Digital Technologies and the Automation of Education — Key Questions and Concerns

Abstract

Education — as with most areas of contemporary life — is becoming steadily infused with small acts of technology-based automation. These automations are intrinsic to the software, apps, systems, platforms and digital devices that pervade contemporary education. Viewed on a case-by-case basis, each of these different automations might appear to be of minor importance, and can quickly fade into the background of any school, university or other educational setting. For example, the novelty of a school’s facial recognition ‘visitor management system’ soon passes once one becomes accustomed to not having to ‘sign in’ at the front-desk. The same goes for the initial relief of not having to grade a newly submitted stack of fifty student essays, or not having to walk around to check what a class of students are actually doing on their laptops. These are all tasks that can quickly become unquestioned aspects of what we expect digital technology to be doing in educational contexts.