educational policy and governance. The data-scientific objectivity sought by education policy, however, is the result of practices of standardization and quantification deployed to settle controversies about the definition and measurement of human qualities by rendering them as categories and numbers.

Articles:

  1. Velislava Hillman, Bringing In the Technological, Ethical, Educational and Social-Structural for a New Education Data Governance, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 48, Issue 1 (2023).
  2. Jeremy Knox, Ben Williamson and Sian Bayne, Machine Behaviorism: Future Visions of ‘Learnification’ and ‘Datafication’ across Human and Digital Technologies, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 45, Issue 1 (2020).
  3. Janja Komljenovic, The Rise of Education Rentiers: Digital Platforms, Digital Data and Rents, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 46, Issue 3 (2021).
  4. Alexander J Means, Platform learning and on-demand labor: sociotechnical projections on the future of education and work, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 43, Issue 3 (2018).
  5. Luci Pangrazio, A Patchwork of Platforms: Mapping Data Infrastructures in School, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 48, Issue 1 (2023).
  6. Carlo Perrotta, Assessment, Technology and Democratic Education in the Age of Data, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 38, Issue 1 (2013).
  7. Otto Sahlgren, The Politics and Reciprocal (Re)configuration of Accountability and Fairness in Data-Driven Education, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 48, Issue 1 (2023).
  8. Nil Selwyn, Data Entry: Towards the Critical Study of Digital Data and Education, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 40, Issue 1 (2015).
  9. Tim Unwin, Towards a Framework for the Use of ICT in Teacher Training in Africa, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, Volume 20, Issue 2 (2005).
  10. Ben Williamson, Governing Software: Networks, Databases and Algorithmic Power in the Digital Governance of Public Education, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 40, Issue 1 (2015).
  11. Ben Williamson, Digital Education Governance: An Introduction, European Education Research Journal, Volume 15, Issue 1 (2015) (summarizing articles in this collection).
  12. Ben Williamson, Methodologies of Education Governance: Pearson Plc and the Remediation of Methods, European Educational Research Journal, Volume 15, Issue 1 (2015).
  13. Kevin Witzenberger & Kalervo N. Gulson, Why EdTech is Always Right: Students Data and Matching: Preemptive Configurations, Media and Technology, Volume 46, Issue 5 (2021).
  14. Ben Williamson, Objectivity as Standardization in Data-Scientific Education Policy, Technology and Governance, Learning, Media and Technology, volume 44, issue 1 (2019).
  15. Elana Zeide, The Structural Consequences of Big Data-Driven Education, Big Data, Vol 5, No. (2017).

Social Media/New Medium

These articles argue that social media transform the way in which knowledge is shared. For example, Luis Arboledas-Lerida argues that communication of scientific knowledge via social media posits quite a threat to the normal reproduction of science workers. Ching Sing Chai explores teachers’ perceptions and professional development as a result of participating in a knowledge-building community (KBC). KBC can help teachers better prepare for their jobs but cannot be easily adopted in local school settings.  Ina Blau’s study investigates student interactions in a blog-based learning community in a university course.

Articles:

  1. Luis Arboledas-Lerida, Give the Money Where It’s Due: The Impact of Knowledge-Sharing via Social Media on the Reproduction of the Academic Laborer, Social Epistemology, 36(2): 251-266, December 2021.
  2. Ina Blau, NiliMor & Tami Neuthal, Interacting for Learning: Digital Portfolios for a Learning Community in a University Course, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 8, Issue 3 (2013).
  3. Ching Sing Chai, Teachers’ Perceptions of Teaching and Learning in a Knowledge-Building Community: an Exploratory Case, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 31, Issue 2 (2006).
  4. Christine Greenhow, Education and Social Media: Toward a Digital Future (2016).
  5. Kaitlynn Mendes, Jessica Ringrose, Jessalynn Keller, Twitter as a Pedagogical Platform: Creating Feminist Digital Affective Counter-Publics to Challenge Rape Culture, in Digital Feminist Activism: Girls and Women Fight Back Against Rape Culture (Kaitlynn Mendes ed.) (2019).

Virtual Reality/Community

These articles explore why people want to share knowledge in the virtual community setting and how virtual reality can become another forum to support learning and facilitate social interaction. For example, Wesley Shu’s article shows when knowledge is considered a public good, owned and maintained by a community, knowledge exchange is motivated by moral obligation and community interest. Bing Wu conducts experiments to understand how reciprocal knowledge diffusion occurs in web forums and concludes that high-authority individuals play important roles in knowledge diffusion networks and a high-level of online activity has a positive on knowledge diffusion.  Li Jin looks at how social virtual worlds help students generate learning materials and examines the way in which SVWs are transforming the nature of learning as a social practice.

Article:

  1. Li Jin, Zhigang Wen and Norman Gough, Social virtual worlds for technology‐enhanced learning on an augmented learning platform, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 35, Issue 2 (2010).
  2. Shailey Minocha and Ahmad John Reeves, Design of Learning Spaces in 3D Virtual Worlds: An Empirical Investigation of Second Life, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 35, Issue 2 (2010)
  3. Suzanne Riverin and Elizabeth Stacey, Sustaining an Online Community of Practice: A Case Study, Journal of Distance Education, Volume 22, No. 2, 43—58 (2008).
  4. Wesley Shu & Yu-hao Chuang, Why People Share Knowledge in Virtual Communities,  Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, Volume 39, Number 5, 2011.
  5. Bing Wu, Shan Jiang & Hsinchun Chen, The Impact of Individuals Attributes on Knowledge Diffusion in Web Forums, Quality & Quantity, 49, 2221-2236 (2015).

Platform

            These articles explore how platform affects learning, education policy and governance. For example, Alexander Means argues that platform shatters traditional institutional and regulatory foundations of education which shifts the regulatory responsibility to platforms. Leesa Wheelahan and Gavin Moddie argue that platforms contribute to the privatization of education. Platforms help foreclose opportunities for social inclusion and access to education. Ben Williamson analyzes how platforms replace educational institutions to make educational decisions and focuses on Pearson Education’s Learning Curve as a case study.

Articles:

  1. Velislava Hillman, Bringing In the Technological, Ethical, Educational and Social-Structural for a New Education Data Governance, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 48, Issue 1 (2023).
  2. Malin Ideland, Google and the End of the Teacher? How a Figuration of the Teacher is Produced through n Ed-Tech Discourse, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 46, issue 1 (2021).
  3. Niels Kerssens, The Platformization of Primary Education in the Netherlands, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 46, Issue 3 (2021).
  4. Janja Komljenovic, The Rise of Education Rentiers: Digital Platforms, Digital Data and Rents, Learning, Media and Technology Volume 46, Issue 3 (2021).
  5. Alexander J Means, Platform learning and on-demand labor: sociotechnical projections on the future of education and work, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 43, Issue 3 (2018).
  6. Kaitlynn Mendes, Jessica Ringrose, Jessalynn Keller, Twitter as a Pedagogical Platform: Creating Feminist Digital Affective Counter-Publics to Challenge Rape Culture, in Digital Feminist Activism: Girls and Women Fight Back Against Rape Culture (Kaitlynn Mendes ed.) (2019).
  7. Luci Pangrazio, A Patchwork of Platforms: Mapping Data Infrastructures in School, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 48, Issue 1 (2023).
  8. Ben Williamson, Digital Education Governance: An Introduction, European Education Research Journal, Volume 15, Issue 1 (2015) (summarizing articles in this collection).
  9. Ben Williamson, Methodologies of Education Governance: Pearson Plc and the Remediation of Methods, European Educational Research Journal, Volume 15, Issue 1 (2015).
  10. Ben Williamson, Objectivity as Standardization in Data-Scientific Education Policy, Technology and Governance, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 44, Issue 1 (2019).
  11. Ben Williamson, New Power Networks in Educational Technology, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 44, Issue 4 (2019).
  12. Leesa Wheelahan and Gavin Moddie, Gig Qualifications for the Gig Economy: Micro-credentials and the ‘Hungry Mile’, Higher Education, 83, 1279-1295 (2022).

Political Economy (Marxist Analysis)

These articles explore how the development of new educational technologies shapes the political economy as well as the impacts that these technologies have on labor. For example, Richard Hall contends that the political economy of the MOOC reflects a wider series of questions related to social reproduction, and the relationship between educational provision and academic labor. Janja Komljenovic discusses five potential transformations that the education sector is undergoing as a consequence of digital rentiership.

Articles:

  1. Luis Arboledas-Lerida, Give the Money Where It’s Due: The Impact of Knowledge-Sharing via Socil Media on the Reproduction of the Academic Labourer, Social Epistemology, 36(2): 251-266, December 2021
  2. Richard Hall, For a Political Economy of Massive Open Online Courses, Learning, Media and Technogy, Volume 45, Issue 3 (2015).
  3. Janja Komljenovic, The Rise of Education Rentiers: Digital Platforms, Digital Data and Rents, Learning, Media and Technology Volume 46, Issue 3 (2021).
  4. Alexander J Means, Platform learning and on-demand labor: sociotechnical projections on the future of education and work, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 43, Issue 3 (2018).
  5. Ben Williamson, Objectivity as Standardization in Data-Scientific Education Policy, Technology and Governance, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 44, Issue 1 (2019).
  6. Leesa Wheelahan and Gavin Moddie, Gig Qualifications for the Gig Economy: Micro-credentials and the ‘Hungry Mile’,  Higher Education, 83, 1279-1295 (2022).

Role of Parents/Teachers

These articles notice the shift of roles that parents and teachers play in students’ education. Malin Ideland explores how Google helps create a new form of teachers “edupreneurs.” They depart from the traditional model of teachers who lecture and are authoritative. Edupreneurs are teachers who are coaching, flexible and ready to work whenever and whenever. Don Passey shows that a learning platform can allow parents to have more scaffolding to support learning and suggests what the future potential of integrated parental access and support might hold. Neil Selwyn explores the ways in which digital educational technologies are now implicated in the work – and specifically the labor – of school teachers.

Articles:

  1. Malin Ideland, Google and the End of the Teacher? How a Figuration of the Teacher is Produced through an Ed-Tech Discourse, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 46, Issue 1 (2021).
  2. Don Passey, Implementing Learning Platforms into Schools: an Architecture for Wider Involvement in Learning, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 36, Issue 4 (2011).
  3. Neil Selwyn, Selena Mnemorin and Nicola Johnson, High-tech, Hard Work: An Investigation of Teachers’ Work in the Digital Age, Learning, Media and Technology, Volume 42, Issue 4 (2017).