January 26 — Introductions

What do we mean by “critical”? What do we mean by “educational technology”? How are these frameworks present, constructed, and contested within our own disciplinary and professional domains? How will this course be useful to us in developing, testing, and solidifying a critical stance vis a vis ed tech?

February 2 — Definitions and Contexts

Where and how are educational technologies developed, deployed, supported, procured, and contested? How are these contexts different from one another? How are they alike?

Read:

• Selwyn, Neil. 2016. Is Technology Good for Education? Digital Futures. Cambridge, UK: Malden, MA. (Course Library)
• Watters, Audrey. “Introduction” from Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning. The MIT Press, 2021. (Course Library)
• Cottom, Tressie McMillan. 2019. “Rethinking the Context of Edtech.” EDUCAUSE Review 54 (3). https://er.educause.edu/articles/2019/8/rethinking-the-context-of-edtech.
• Regalado, Mariana, and Maura Smale. “Serving the Commuter College Student in Urban Academic Libraries.” Urban Library Journal 21, no. 1 (July 20, 2015). https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ulj/vol21/iss1/3.

Recommended:

• Fletcher, Curtis, “Educational Technology and the Humanities: A History of Control,” in Gold, Matthew K., and Lauren F. Klein, eds. Debates in the Digital Humanities 2019. Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2019. https://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/read/untitled-f2acf72c-a469-49d8-be35-67f9ac1e3a60/section/ed3d53dd-d7aa-4369-a41f-1098a121e41b#ch30
• Watters, Audrey. “The History of Teaching Machines.” http://teachingmachin.es/timeline.html.

February 9 — Theory

What theoretical frameworks can facilitate a critical approach to educational technology? In what specific ways are they useful?

Read:

• Selwyn, Neil, “Why Distrust Educational Technology?” and “Understanding Educational Technology as Ideology” in Distrusting Educational Technology: Critical Questions for Changing Times. 1st edition. New York ; London: Routledge, 2013. (Course Library)
• Christensen, Clayton M., and Henry J. Eyring. Ch. 1, 13-14, 20, 23 in The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out. 1st edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011. (Course Library)
• Broussard, Meredith. 2018. “Chapter Five: Why Poor Schools Can’t Win at Standardized Tests.” Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. (Course Library)
• Siemens, George. n.d. “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age.” (Course Library)

Recommended:

• Kerr, Stephen T. n.d. “Nine Paradoxes of Educational Technology.” http://faculty.washington.edu/stkerr/9ParadoxesET.html.
• Benjamin, Ruha. “Chapter Two: Default Discrimination: Is the Glitch Systemic?” in Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. 1 edition. Medford, MA: Polity, 2019. (Course Library)

February 16 — Pedagogy

How is pedagogy implicated in educational technology discussions and processes? How are pedagogical assumptions embedded in educational technologies, and how do they impact teaching and learning?

Read:

• Friere, Paulo, “From Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and McLaren, Peter, “Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts” from Darder, Antonia, Marta Baltodano, and Rodolfo D. Torres. The Critical Pedagogy Reader. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2009. (Course Library)
• hooks, bell. 1994. “Introduction,” “Chapter One: Engaged Pedagogy,” and “Chapter Twelve: Confronting Class in the Classroom” in Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge. (Course Library)
• Vygotsky, L. S. 1978. “Chapter 6: Interaction between Learning and Development” in Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Edited by Michael Cole, Vera John-Steiner, Sylvia Scribner, and Ellen Souberman. Revised ed. edition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. (Course Library)
• Bass, Randall. 1997. “Engines of Inquiry: Teaching, Technology, and Learner-Centered Approaches to Culture and History.” Engines of Inquiry: A Practical Guide for Using Technology in Teaching American Culture. Washington, D.C.: American Studies Crossroads Project, American Studies Association. (Course Library)

Recommended:

• Harbison, Thomas, and Luke Waltzer. 2013. “Toward Teaching the Introductory History Course, Digitally.” In Writing History In the Digital Age, edited by Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotski. University of Michigan Press. https://www.fulcrum.org/epubs/xw42n885n?locale=en#/6/38[chp07]!/4/2/4[p97]/1:0.

February 23 — Economics

Where does ed tech funding come from, and how does it work? What implications does this sourcing have on procurement and deployment?

Read:

• Srnicek, Nick. “Chapter 2: Platform Capitalism” in Platform Capitalism. 1st edition. Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA: Polity, 2016. (Course Library)
• Fabricant, Michael, and Stephen Brier. 2016. “Chapter Four: The Making of the Neoliberal Public University.” Austerity Blues: Fighting for the Soul of Public Higher Education. JHU Press. (Course Library)
• Williamson, Ben. 2018. “Silicon Startup Schools: Technocracy, Algorithmic Imaginaries and Venture Philanthropy in Corporate Education Reform.” Critical Studies in Education 59 (2): 218–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2016.1186710.

Recommended:

• “New Ownership for an LMS Giant: Private Equity Firm to Buy Instructure for $2 Billion – EdSurge News.” 2019. EdSurge. December 4, 2019. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-12-04-new-ownership-for-an-lms-giant-private-equity-firm-to-buy-instructure-for-2-billion.
• “Instructure’s Proposed Acquisition Is a Bad Risk for Everyone.” 2020. E-Literate. January 5, 2020. https://eliterate.us/instructures-proposed-acquisition-is-a-bad-risk-for-everyone/.
• Hill, Phil. 2019. “Why Instructure’s News Matters: Market History.” PhilOnEdTech. November 19, 2019. https://philonedtech.com/why-instructures-news-matters-market-history/.
• Hill, Phil. 2020. “Purdue University’s System-Wide OPM Contract With Kaplan Higher Ed.” PhilOnEdTech. January 14, 2020. https://philonedtech.com/purdue-university-system-wide-opm-contract-with-kaplan/.
• Morrison, Jennifer R, Steven M Ross, and Roisin P Corcoran. n.d. “Fostering Market Efficiency in K-12 Ed-Tech Procurement,” 170. https://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DP_ImprovingEdTechPurchasing_FullReport.pdf
  “Education Technology Use in Schools: Student and Educator Perspectives.” n.d. Gallup. http://www.newschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Gallup-Ed-Tech-Use-in-Schools-2.pdf.

March 2 — Data

How are data produced, consumed, and deployed via educational technologies? What does it mean to have a critical stance towards data in the realms that we’ve identified?

Read:

• Aspesi, Claudio, Nicole S. Allen, Raym Crow, Shawn Daugherty, Heather Joseph, Joseph T. W. McArthur, and Nick Shockey. 2019. “SPARC Roadmap for Action.” , November 1. https://doi.org/10.31229/osf.io/a7nk8.
• Gilliard, Chris. 2018. “How Ed Tech Is Exploiting Students.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8, 2018. https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Ed-Tech-Is-Exploiting/243020.
• Gilliard, Chris. “Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy.” 2016. Common Sense Education. May 24, 2016. https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/digital-redlining-access-and-privacy.
• Jones, Kyle M L, Michael R Perry, Abigail Goben, Andrew Asher, Kristin A Briney, M Brooke Robertshaw, and Dorothea Salo. 2019. “Student Perspectives on Privacy and Library Participation in Learning Analytics Initiatives,” 13. (Course Library)
• “Colleges Are Turning Students’ Phones into Surveillance Machines, Tracking the Locations of Hundreds of Thousands.” Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/24/colleges-are-turning-students-phones-into-surveillance-machines-tracking-locations-hundreds-thousands/.
• “At Educause, a Push to Monitor Student Data Is Met with Concerns About Privacy and Equity – EdSurge News.” 2019. EdSurge. October 17, 2019. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-10-17-at-educause-a-push-to-monitor-student-data-is-met-with-concerns-about-privacy-and-equity.
• “40 Organizations Release Privacy Principles for Student Safety – Ferpa|Sherpa.” https://ferpasherpa.org/schoolsafetyprinciples/.
• “Questions of Data Ownership on Campus.” n.d. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2014/8/questions-of-data-ownership-on-campus.
• “Resisting Big Data and Adaptive Software | Inside Higher Ed.” https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/resisting-big-data-and-adaptive-software.

March 9 — Rhetoric

Special guest: Jim Groom
What rhetorical strategies are present within the realm of educational technology, and how are we to understand them? How is this rhetoric distilled at the level of the institution? What rhetorical skills must an educational technologist have to be successful in their work?

Read:

• Jesse Stommel. “If Bell Hooks Made an LMS: Grades, Radical Openness, and Domain of One’s Own,” June 5, 2017. https://www.jessestommel.com/if-bell-hooks-made-an-lms-grades-radical-openness-and-domain-of-ones-own/.
• Groom, Jim. “The Glass Bees.” Bavatuesdays (blog), May 26, 2008. https://bavatuesdays.com/the-glass-bees/
• “A History of Ds106.” https://ds106.us/history/.
• Watters, Audrey. 2022. “The End.” Hack Education (blog). June 15, 2022. http://hackeducation.com/2022/06/15/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish.
• “University of Phoenix Agrees to Settle False-Advertising Claims.” 2019. Los Angeles Times. December 10, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-10/university-of-phoenix-settles-false-advertising-claims.
• Marche, Stephen. 2022. “Will ChatGPT Kill the Student Essay? – The Atlantic.” The Atlantic, December 6, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/chatgpt-ai-writing-college-student-essays/672371/.

March 16 — No Class — Mid-term Paper Due

March 23 — Case One: Chat-GPT

March 30 — Case One: Pt. II

April 6 — No Class, Spring Break

April 13 — No Class, Spring Break

April 20 — Case Two, CUNY Online

April 27 — Case Two, CUNY Online, Part Two

May 4 —Case Two, Part Three

May 11 — Discussion of Final Projects

May 18 — No class meeting; Final Projects Due

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