sociology of education + digital | Monash University | ... tough on ed-tech and the causes of ed-tech since 1995
We are running a small survey to better understand why academics are increasingly feeling the need to turn to GenAI to do things that they know/feel they should ideally be doing themselves (e.g. write peer reviews, draft papers, write student feedback etc.)
We've got a very short (3 minute) & totally anonymous drop-box where academics can share their own examples and reasons for turning to GenAI. Find out more and complete the survey at this link:
I blogged about my cute little open source computer, the #mntpocketreform, and how it is connected to the idea of #permacomputing.
'What's At Stake? Young People's Take on AI and Education' .... brilliant looking zine produced by young people in the UK telling education leaders & teachers what they want 'responsible AI' to look like in their classrooms.
https://ai-and-education.shorthandstories.com/zine/index.html
"Ruinous EdTech – higher education and computing's excesses" - Colm O'Neill is giving an online seminar at Edinburgh Uni (Dec 11th) exploring how ed-tech can engage with ideas of digital degrowth, decolonial computing etc.
Book your place now!
https://www.de.ed.ac.uk/event/colm-oneill-ruinous-edtech-higher-education-and-computings-excesses
New doctoral position on the Environmental Impact of AI at KTH (Stockholm)
Deadline Oct. 23.
Caroline Sinders' 'Potato Internet' - a provocation to think otherwise about what scaled-down, environmentally-sensitive networking might look like:
one of the great things about still having a functional public broadcaster here is Australia is their willingness to host a half-hour radio program on topics like of "existential hope" & "digital degrowth" - very happy to have been involved!
Link to listen is here: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/futuretense/existential-hope-fear-s-j-beard-neil-selwyn-consumer-capitalism/105690310
@colm Hi Colm - sorry - no, I didn't know that it was only on a proprietary e-reader - which sucks, but I guess is going to become standard for most non-open publishers. I don't know where it is available to *buy*, but the public libraries here in Aus usually have. good e-pub lending service, so hopefully the same is the case with you and/or SETU? Book sharing & libraries are certainly more in. tune with the subject matter!
We don't need Big Tech's growth-fuelled vision of tech - other approaches to tech are possible!
"the idea isn’t so outlandish – it only feels impossible because big tech firms want us to think it is. What is most outstanding about frugal innovation is not just that its technologies are impressive, but that it might actually prompt systemic change by showing people that tech can be developed locally, and not just imported from Silicon Valley."
"The current AI hype bubble is being driven by little more than emotions. Instead of being awed by speculative promises around AI futures, we need to engage with current forms of AI in terms of their values and politics. Above all, we need to step up the fight for new democratised forms of AI governance and development"
https://criticaledtech.com/2025/07/12/we-need-to-talk-about-ai-in-terms-of-values-not-vibes/
Great starting point from which to radically reimagine what AI might be from a degrowth perspective ...
"Degrowth helps us surface the logics underlying AI–from its material footprint to its epistemic assumptions—and invites us to imagine more relational, regenerative, and plural ways of designing and governing digital systems"
https://aiplanetaryjustice.com/publications/a-degrowth-perspective-on-ai
Critical studies of ed-tech are becoming increasingly popular ... but how can they be a useful force for change?
New report outlines 8 main areas that the CSET community needs to get discussing!
Digital Degrowth session tomorrow afternoon in Warsaw! Do come if you are in the area ...
Helping young people deal with disinformation & AI-generated slop is yet another thing that schools are now being asked to address.
Listen to this new podcast interview with information studies expert Olof Sundin (Lund University) about what 'disinformation literacy' might look like:
@Ammienoot I'm not sure ... if it is then I'll post a link!
If you have no plans for tomorrow ... *and* are interested in digital education futures/sustainability ... *and* happen to be in the Copenhagen area... then do come along - it should be a set of interesting workshops + great opportunities for community building ...
Two #degrowth related events this week:
🕒 Thursday, April 24, 2025 12:00 PM - 13:00 PM at AUD3 in #copenhagen or online
CCIT Seminar with @neil_selwyn on Digital Degrowth
"In 2020, Wired magazine declared degrowth to be "the worst idea on the planet". Three years later, Marc Andreessen called out degrowth as a "bad idea" and an "enemy" to technological progress. Taking inspiration from Andrew Ahern’s observation that "degrowth pisses off all the right people", Neil Selwyn considers what degrowth and post-growth thinking might have to offer those looking to radically break away from the destructive modes of digital excess that have come to define the first few decades of the twenty-first century. In short, this talk considers a deceptively simple question - how might degrowth thinking support ambitions of sustainable, scaled-down and equitable ways of living with digital technologies?"
👉 More details:
https://itustudent.itu.dk/Event?id=%7BEAC7726F-3A2C-46A7-8186-8C0AB7C3F948%7D
🕒 Sunday, April 27, 2025 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM in #ABF #Malmö
Everything you wanted to know about degrowth
"Join this talk and discussion on the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Degrowth (out in June) with its editor activist-scholar Anitra Nelson and chapter contributor Nick Fitzpatrick.
Anitra is affiliated with the University of Melbourne (Australia) and Nick is based at Aarhus University (Denmark). They will talk about degrowth themes in the handbook, their other degrowth work and involvement in the degrowth movement over many years."
👉More details
https://degrowth.se/events/2025/4/27/degrowth-handbook-launch
<<Digital Degrowth: Exploring Sustainable Technological Futures in Education>> ... all-day conference in Copenhagen on May 23rd - travel scholarships available for early-career researchers - more details and how to register here:
🎙️ new podcast interview🎙️ Banning Google from Danish Schools? Despite reports in 2022 that Denmark was 'banning' Google products from classrooms the realities have proven to be far more convoluted. ... I talk to Emilie Groth about the complexities of the 'Chromebook case', the difficulty of working out exactly where student data is going, & what this all tells us about public sector dependency on Big Tech ... https://www.buzzsprout.com/1301377/episodes/16902924-getting-google-out-of-danish-schools
very disappointed to see Duck Duck Go trying to push users down the crappy route of AI search ... if people are dumb enough to use GenAI as a means of search then they probably are not using Duck Duck Go in the first place
