Tag Archives: education policy
The evolution of the global education industry during the pandemic
Ben Williamson & Anna Hogan Through the ‘pivot’ to ‘online learning’ and ‘emergency remote teaching’ during the Covid-19 emergency, educational technology (edtech) has become integral to education globally, with private sector and commercial organizations developing central roles in essential educational … Continue reading
Edtech, coronavirus, and commercialization in public education
Ben Williamson While the opening months of 2020 have been marked by huge disruptions to education at an international scale, some organizations have thrived during the coronavirus pandemic. According to the education markets consultancy HolonIQ, the first three months of … Continue reading
Psychodata
Ben Williamson ‘Social and emotional learning’ (SEL) has become one of the most active topics in education policy and practice over the last few years. At an international scale, the OECD is about to run its new Study on Social … Continue reading
Learning from surveillance capitalism
Ben Williamson Surveillance capitalism combines data analytics, business strategy, and human behavioural experimentation. Image: “Fraction collector” by proteinbiochemist ‘Surveillance capitalism’ has become a defining concept for the current era of smart machines and Silicon Valley expansionism. With educational institutions and practices increasingly … Continue reading
Globalizing education standards with ISO 21001
Ben Williamson Standards are everywhere but largely invisible. They define the production of things, from the size of a brick or the dimensions of a credit card to the programming languages used to code software, and act as rules for … Continue reading
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Tagged education policy, governance, higher education, standardization, standards
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Assembling ClassDojo
A sociotechnical survey of a public sphere platform Ben Williamson The world’s most successful educational technology is ClassDojo. Originally developed as a smartphone app for teachers to reward ‘positive behaviour’ in classrooms, it has recently extended significantly to become a … Continue reading
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Tagged algorithms, classdojo, data, education policy, educational technology, government
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Super-fast education policy fantasies
Ben Williamson Image by CSCW In recent years the pace of education policy has begun to pick up speed. As new kinds of policy influencers such as international organizations, businesses, consultancies and think tanks have entered into educational debates and … Continue reading
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Tagged analytics, big data, education policy, fast policy, government, policy networks
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Performing data
‘Performance information’ in the Scottish Government national improvement plan for education Ben Williamson At the end of June 2016 the Scottish Government published a major national delivery plan for improving Scottish education over the next few years. Drafted in response … Continue reading
Free schools and computing skills
Ben Williamson On 5 February Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education, announced plans to open two new free schools that will focus specifically on computer programming skills. The schools are being founded by Ian Livingstone, the videogames entrepreneur who … Continue reading
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Tagged code, digital making, education policy, government, learning to code
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Digital governance of education
Ben Williamson Image: Jorge Franganillo Over the last decade or so, researchers of education policy have focused much attention on the role of numerical data in the ways that schools, teachers, and whole education systems are governed and managed. Less … Continue reading
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Tagged algorithms, big data, data, data analytics, digital governance, education policy, government, software
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