DigiTrans Workshop on "Datafied Education"

With Andra Siibak, professor of Media Studies at Tartu University

Tuesday 19 November 13.00-17-00, the Digital Transformations Centre of Excellence invites papers for a workshop on Datafied Education.

Education at all levels are today heavily dependent on digital media: parents and teachers communicate through online platforms, students are increasingly using digital learning material, and datafied technologies are used to assess, grade, and resister various aspects of student (and teacher) performance. This workshop intends to penetrate questions on the datafication of education at all educational levels from preschool to higher education.

Andra Siibak, professor in Media Studies at Tartu University with a long list of publications into the implications of EdTech is invited and will give an opening keynote speech. We hereby invite paper proposals/abstracts for presentations on this occasion. Please send abstracts of max 300 words including title to saga.hansen@sh.se, no later than 21 October.

Keynote: Should we rely upon an AI-fix? AI-based technologies as a source of new problems rather than solutions within the education sector

In recent years we are seeing growing evidence that the experiences of care giving and care receiving, both within the home (Lupton, 2020; Lim 2020) and in school environments, has become increasingly interdependent with AI-based technologies. Decisions to adopt AI systems in education settings are frequently driven by organizational, political, or financial goals. In many respects, AI-based technologies are eagerly purchased by school officials in the hopes that these new technologies will help to find a solution, or at least provide an ease, to a variety of deep and systemic social problems. Unfortunately, societies’ “wicked problems” (Rittel & Webber, 1973) cannot ever be fixed by a single tool, AI-based or otherwise. In fact, rather than solving any systemic problems, such growing overreliance upon AI-fixes is creating a plethora of new concerns and ethical dilemmas related to both about bias, discrimination, unfairness as well as children’s agency, privacy and their digital rights (Mascheroni & Siibak, 2021).

In the presentation I will rely upon the findings of my empirical studies from different cultural locations (Estonia, China, UK, USA) to showcase how the uptake of AI-based technologies within the education sector, can also be seen as a rupture affecting the core practices of a teacher. Furthermore, in some countries (e.g. in Estonia) which have publicly announced moving their public education systems towards personalised education approach (Estonian Education Strategy 2021-2035) such steps can be viewed as an intervention, creating new trajectories for the teacher profession. Through such initiatives we can witness the platformisation of infrastructures (like education) and infrastructurization of platforms (Platin et al 2018) leading to considerable transformations not only for the individuals (students, teachers, parents) involved but the society at large.

Andra Siibak is a Professor of Media Studies, a Deputy Head of Research and Development and a Program Director of the Doctoral Curriculum in Media and Communication at the Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu. Her research focuses on opportunities and risks surrounding internet use, cyber risks and harms (e.g. fake news, privacy issues, surveillance, social engineering scams, phishing), and inter-generational family life and communication practices in the era of datafication and platformisation.

Some recent publications:
Kikerpill, K. & Siibak, A. (2023). AI in Schools and Universities: Mapping Central Debates Through Enthusiasms and Concerns. In Nah, S. (ed.) Research Handbook on AI and Communication (pp.94-107.) Edward Elgar Publishing.DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803920306.00014
Kikerpill, K.; Siibak, A. (2023). App-hazard disruption: An empirical investigation of media discourses on ChatGPT in educational contexts. Computers in the Schools, DOI: 10.1080/07380569.2023.2244941
Kikerpill, K.; Siibak, A. (2023). Schools engaged in doom-monitoring students’ online interactions and content creation: An analysis of dominant media discourses. Child and Adolescent Mental Health,https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12621Ta