Tag Archives: government
The app store for higher education
Ben Williamson A government competition aims to make choosing a degree as easy as swiping a smartphone. Image by Garry Knight App stores are among the most significant aspects of contemporary cultures. Commercial environments where consumers choose digital products, they … Continue reading
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Tagged apps, data, Department for education, government, higher education, marketization, Office for Students, universities
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Edu-business as usual—market-making in higher education
Ben Williamson The Nido Spitalfields Tower, the world’s tallest student accommodation, sits on the boundary of the financial district of London. Image by UggBoyUggGirl The global education business Pearson has established itself as a major player in higher education around the world. With … Continue reading
The Office for Students as the data scientist of the higher education sector
Ben Williamson Data play a huge role in British higher education. The new regulator for the sector, the Office for Students, will escalate data collection and use in HE in years to come. Improving student information and data to ‘help … Continue reading
PISA for personality testing – the OECD and the psychometric science of social-emotional skills
Ben Williamson The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has published details of its new Study on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES). While the OECD has been administering international large-scale assessments on ‘cognitive skills’ and ‘competencies’ with both children … Continue reading
Mapping the data infrastructure of market reform in higher education
Ben Williamson A new regulator for Higher Education in England came into legal existence on 1st January 2018. Announced as part of the 2017 Higher Education and Research Act (HERA), the Office for Students was controversial before even formally opening for business. The … Continue reading
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Tagged analytics, data, government, higher education, market reform
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The Nudge Unit, data science and experimental education
Ben Williamson The UK government’s Behavioural Insights Team has announced it has been experimenting with data science methods in school inspections. In partnership with the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), it has designed machine learning algorithms to predict and rate … Continue reading
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Tagged algorithms, behavioural science, data science, government, machine learning, nudge unit
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Coding for what? Lessons from computing in the curriculum
Ben Williamson [This is a talk prepared for the Pop Up Digital conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 19 June 2017] There was a key moment in the popular American drama Homeland this year when a group of talented young computer programmers finally launched their … Continue reading
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Tagged BBC, code, computer science, computing at school, computing curriculum, government, learning to code, Nesta, oracle, venture capital
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ClassDojo app takes mindfulness to scale in public education
Ben Williamson A globally popular educational app used by millions of teachers and schoolchildren worldwide has begun to deliver mindfulness meditation training into classrooms. Based on a mobile app that teachers can carry in their pockets, ClassDojo is embedding positive psychology … Continue reading
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Tagged classdojo, educational technology, government, psychology, schools, silicon valley, venture capital
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Psychological surveillance and psycho-informatics in the classroom
Ben Williamson Psychology has long played a role in education by providing the expert knowledge and survey instruments required to monitor students’ attitudes, dispositions and habits of mind. Today, though, psychology is coming to play an increasingly prevalent role in … Continue reading
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Tagged affective computing, data, educational technology, government, psychology, schools, surveillance
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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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code acts in education 