Draft:Education by algorithm
Education by algorithms refers to the instrumentalist “educational reforms” and “curriculum transformations”, which have been implemented by policy makers and are supported by proprietary education technologies.[1]. New educational policies, mandated by the government, are introduced to prepare students for an “unknown future” to address an identified issue or mitigate a national crisis. However, these policies mask or bury a deeper problem, that technologies have become a site for surveillance.[2]The traces that students and leave, through cookies, logins learning activities, assignments and tests, are collected, facetted, and shared with commercial organizations, to both predict future behavior and shape it.[3]Big tech has adopted educational policies and reforms, offering technologies freely, positioning them as disrupters, liberators or mechanisms to improve efficiency. This has enabled surveillance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many more students had to modify their learning and working circumstances to protect themselves. Big tech assisted, and teaching infrastructure was privatized thus unbundling education provision further. Surveillance became rationalized in education.[4]