The use of digital technology in schools entails an increasingly comprehensive system of data collection. These (digital) data in turn influence processes across the school system, shaping the opinions and decisions of policymakers, school inspectors, school administrators, teachers, students, parents and the broader public. This project assumes that the genesis, interpretation and use of data are not (value) neutral. Inscribed in the data are ideas of 'good education', 'good schooling' and 'good lessons'. At the same time, this datafication is potentially changing the roles of teachers, students and other actors in the education system, as well as their relationships to each other.
Aims
The Leibniz Institute for Educational Media explored changes in the relationship between software providers, teachers and students through the integration of new data-based, digital educational media in everyday classroom practice. The project unpacked the digital tools used in classrooms and analysed the interface between digital learning software (providers) and classroom practice. It asked how the software prefigures particular data practices, educational priorities and teacher and student positionalities.
Research Group
The project was part of a BMBF-funded research group, which aimed to critically observe how the increasing availability of digital data through information and monitoring systems as well as learning software is entangled with shifting roles, professional practices and social/pedagogical relationships. Overall, the research group sought to better understand how people and systems deal with data and to what extent the school is being de- or reconstructed as a result of these (increasingly professionalised) data practices.
More information can be found here.
We tweeted regularly @DatafiedSchoolsResults
The findings from DATAFIED can be found on the project website (mostly in German). Publications involving the GEI team include:
- Bock, Annekatrin, Andreas Breiter, Sigrid Hartong, Juliane Jarke, Sieglinde Jornitz, Angelina Lange, and Felicitas Macgilchrist, eds. Die datafizierte Schule. Deutschland: Springer VS, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38651-1.
- Jarke, Juliane, and Felicitas Macgilchrist. “Dashboard Stories: How Narratives Told by Predictive Analytics Reconfigure Roles, Risk and Sociality in Education.” Big Data & Society 8, no. 1 (June 29, 2021): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211025561.
- Jornitz, Sieglinde, and Felicitas Macgilchrist. “Datafizierte Sichtbarkeiten: Vom Panopticon zum Panspectron in der schulischen Praxis.” MedienPädagogik - Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung 2021, no. Heft 45 (2021): 98–122. doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/45/2021.12.21.X.
- Macgilchrist, Felicitas. “Theories of Postdigital Heterogeneity: Implications for Research on Education and Datafication.” Postdigital Science and Education 3, no. 3 (2021): 660–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-021-00232-w.
- Macgilchrist, Felicitas, Sigrid Hartong, and Sieglinde Jornitz. “Algorithmische Datafizierung und Schule: kritische Ansätze in einem wachsenden Forschungsfeld.” In Bildung für die digitale Zukunft (Edition ZfE). Deutschland: Springer VS, 2022.
- Macgilchrist, Felicitas, Sieglinde Jornitz, Ben Mayer, and Jasmin Troeger. “Adaptive Lernsoftware oder adaptierende Lehrkräfte? Das Ringen um Handlungsspielräume.” In Die datafizierte Schule, edited by Annekatrin Bock, Andreas Breiter, Sigrid Hartong, Juliane Jarke, Sieglinde Jornitz, Angelina Lange, and Felicitas Macgilchrist, 131–60. Deutschland: Springer VS, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38651-1_5.
- Troeger, Jasmin, and Annekatrin Bock. “The Sociotechnical Walkthrough – a Methodological Approach for Platform Studies.” Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS) 22, no. 1 (June 30, 2022): 43–52. https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2022.01.3064.
- Troeger, Jasmin, Irina Zacharova, Felicitas Macgilchrist, and Juliane Jarke. “Digital ist besser⁉ - Wie Software das Verständnis von guter Schule neu definiert.” In Die datafizierte Schule, edited by Annekatrin Bock, Andreas Breiter, Sigrid Hartong, Juliane Jarke, Sieglinde Jornitz, Angelina Lange, and Felicitas Macgilchrist, 93–129. Deutschland: Springer VS, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38651-1_4.
- Weich, Andreas, Marvin Priedigkeit, Philipp Deny, and Jasmin Troeger. “Adaptive Lernsysteme zwischen Optimierung und Kritik: Eine Analyse der Medienkonstellationen bettermarks aus informatischer und medienwissenschaftlicher Perspektive.” MedienPädagogik - Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung 44, no. 44 (2021): 22–51. https://doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/44/2021.10.27.X.
