“Scales” by FlukierJupiter is licensed under CC BY 4.0
We had two main readings to choose from this week: one by Regan and Jesse on ethical challenges in edtech and the other was by Kral and Schwab on designing from an indigenous perspective. I chose the first as the use of data was the focus of the social distancing exercise I created. I do plan on reading the second once this course is over, as it has equal importance.
Regan and Jesse stated there were basically two types of big data – administrative (demographics, achievement and behavioural) and learning process. Anonymity becomes impossible with the amount of data points. This therefore affects autonomy. I personally do not support the collecting and analysis of this data by a huge company. The interpretation of data is just that – interpretation. If we do not agree with the algorithms used to interpret the big data, then how is that interpretation of use to us as teachers or learners? Personalized learning should not be automated, but should be based on a small data set interpreted by a knowledgeable teacher within their context instead of an impersonal mathematician/computer program. There is a balance of fact and interpretation that is missing if it is just mathematical calculations.
Are there places for big data? Yes. But is it ethical to collect it? In a provocative blog post, Maciej Cegłowski wrote about collecting data on individuals to support tracking the coronavirus. Interesting. I can see the reasoning, but it is creepy. I still used some of this type of information in the ‘Explore’ part of my social distancing inquiry (see below) because it is so provocative. Hopefully, a teacher would be helping a student talk about the ethics of this type of information gathering and whether the good outweighs the bad.
Our whole final project for EDCI 572 addresses the ethical challenges of using digital resources and applications for student learning. Very timely, since we are in this strange time of emergency online presentation for education because of the coronavirus pandemic. The applications we explored for our final project were aimed at creating opportunities for students to inquire on their own through a controlled inquiry followed by a guided or free inquiry. Yet the digital resource is not totally necessary for our creations – most can be done with paper resources only. The projects would take longer and the students would miss out on some of the more creative or inspiring portions of the inquiry project, but the balance would be they would have more time to think through how to be creative. In our project, we considered the privacy concerns of each of the platforms explored. Some of the decisions made by an individual teacher would be limited based on the choices made by their district. There were openware options for most of the types of applications explored. Teachers may want to consider having students provide fake information to some of the applications so students are not tracked through the application. They would need to read the privacy policy to decide whether it meets the level required by their province/state/district.
Since our project was aimed more generally, looking at applications and assessing their ability to work with different grade levels and subjects, most applications had potential for differentiation. The differentiation could apply to specific learning needs of a student as well as individual cultures and perspectives.
Many of our cohort are attempting to teach synchronously and/or asynchronously with varied success due to the unusual circumstances, including lack of access to tech or lack of sufficient tech within a household for everyone to have access for parental work and student education. Some of our cohort have dropped off packets of work to students, or just spoken on the phone with their students. All are trying to balance the need for education with the needs of the students – some of who need the stimulation of the normalcy of learning and others who are needing to take care of family members or are in other conditions because of our strange current world position. The ministry has loosened their privacy requirements because of everyone needing to change from in school education. They have balanced the need for privacy with the need for expediting educational tools. Have we all made the correct choices? We will have to wait and see what the data tells us. 😛
Resources not linked in Blog
Kral, I. & Schwab, R.G. (2012). Chapter 4: Design Principles for Indigenous Learning Spaces. Safe Learning Spaces. Youth, Literacy and New Media in Remote Indigenous Australia. ANU Press.http://doi.org/10.22459/LS.08.2012 Retrieved from: https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/learning-spaces%EF%BB%BF
Regan, P., & Jesse, J. (2019). Ethical challenges of edtech, big data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167-179. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2
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