Breaking Free from Blockchaining Babies and "Cradle-to-Career" Data Traps
CoT Announcements
2023 Annual Conference Registration still open… spread the word!: The 2nd Annual Civics of Technology annual conference will be held online from 10-3pm EST on both August 3rd and 4th, 2023! You can learn more and register for the conference on the 2023 conference page. The conference schedule will be posted soon.
Next Book Club on 07/27/23: We are reading Meredith Broussard’s 2023 book, More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech. We will meet to discuss the book at 8pm EDT on Thursday, July27th, 2023. You can register to join on our Events page.
No Monthly Tech Talk in August: Due to the conference being the same week, we will not hold a monthly tech talk in August. Our next one will be on Tuesday, September 5th, 2023 at 8-9pm EST/7-8pm CST/6-7pm MST/5-6pm PST. Learn more and register on our Events page.
NOTE: Dr. Marachi will serve as the closing keynote for the Civics of Technology conference on Friday, August 4th. This blog post will familiarize our Civics of Tech community with her critical work.
by Roxana Marachi
Dear Civics of Tech community and conference colleagues,
I am excited and honored to be providing the closing keynote for the upcoming conference in August. It’s inspiring to be part of a gathering with fellow researchers and educators who are asking critical questions and working to take action to create meaningful changes in educational practices and policies.
I’ve been invited to provide a brief post to introduce readers to some of my research and inquiries into emerging technology trends in education. Having lived in San José, the heart of Silicon Valley over the past 15 years, just minutes away from the headquarters of tech giants, I’ve had a front row seat to the ways that Silicon Valley finance, philanthropy, and industry-heavy cultures have shaped policy shifts from teachers to tech in our education systems at all levels. As many within the critical tech community are aware, endless streams of so-called innovations often boost the big business of tracking and profiling students while claiming to ameliorate educational inequities.
I imagine many of our colleagues participating in the conference may be able to relate to having serious, legitimate concerns about data harms from edtech platforms being swiftly dismissed, diminished, or acknowledged-then-ignored. As inevitability narratives of AI-based futures grow stronger and louder across multiple media streams, it feels at times that we are witnessing a societal level push of #AIHype wedging into nearly every aspect of our lives. “It’s here and it’s not going away! There’s no use fighting it… you need to embrace AI”..."That train has left the station!”.
While these messages may be conveyed by enthusiasts as a reality check to the ubiquity of the tech, it’s difficult not to also view them as psychological manipulations designed to quell dissent, shut down critical analyses, and push a culture of sitting crisscross-applesauce, doing-as-we’re-told, and refraining from asking difficult questions in need of being answered. I’ve noticed the wider responses to these trends as varied across sectors. While active, robust strike efforts are underway among the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Guild to protect against AI exploitation of jobs and creative productions, educators as a whole have been steeped in over two decades of tech-heavy trends with messages that we must adapt and embrace every new wave of technology regardless of how ineffective, predatory, or harmful it may be. Teachers are often reminded to remember why they entered the profession- to support student learning, amidst heavy marketing from tech firms that loudly echo those same whys.
The latest educational trends I’ve been studying are often pitched as ushering in the “Future of Learning” or the “Future of Education.” Data systems at the back end of many of these emerging trends often include AI-driven, blockchain-based digital ledgers, proposed to intersect with Cradle-to-Career Data Systems currently being built to track children’s data from the time they are born, throughout their educational pathways, and into their careers. The unbundling of higher education with badges and stackable “skills”-based certificates and micro-credentials are part of these trends. “Gamification”, “Competency Based Education” and related assessments and policy proposals are part of these trends. The emerging systems are being designed piece-by-piece to create a longitudinal digital twinning of learners, with blockchain-based ledgers set to track, store, and steer multiple aspects of learners’ lives into permanent, un-deletable records, predictions, and pathways. Proposals I’ve been analyzing for Cradle-To-Career data systems include the eventual convergence of educational, behavioral, financial, and health data (all, again with purported aims of increasing equity and access).
So what exactly is blockchain and how are blockchain-based digital ID systems entering into education? What role does the social impact finance sector have in privatizing education and ushering in blockchain-based data systems and “smart contracts”? What external agencies or entities would be being given access to student data when tethered to decentralized, distributed blockchain ledgers? Are students or educators made aware of the ways their data would be tracked or used by these systems? Will any of these tools or systems actually improve learning or educational opportunities for students? Or will they be a form of predatory inclusion, with eventual data convergence further feeding the “genetics of education,” mirroring decades-old eugenics-based ideologies toward prediction and control?
Finally, the question I ask when analyzing any new curricula, technology, policy, or practice:
“Will this____ humanize or dehumanize education?”
I’ve included some links below and embedded in the post for folks interested to explore any of these trends further prior to the conference and welcome connections from any colleagues who may be working on similar inquiries. I look forward to seeing many of you online in August at the conference!
Related Reading
Angwin, J. & Marachi, R. (January 15, 2022). The Big Business of Tracking and Profiling Students. [Interview] The Markup. Hello World. Dispatches from Editor-in-Chief, Julia Angwin.
Marachi, R., & Carpenter, R. (2020). Silicon Valley, philanthrocapitalism, and policy shifts from teachers to tech. In Givan, R. K. and Lang, A. S. (Eds.), Strike for the Common Good: Fighting for the Future of Public Education (pp. 217- 233). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Marachi, R. & Quill, L. (2020). The case of Canvas: Longitudinal datafication through learning management systems [Special Issue on datafication of teaching in higher education]. Teaching in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives. 25(4), 418- 434.
Marachi, R., & Quill, L. (March 20, 2020). As schooling rapidly moves online, across the country, concerns rise about student data privacy.[Perspective] The Washington Post.
Carnoy, M., & Marachi, R. (2020). Investing in “impact” or investing for profit? The next wave of privatization of social services and education. National Education Policy Center. Boulder, Colorado.
Carnoy, M. & Marachi, R. (February 28, 2020). The next wave of the ‘Wall Streetification’ of education and public services in America. [Perspective] The Washington Post.
See also: http://bit.ly/edpsychtech and http://bit.ly/DataJusticeLinks
Dr. Roxana Marachi is a Professor of Education at San José State University. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Lurie College of Education or San José State University.