- nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Do Educational Technologies Have Politics? A Semiotic Analysis of the Discourse of Educational Technologies and Artificial Intelligence in Education
by Giacomo Tesio July 30, 2021

July 30, 2021

# Key Findings - Enthusiasm for certain types of automated instructionist technologies persists despite scant evidence of their efficacy, and often in the face of evidence of demonstrated failure. - Advocates of these sorts of technologies seek to shape and control narratives about learning in ways that are divorced from evidence-based claims. - Educators should be skeptical of claims about increasing learning speed or allowing for self-directed learning as this may not best serve all types of learners. - Many of these technologies are more invested in growing their market share and edging out competitors than they are in provable or testable educational outcomes. # Introduction While today’s technology corporations operate under the guise of benign mottos such as “connecting people” or “organizing information,” they do far more than connect and organize: they are implementing a vision for reshaping human interaction in line with their technology and business models, displacing competing versions regardless of their quality. [...] This awakening to the era of digital surveillance and manipulation (Zuboff, 2015) led to a re-examination of the systemic impact of modern digital technologies on all areas of human activity, including education. What was believed to be unequivocally beneficial—such as universal, free access to educational materials—started to be observed in light of many previous critiques of technology and society. Examining with more attention the politics of educational technologies and their enabling systems became imperative. [...] [...] the issue is not just the creation of such learning technologies, but their (often malign) affinities with the larger socio-technical systems that generated them. Going beyond the simplified critique about “artifacts having politics,” today we have to examine how technological artifacts augment, enable, and facilitate specific visions of education that were there all along. [...] the politics of technological artifacts can go both ways. Yes, a computer can be used to mimic the traditional, oppressive classroom, but it can also offer students novel, subversive tools for knowledge creation to escape schoolified oppression. [...] In this article, we will discuss the techniques and artifacts designed to teach pre-determined content to students through electronic media (such as video classes) accompanied by automated assessment. We will term these as “automated instructionist technologies.” We want to investigate how the “enamoring” of the educational world with these technologies happened despite historical accounts of earlier failures, hyperbolic promises only ever partially fulfilled, and decades of accumulating negative evidence [...] # Data Collection Our methodology included three data collection moments. First, we collected the self-reported “company’s mission” public information from the websites of about 15 major edtech companies working on automated instructionist technologies and AI in education. [...] We then collected publicly available interviews with some of the prominent leaders in the field and news pieces in which they are quoted. [...] Finally, we used web-scrubbing techniques to extract the most recent public news pieces with the keywords “AI in Education” and “MOOCs.” [...] [...] [...] # Conclusion: # Devaluing Educators by Overvaluing Automated Teaching Technologies Our analysis revealed a familiar pattern. Namely, entrepreneurs propose a new automated educational technology by establishing an opposition to a stereotyped version of traditional education (dialogism). Then, they build on intertextuality to generate discourse that makes use of old and new “texts” (e.g., “learning at your own pace”). Finally, through polyphony (social media, marketing, high-profile events, celebrity endorsements, branding), they disseminate and legitimize the inevitability of the seemingly benign product—which is then assimilated into everyday discourse (e.g., “personalized learning,” is now incorporated into the lexicon of schools and policymakers). [...] The benefits are significant: first, you attain the privilege of not being challenged by educational formulations when they go wrong. Edtech entrepreneurs that fail catastrophically are allowed to “pivot” to a different direction with no consequence. Take, for example, Coursera’s several “reinventions,” the failure of Udacity’s MOOCs, the ruin of the School of One, Summit Learning System, AltSchool, Edmodo, InBloom, and Knewton, and the underwhelming record of Khan’s Lab School. And despite being behind many of those failed initiatives, and protests from teachers’ union leaders, in May 2020, the Gates Foundation was announced as the state of New York’s leading partner in “reimagining” education during the pandemic. [...] Pressey, Skinner, Khan, and Ferreira all participate in a 100-year-old project to mold education in the image of their technologies. [...] Nevertheless, the modern edtech version of behaviorism understood that the actual battle in education centers around a narrative of innovation, disruption, and revolution. This art has been perfected, and with each new technology (e.g., AI), as it gets increasingly hyperbolic, it also further hides its theoretical inspirations. No edtech firm will use the word “behaviorism” on their websites. [...] It is up to us to build defenses in our educational systems that will protect them from the seductive discourses of automated instructionist technologies. Part of this work lies in ensuring that our educational systems take advantage of technology in other ways instead—such as engaging children in building inventions, programming computers, composing music, or creating art [...to...] make the learning of new, unthinkable things possible. In a time of increasing social inequality and escalating tensions due to multiculturalism and immigration, automated and AI-based educational systems—in their current inception—could become the ultimate tool for educational stratification and inequity. Such systems could be the tool of choice for low-income and underprivileged school districts due to constant budget pressures and the allure of a Silicon Valley-esque revolution. Students in those districts would not only be exposed to less face-to-face, innovative instruction but would be much more vulnerable to bias and to have their data exploited or monetized by service providers. These populations would grow up with dehumanizing, impersonal educational technologies that would greatly diminish their prospects in the complex and interconnected world of the 21st century. But not to worry: the prophets of automated education promise that, in return, we will find ten times more Einsteins. Tratto da https://wip.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/do-educational-technologies-have-politics/… che include anche una interessante analisi della storia e della retorica propagandistica (aka marketing) dell'EdTech Giacomo

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Re: [nexa] le applicazioni GARR (was Re: le app per la scuola del vicino sono sempre più open)
by Giuseppe Attardi July 30, 2021

July 30, 2021

Risposta sbagliata, chiunque può entrare qui: https://git.garr.it/cloud Enjoy — Beppe On 29 Jul 2021, at 12:00, nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it wrote: From: 380° <g380(a)biscuolo.net> To: Giuseppe Attardi <attardi(a)di.unipi.it>, nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it Subject: Re: [nexa] le applicazioni GARR (was Re: le app per la scuola del vicino sono sempre più open) Message-ID: <87v94ur2cy.fsf(a)xelera.eu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Buongiorno Giuseppe, Giuseppe Attardi <attardi(a)di.unipi.it> writes: [...] Infine, GARR pubblica i sorgenti della propria "infrastructure as code" in qualche repository pubblicamente accessibile in lettura? Si, è tutto su git.garr.it <http://git.garr.it/>. In parte ad accesso privato per questioni di sicurezza. No, ho scritto a csd-support(a)lists.garr.it (segnalando anche un problema sulla pagina di registrazione) per tentare di registrarmi e mi hanno risposto: «l'accesso al repository git è consentito solo agli utenti interni» Il lavoro del GARR è off-limits per quelli come me, sono esterno :-D [...] Saluti, 380° -- 380° (Giovanni Biscuolo public alter ego)

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Direttiva database: questionario per la Commissione europea
by Federico Leva (Nemo) July 29, 2021

July 29, 2021

La Commissione europea (DG CNECT) ha commissionato l'ennesimo studio sulla direttiva database. Hanno un questionario e servono piú risposte da ricercatrici/ori universitarie/i, bibliotecarie/i, esperte/i legali ecc. Il sondaggio è disponibile anche in italiano e termina il 6 agosto: https://technopolis.limequery.com/726265?token=BBvVAo2IqEavvsX&lang=it La sezione "Tutela giuridica UE delle banche dati: il diritto sui generis" compare solo se si seleziona "Titolare dei dati" nella prima sezione. (Mi sembra la scelta pertinente per pressoché chiunque voglia riferire l'esperienza di ricerca propria o altrui. Anche solo una tabella allegata a un paper è potenzialmente soggetta a diritti sui generis.) Cordialmente, Federico Leva -------- Messaggio Inoltrato -------- Oggetto: Database Directive review / R&I involvement Data: Thu, 29 Jul 2021 12:09:06 +0200 Mittente: Europeana Copyright Mailbox Dear all, The European Commission urgently needs the active involvement of the R&I community in a survey from the European Commission on the Database Directive . The Copyright Unit in DG CONNECT have commissioned a study that will support the Impact Assessment for the review of the Database Directive <https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31996L0009:EN:…>. This study includes a survey. The intermediate results show a lack of input from a research and innovation perspective. The survey is directly feeding the study to support the above-mentioned Impact Assessment. The *deadline *foreseen by 30 July has now been extended to the *6 August.* The Commission is aware of the extremely tight deadline and that many might be on holidays and would welcome replies from as many individuals knowledgeable of the topic as possibleo (e.g. librarians, legal advisors etc.) even if the answers can't be provided on behalf of an institution (the deadline may be too tight to get internal approval). Please find the link to the survey ( https://technopolis.limequery.com/726265?token=BBvVAo2IqEavvsX ). The consortium that prepared the survey estimates it takes no longer than 15 minutes to respond. You can take a glimpse at the list of questions in the pdf attached. Thank you in advance for your contributions. Best regards, Ariadna -- *Europeana Copyright Mailbox*

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Re: [nexa] le app per la scuola del vicino sono sempre più open
by Giuseppe Attardi July 28, 2021

July 28, 2021

E ci dimentichiamo quelle nostre, tra cui: GARR Workplace (editing collaborativo) GARRbox (file sharing) GARR Meet (video conference) — Beppe > On 26 Jul 2021, at 18:41, <nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it> <nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it> wrote: > > From: Stefano Quintarelli <stefano(a)quintarelli.it <mailto:stefano@quintarelli.it>> > To: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it <mailto:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa] le app per la scuola del vicino sono sempre più open > Message-ID: <63f3a2bd-9ef0-a6eb-b83a-284c94317a8b(a)quintarelli.it <mailto:63f3a2bd-9ef0-a6eb-b83a-284c94317a8b@quintarelli.it>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed > > Le applicazioni per la scuola promosse dal governo francese. > > https://apps.education.fr <https://apps.education.fr/> > > confrontatele con quelle promosse in Italia. > > ciao, s. >

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The Future of Computers: The Neighborhood and The Nursing Home
by 380° July 28, 2021

July 28, 2021

Buongiorno, nel recentissimo articolo [1] segnalato oggi in lista [2] Doctorow scrive: «If our society was a house, the walls would all be made of flaking asbestos and the attic would be stuffed with oily rags» questa metafora della casa mi ha riportato alla mente un provocatorio articolo di Kyle Rankin, chief security officier di Purism: https://puri.sm/posts/the-future-of-computers-the-neighborhood-and-the-nurs… --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- The Future of Computers: The Neighborhood and The Nursing Home July 2, 2021 [...] Maintaining a computer, like a house, requires some effort and sometimes expertise. The do-it-yourself folks in the neighborhood would tackle projects themselves and might help a neighbor with their projects, while others would hire those jobs out to professionals. Generally speaking, people in this neighborhood had autonomy and freedom in how they lived in their homes. [...] some of the wealthier owners, in the name of security and aesthetics, moved into gated communities. These communities might have guards at the gates, and guests have to be registered ahead of time. While you do own your home, there are also strict rules on what you can add to your property and what you can do in the community. Common areas in the community are well-maintained with nice landscaping. [...] Today many people believe they are living in an elite gated community, when in fact they moved into a nursing home. While these residents are well taken care of by a full-time staff, they have very little autonomy. Residents are monitored all the time, and everything from their entertainment to their meals to their daily schedules is decided by the owner of the home, with residents just given a handful of acceptable choices. All doors are locked with keys the owner controls, including locks on individual rooms. This is all done in the name of safety and security because these residents aren’t trusted to take care of themselves. If they make their own meals they might start a fire, and if they are allowed to leave the home alone, they might get lost or hurt themselves. As long as residents stay in the home with each other under the watchful eye of the paid staff, they will be safe. [...] The future of computers will be divided into neighborhoods and nursing homes. In the traditional neighborhoods, residents truly own their property, can repair and improve it themselves (or hire a professional), aren’t constantly under surveillance, and they and their guests can come and go as they please. These residents will control their own security and be able to lock their doors with their own keys. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- OVVIAMENTE anche la narrazione del "buon vicinato di persone responsabili" fa acqua da tutte le parti... ma IMHO l'articolo aiuta a riflettere (ANCHE sull'ecosistema analogico oltre che su quello digitale) in merito all'autonomia, alla partecipazione e alla responsabilità collettiva nei confronti dell'ambiente (quello digitale INFINITAMENTE più semplice da gestire rispetto a quello fisico). Saluti, 380° [1] https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/27/gas-on-the-fire/#a-safe-place-for-danger… [2] https://server-nexa.polito.it/pipermail/nexa/2021-July/021981.html -- 380° (Giovanni Biscuolo public alter ego) «Noi, incompetenti come siamo, non abbiamo alcun titolo per suggerire alcunché» Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice but very few check the facts. Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.

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Doctorow, "The infosec apocalypse is nigh"
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 28, 2021

July 28, 2021

*The infosec apocalypse is nigh* Cory Doctorow /27 luglio 2021// / When the Pegasus Project dropped last week, it was both an ordinary and exceptional moment. The report – from Amnesty, Citizenlab, Forbidden Stories, and 80 journalists in 10 countries – documented 50,000 uses of the NSO Group's Pegasus malware. https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pegasus-project/ The 50,000 targets of NSO's cyberweapon include politicians, activists and journalists. The Israeli arms-dealer – controlled by Novalpina Capital and Francisco Partners – has gone in to full spin mode. NSO insists that the report is wrong, but also that it's fine to spy on people, and also that terrorists will murder us all if they aren't allowed to reap vast fortunes by helping the world's most brutal dictators figure out whom to kidnap, imprison and murder. As I say, all of this is rather ordinary. The NSO Group's bloody hands, immoral practices and vicious retaliation against critics are well established. [...] continua qui: https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/27/gas-on-the-fire/#a-safe-place-for-danger…

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Pegasus spyware is just the latest tool autocrats are using to stay in power | George Monbiot | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo July 28, 2021

July 28, 2021

Bella posizione dell'ottimo Monbiot su potere e asimmetria informativa. Da leggere. <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/27/pegasus-spyware-autoc…> [...] The government is turning politics into a one-way mirror. Just as it learns more about our lives, it ensures we learn ever less about its own machinations. Its proposed changes to the Official Secrets Act would treat journalists and other citizens making “unauthorised disclosures” as if they were spies, threatening them with “increased maximum sentences”, which probably means 14 years. It has so far resisted calls for a public interest defence. But unauthorised disclosures of government malfeasance are essential to democracy. While illegitimate scrutiny is ramped up, legitimate scrutiny is stifled.[...]

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Re: [nexa] Digitalizzazione e innovazione: cosa dice il Piano di ripresa e resilienza?
by Giuseppe Attardi July 27, 2021

July 27, 2021

Ecco un contributo sul Cloud per la PA, che ho scritto per il Forum Diseguaglianze e Diversità: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I_aOVvzHbhXy0gdJ3bMix9IntEgKT1Dk/view?usp=… <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I_aOVvzHbhXy0gdJ3bMix9IntEgKT1Dk/view?usp=…> — Beppe > On 26 Jul 2021, at 13:15, <nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it> <nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it> wrote: > > From: "VETRO' ANTONIO" <antonio.vetro(a)polito.it <mailto:antonio.vetro@polito.it>> > To: mailing list nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it <mailto:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it>> > Subject: [nexa] Digitalizzazione e innovazione: cosa dice il Piano di > ripresa e resilienza? > Message-ID: <4C3EFD9E-D144-48C2-AD89-784184AA630E(a)polito.it <mailto:4C3EFD9E-D144-48C2-AD89-784184AA630E@polito.it>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Un tema trattato più volte in questa lista, tuttavia ho pensato valesse la pena condividere anche questa sintesi del collega dell’Università di Torino, > molto efficace perché (secondo me) in un linguaggio accessibile, chiaro nell’indicare le criticità, e richiede pochi minuti di lettura. > > https://volerelaluna.it/in-primo-piano/2021/07/26/digitalizzazione-e-innova… <https://volerelaluna.it/in-primo-piano/2021/07/26/digitalizzazione-e-innova…> > > A. >

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le app per la scuola del vicino sono sempre più open
by Stefano Quintarelli July 27, 2021

July 27, 2021

Le applicazioni per la scuola promosse dal governo francese. https://apps.education.fr confrontatele con quelle promosse in Italia. ciao, s.

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Fair use via Machine Learning
by Giacomo Tesio July 27, 2021

July 27, 2021

Upload any song protected by copyright. Our Neural Network will "Learn" your song. You can then download what we "Learned." https://fairuseify.ml/ :-D Giacomo

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