ERIC Number: EJ1151500
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Aug
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0034-5237
EISSN: N/A
Learning in the "Platform Society": Disassembling an Educational Data Assemblage
Williamson, Ben
Research in Education, v98 n1 p59-82 Aug 2017
Schools are increasingly involved in diverse forms of student data collection. This article provides a sociotechnical survey of a data assemblage used in education. ClassDojo is a commercial platform for tracking students' behaviour data in classrooms and a social media network for connecting teachers, students, and parents. The hybridization of for-profit platforms with a key public institution of society raises significant issues. ClassDojo is designed to influence how school leaders and teachers make decisions, how schools connect with parents, and how teachers act to change students' behaviour. Conceptualized as a "public sphere platform" ClassDojo is reshaping discourses, practices, and subjectivities in schools. In particular, ClassDojo provides evidence of how the business model and political economy governing social media--"platform capitalism"--is being inserted into public education. It is prototypical of education in an emerging "platform society", and of how student and teacher subjectivities are being reshaped by the presumptions and worldviews encoded in digital platforms.
Descriptors: Educational Research, Data Collection, Technology Uses in Education, Student Records, Student Behavior, Decision Making, Parent School Relationship, Teacher Student Relationship, Behavior Change, Educational Practices, Models, Social Media, Public Education, Educational Change, World Views
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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