Pinboard (robertogreco)
https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/public/
recent bookmarks from robertogrecoMy $400 AI shopping haul: how AI is changing the way we shop - YouTube2024-03-25T20:53:25+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU2QBuLSuHM
robertogrecoai generativeai artificialintelligence 2024 miasato shopping ebay etsy finesse retail socialmedia bigdata renderings instagram manufacturetopurchase fashion clothing apparel doordash knitting crafting amazon fastfashion shien teemu aliexpress pebblely textgenerationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ac5fb06c5427/Sonic Futures: Assistive Technologies, Gendered Labor, and the Colonization of Voice2024-01-01T03:47:30+00:00
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/89h414tg
robertogrecodorothysantos 2023 technology gender labor voice speech media race language translation care caring voicerecognition accessibility assistivetechnology bigdata information soundhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:2d2abe2402c1/How Big Tech Went to Sh*t | On the Media | WNYC Studios2023-09-02T17:39:33+00:00
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-how-big-tech-went-to-shh
robertogrecocorydoctorow amazon twitter internet bigtech web online monopolies drm publishing books ebooks audiobooks music socialmedia business digital advertising commerce 2023 search economics google facebook myspace meta collusion ads adfraud payola metaverse surveillance capitalism margaretthatcher seanparker napster dopamine attention time clickbait techbarons robberbarons antitrust jeffbezos markzuckerberg power wealth influence ronaldreagan robertbork law democracy monopsonies toobigtofail enforcement enshittification streaming content media recordcompanies recordingstudios carnivals marketing riggedgames joerogan spotify tiktok kindle substack feeds algorithms copyright legal ip intellectualproperty apple appstore walledgardens freemarket platforms linakhan ftc noncompeteagreements competition consolidation lobbying congress regulation cryptography encryption adtech brookegladstone privacy security lag behavior contextads coppa turingcompleteness computing bigdigital pricing policy communities community data bighttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3fb36d6b6de6/Care, Not Control - by L. M. Sacasas2023-06-15T21:54:14+00:00
https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/care-not-control
robertogrecolmsacasas parents parenting children surveillance care control alanjacobs technology audreywatters presence responsibility anxiety safety attention jacquesellul alisongopnick precarity panopticon involvement obligation obligations canon measurement monitoring recording distance closeness proximity knowing slow small scale neglect intentionality accountability families panopticism state morality values gaze schools schooling schooliness colleges universities edtech training compassion self-discipline software analytics quantification seeinglikeastate mutualaid markets capitalism neoliberalism wisdom stress pressure goals expectations isolation standardization onebestway intelligence race gender gendering racism racialization command individuals bigdata seeing proctoring learning howwelearn teaching howweteach learninganalytics trust trusting independence autonomy risks predictability chrisgilliard davidgolumbia lenoreskenazy robhorning kith kin kinship attending attendancehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a3ae0da67da6/Tech Won't Save Us: How the Cloud Reshaped the Internet w/ Dwayne Monroe on Apple Podcasts2022-07-22T16:26:17+00:00
https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/how-the-cloud-reshaped-the-internet-w-dwayne-monroe/id1507621076?i=1000570674585
robertogrecodwaynemonroe parismarx technology computing computation cloud energy infrastructure electricity labor capitalism meta facebook amazon datacenters ai regulation microsoft google bigdata bigtech cluodcomputing publiccloud scalehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:fd59ff92a266/The Analog City and the Digital City — The New Atlantis2020-11-08T23:13:43+00:00
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-analog-city-and-the-digital-city
robertogrecoThe machine-like behavior of people chained to electronics constitutes a degradation of their well-being and of their dignity which, for most people in the long run, becomes intolerable. Observations of the sickening effect of programmed environments show that people in them become indolent, impotent, narcissistic and apolitical. The political process breaks down, because people cease to be able to govern themselves; they demand to be managed.
We have focused on how digital media transforms the subjective experience of individuals. The political corollary is that it enables and empowers regimes of algorithmic governance, predictive analytics, and social credit. The profound erosion of trust in the Digital City leaves a vacuum, and we look to our tools to fill it. We seem set upon interlocking trajectories: of ever greater swaths of the human experience being computationally managed, and of intractable human subjects increasingly breaking down or revolting against these conditions.
From another vantage point, however, we might see this as a hopeful moment, full of promise and opportunity. Another path also seems possible. Freed from certain unsustainable illusions about the nature of the self and the world, we may now be called back to reckon with reality in a new, more chastened and more responsible manner. It is possible that the Promethean aspirations that characterized the modern self and modern society may now yield to a more sober assessment of the limits within which genuine human flourishing might occur. It is possible, too, that we may learn once again the necessity of virtues, public and private — that we will no longer, as T. S. Eliot put it, be “dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.”"]]>lmsacasas digital newmedia writing howwewrite reading 2020 howweread secondaryorality walterong politics discourse audience abundance scarcity news print text communication neilpostman digitalcity analogcity truth speech digitalmedia socialmedia saintaugustine change liminality factchecking publishing jaydavidbolter reformation scientificrevolution history internet web online smartphones publiclife cities urban urbanism community howwethink thinking nicholascarr 2008 web2.0 facebook twitter algorithms moderation commenting tv television video dialogue criticalthinking affordances technology citizenship censorship values char charlestaylor bufferedself disenchantment meaning meaningmaking magic power objects heresy security purity bots data bigdata automation knowledge systems systemsthinking vulnerability time place now identity sharedtime sharedspace simultaneity realtime telegraph radio presence social belonging ivanillich memory memories language literacy orality oraltradition fables institutions bureaucrahttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:9c6b35065c0c/Jaron Lanier in Conversation with Tim Maughan - Believer Magazine2020-10-02T17:16:59+00:00
https://believermag.com/jaron-lanier-in-conversation-with-tim-maughan/
robertogreconehalel-hadi timmaughan jaronlanier online data socialmedia tracking cities technology humanity internet web hyperspace 2020 prescience prediction sciencefiction scifi speculativefiction williamgibson capitalism gigeconomy bigdata ethics society slavery disenfranchisement markets money karengregory labor work morality democracy culture privacy twitter blacktwitter tiktok optimism pessimism future resistance complexity generalstrike privilege entitlementhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:35ee16a07579/The Stories We Were Told about Education Technology (2018)2018-12-27T03:27:40+00:00
https://hackeducation.com/2018/12/18/top-ed-tech-trends-stories
robertogrecoaudreywatters education technology edtech 2018 surveillance privacy personalization progressive schools quantification gamification wholechild montessori mariamontessori eugenics psychology siliconvalley history venturecapital highereducation highered guns gunviolence children youth teens shootings money influence policy politics society economics capitalism mindfulness juul marketing gritty innovation genetics psychotechnologies gender race racism sexism research socialemotional psychopedagogy pedagogy teaching howweteach learning howwelearn teachingmachines nonprofits nonprofit media journalism access donaldtrump bias algorithms facebook amazon disruption data bigdata security jacquesellul sociology activism sel socialemotionallearninghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b6652c04e6a1/Objectivity as standardization in data-scientific education policy, technology and governance: Learning, Media and Technology: Vol 0, No 02018-12-13T19:57:18+00:00
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439884.2018.1556215
robertogrecodata education policy objectivity evidence schools schooling scientism benwilliamson nellipiattoeva technology quantification measurement bigdata edtech standardization standardshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:fb8c9c3a9de5/James Bridle on New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future - YouTube2018-09-25T20:12:33+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hSj01bAZAU
robertogrecoquantification computationalthinking systems modeling bigdata data jamesbridle 2018 technology software systemsthinking bias ai artificialintelligent objectivity inequality equality enlightenment science complexity democracy information unschooling deschooling art computation computing machinelearning internet email web online colonialism decolonization infrastructure power imperialism deportation migration chemtrails folkliterature storytelling conspiracytheories narrative populism politics confusion simplification globalization global process facts problemsolving violence trust authority control newdarkage darkage understanding thinking howwethink collapsehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cea4522f7509/lalitha vasudevan on Twitter: "Overhearing tutoring session between adult tutor & suburban hs student. I despair at the extensive focus on relatability (between student & text) as strategy for responding to comprehension questions and essay writing, where2018-08-27T18:32:40+00:00
https://twitter.com/elemveee/status/1034137694799110146
robertogrecolalithavasudevan education standardizedtesting standardization experience relatability teaching learning schools schooliness kinship perception culturalliteracy howweteach howwelearn comprehension essays writing howwewrite teachingreading teachingwriting noticing civics citizenship democracy democratic malpractice participatory participation unschooling deschooling pedagogy uniformity efficiency bigdata testinghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:fdfd48723412/Podcast, Nick Seaver: “What Do People Do All Day?” - MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing2018-02-12T00:31:59+00:00
http://cmsw.mit.edu/podcast-nick-seaver-people-day/
robertogreconickseaver 2016 work labor algorithms bigdata music productivity automation care maintenance programming computing hierarchy economics data datasciencehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:1d4610aefbc8/Frontier notes on metaphors: the digital as landscape and playground - Long View on Education2017-07-12T08:35:51+00:00
http://www.longviewoneducation.org/frontier-notes-on-metaphors-the-digital-as-landscape-and-playground/
robertogrecoStudents are often surprised (and even angered) to learn the degree to which they are digitally redlined, surveilled, and profiled on the web and to find out that educational systems are looking to replicate many of those worst practices in the name of “efficiency,” “engagement,” or “improved outcomes.” Students don’t know any other web—or, for that matter, have any notion of a web that would be different from the one we have now. Many teachers have at least heard about a web that didn’t spy on users, a web that was (theoretically at least) about connecting not through platforms but through interfaces where individuals had a significant amount of choice in saying how the web looked and what was shared. A big part of the teaching that I do is to tell students: “It’s not supposed to be like this” or “It doesn’t have to be like this.”"]]>banjamindoxtdator 2017 landscapes playgrounds georgelakoff markjohnson treborscolz digitalcitizenship internet web online mckenziewark privacy security labor playbor daphnedragona gamification uber work scottmcleod adrianelapointe sarahroberts janruneholmevik vannevabush gregoryulmer francisbacon chrisgilliard pedagogy criticalthinking shoshanazuboff surveillance surveillancecapitalism safiyanoble google googleglass cathyo'neil algorithms data bigdata redlining postcolonialism race racism criticaltheory criticalpedagogy bias safiyaumojanoblehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a45d469ccd04/BBC Radio 4 - FutureProofing, The Future of the Future2017-05-07T18:00:39+00:00
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08nqc4j
robertogrecofuture 2017 mattnovak sciencefiction scifi timandraharkness leojohnson time technology learning howwelive change 1960s 1950s alexanerrose prediction bigdata stability flexibility adaptability astroteller googlex longnow longnowfoundation uncertainty notknowing simulation generativedesign dubai museumofthefuture agency lawrenceorsini implants douglascoupland belllabs infrastructure extremepresent sfsh classideas present past history connectivity internet web online futurism futures smartphones tv television refrigeration seancarrollhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4f45667e53ad/Trumped Up Data2016-11-13T23:55:40+00:00
http://audreywatters.com/2016/11/09/trump
robertogrecoOn the right, they have what Stephan Colbert called “truthiness,” which we might define as ignoring facts in the name of some larger truth. The facts of Obama’s birthplace mattered less for them than their own racist “truth” of white superiority. Perhaps we need to start articulating a left-wing version of truthiness: let’s call it “factiness.” Factiness is the taste for the feel and aesthetic of “facts,” often at the expense of missing the truth. From silly self-help-y TED talks to bad NPR-style neuroscience science updates to wrapping ourselves in the misleading scientism of Fivethirtyeight statistics, factiness is obsessing over and covering ourselves in fact after fact while still missing bigger truths.
“Factiness” connects to a lot of what we saw in this election, to be sure – this faith, as Jurgenson points out, in polling despite polling being wrong repeatedly, all along. It connects to a lot of what we hear in technology circles too – that we can build intelligent systems that model and adapt and learn and predict complex human behaviors. And that, in turn, is connected to education’s long-standing obsession with data: that we can harness elaborate analytics and measurement tools to identify who’s learning and who’s not.
I don’t believe that answers are found in “data” (that is, in “data” as this pure objective essence of “fact” or “truth”). Rather, I believe answers – muddier and more mutable and not really answers at all – live in stories. It is, after all, in stories where we find what underpins and extends both “truthiness” and “factiness.” Stories are crafted and carried in different ways, no doubt, than “data,” even when they serve the same impulse – to control, to direct.
Stories are everywhere, and yet stories can be incredibly easy to dismiss.
We do not listen.
Sometimes I joke that I’ve been described as “ed-tech’s Cassandra.” Mostly, it’s unfunny – not much of a joke at all considering how things worked out for poor Cassandra. But I do listen closely to the stories being told about the future of education and technology, and all I can do is to caution people that these stories rely on some fairly dystopian motifs and outcomes.
I’m also a folklorist, an ethnographer. I approach education technology with that disciplinary training. I listen to the stories. I observe the practices. I talk to people.
I’m not sure how to move forward after last night’s election results. For now, all I have is this: I want to remind people of the importance of stories – that stories might be better to turn to for understanding the future people want, better than the data we’ve been so obsessed with watching as a proxy for actually talking or listening to them."]]>audreywatters 2016 data elections edtech truthiness factiness listening nathanjurgenson ethnography folklore storytelling stories bigdata predictions understanding truth stephencolberthttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:30767e5cf182/Critical Algorithm Studies: a Reading List | Social Media Collective2016-06-20T16:27:39+00:00
https://socialmediacollective.org/reading-lists/critical-algorithm-studies/
robertogrecoalgorithms bibliography ethics bigdata tarletongillespie nickseaver 2016 sociology anthropology science technology criticalalgorithmstudies via:tealtanhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:e71e9451fc62/Data USA2016-04-05T16:06:48+00:00
http://datausa.io/
robertogrecous data visualization via:shannon_mattern analytics opendata bigdata datausahttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6ca556ef2984/'I Love My Label': Resisting the Pre-Packaged Sound in Ed-Tech2016-03-20T22:33:46+00:00
http://hackeducation.com/2016/03/18/i-love-my-label
robertogreco2016 audreywatters edupunk edtech independent indie internet online technology napster history serendipity messiness curiosity control measurement standardization walledgardens privacy data schools education highered highereducation musicindustry jimgroom ambercase algorithms bigdata prediction machinelearning machinelistening echonest siliconvalley softwarehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:fcf151465305/Personal and Personalized Learning ~ Stephen Downes2016-02-23T09:57:51+00:00
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=65065
robertogreco2016 education teaching learning differentiation personallearning personalization personalizedlearning unschooling deschooling independence schools stephendowns lcproject openstudioproject pedagogy curriculum adhoc informallearning decisionmaking self-directed self-directedlearning tcsnmy howwelearn howweteach data bigdata measurement analytics sfshhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:97395c413819/Digital Manifesto Archive2016-02-18T05:20:16+00:00
http://www.digitalmanifesto.net/manifestos/
robertogrecomanifestos digital digitalhumanities archives making mattapplegate yuyin designfiction criticalmaking engineering capitalism feminism hacking hacktivism digitalmarkets digitaldiaspora internetofthings iot cyberpunk mediaecology media publishing socialmedia twitter ethics digitalculture piracy design bigdata transhumanism utopianism criticaltheory mediaarchaeology opensource openaccess technofeminism gaming digitalaesthetics digitaljournalism journalism aesthetics online internet web technocracy archaeology education afrofuturism digitalart art blogging sopa aaronswartz pipa anarchism anarchyhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:015ad4d7cace/What World Are We Building? — Data & Society: Points — Medium2016-02-01T02:46:22+00:00
https://points.datasociety.net/what-world-are-we-building-9978495dd9ad#.akr232mvr
robertogrecoI’m not really into racism, but I think that MySpace now is more like ghetto or whatever, and…the people that have Facebook are more mature… The people who use MySpace — again, not in a racist way — but are usually more like [the] ghetto and hip-hop/rap lovers group.'
As we continued talking, Kat became more blunt and told me that black people use MySpace and white people use Facebook.
Fascinated by Kat’s explanation and discomfort, I went back to my field notes. Sure enough, numerous teens had made remarks that, with Kat’s story in mind, made it very clear that a social division had unfolded between teens using MySpace and Facebook during the 2006–2007 school year. I started asking teens about these issues and heard many more accounts of how race affected engagement. "
…
"The techniques we use at Crisis Text Line are the exact same techniques that are used in marketing. Or personalized learning. Or predictive policing. Predictive policing, for example, involves taking prior information about police encounters and using that to make a statistical assessment about the likelihood of crime happening in a particular place or involving a particular person. In a very controversial move, Chicago has used such analytics to make a list of people most likely to be a victim of violence. In an effort to prevent crime, police officers approached those individuals and used this information in an effort to scare them to stay out of trouble. But surveillance by powerful actors doesn’t build trust; it erodes it. Imagine that same information being given to a social worker. Even better, to a community liaison. Sometimes, it’s not the data that’s disturbing, but how it’s used and by whom.
3. The World We’re Creating
Knowing how to use data isn’t easy. One of my colleagues at Microsoft Research — Eric Horvitz — can predict with startling accuracy whether someone will be hospitalized based on what they search for. What should he do with that information? Reach out to people? That’s pretty creepy. Do nothing? Is that ethical? No matter how good our predictions are, figuring out how to use them is a complex social and cultural issue that technology doesn’t solve for us. In fact, as it stands, technology is just making it harder for us to have a reasonable conversation about agency and dignity, responsibility and ethics.
Data is power. Increasingly we’re seeing data being used to assert power over people. It doesn’t have to be this way, but one of the things that I’ve learned is that, unchecked, new tools are almost always empowering to the privileged at the expense of those who are not.
For most media activists, unfettered Internet access is at the center of the conversation, and that is critically important. Today we’re standing on a new precipice, and we need to think a few steps ahead of the current fight.
We are moving into a world of prediction. A world where more people are going to be able to make judgments about others based on data. Data analysis that can mark the value of people as worthy workers, parents, borrowers, learners, and citizens. Data analysis that has been underway for decades but is increasingly salient in decision-making across numerous sectors. Data analysis that most people don’t understand.
Many activists will be looking to fight the ecosystem of prediction — and to regulate when and where prediction can be used. This is all fine and well when we’re talking about how these technologies are designed to do harm. But more often than not, these tools will be designed to be helpful, to increase efficiency, to identify people who need help. Their positive uses will exist alongside uses that are terrifying. What do we do?
One of the most obvious issues is the limited diversity of people who are building and using these tools to imagine our future. Statistical and technical literacy isn’t even part of the curriculum in most American schools. In our society where technology jobs are high-paying and technical literacy is needed for citizenry, less than 5% of high schools offer AP computer science courses. Needless to say, black and brown youth are much less likely to have access, let alone opportunities. If people don’t understand what these systems are doing, how do we expect people to challenge them?
We must learn how to ask hard questions of technology and of those making decisions based data-driven tech. And opening the black box isn’t enough. Transparency of data, algorithms, and technology isn’t enough. We need to build assessment into any system that we roll-out. You can’t just put millions of dollars of surveillance equipment into the hands of the police in the hope of creating police accountability, yet, with police body-worn cameras, that’s exactly what we’re doing. And we’re not even trying to assess the implications. This is probably the fastest roll-out of a technology out of hope, and it won’t be the last. How do we get people to look beyond their hopes and fears and actively interrogate the trade-offs?
Technology plays a central role — more and more — in every sector, every community, every interaction. It’s easy to screech in fear or dream of a world in which every problem magically gets solved. To make the world a better place, we need to start paying attention to the different tools that are emerging and learn to frame hard questions about how they should be put to use to improve the lives of everyday people.
We need those who are thinking about social justice to understand technology and those who understand technology to commit to social justice."]]>danahboyd inequality technology 2016 facebook myspace race racism prejudice whiteflight bigdata indifference google web online internet christinaxu bias diversity socialjusticehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4f48cac7d47f/Tracing You (2015) -- by Benjamin Grosser2016-01-01T19:09:47+00:00
http://tracingyou.bengrosser.com/
robertogreco2015 benjamingrosser google internet ip maps mapping googlestreetview streetview data ipaddresses bigdata networks onlinehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3cc190f5a19b/Smart Pipe | Infomercials | Adult Swim - YouTube2015-12-25T21:59:01+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ
robertogrecoadultswim designfiction 2014 data bigdata privacy smartcities internetofthings iot information connectivityhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:2aa34a6d08b1/Haunted By Data2015-10-17T03:16:24+00:00
http://idlewords.com/talks/haunted_by_data.htm
robertogrecomaciejceglowski data privacy surveillance bigdata 2015 storage radioactivity datacollection maciejcegłowskihttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c73e414fa38d/How Will We Live? | NEXT Network2015-10-04T07:51:40+00:00
http://nextconf.eu/2015/10/keynote-how-will-we-live/
robertogrecoanabjain superflux 2015 future surveillance amazon mortality selfies death futures futurism speculativefiction designfiction confirmationbias news selectiveexposure sensemaking belief information filterbubbles cognitivedissonance officesupplies globalwarming justification trends trendwatching shopping social amazonprime socialization habits feedbackloops chunking routines patents algorithms siri agency internetofthings iot tracking datacollection data behavior humans smarthomes ethics empowerment drones business disruption china bigdata power systemsthinking policing lawenforcement socialmedia stereotypes static99 politics government prediction anonymity forgetting archives datakarma dystopia technology ideals marketing affordances society culture refugees syria whatsapp messaging communication facebook internet web online worldchanging inclusion inclusivity diversity plurality hope values climatechange inlcusivityhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5b21a03111aa/Is It Time to Give Up on Computers in Schools?2015-07-08T05:57:13+00:00
http://hackeducation.com/2015/06/29/is-it-time-to-give-up-on-computers/
robertogrecoLittle by little the subversive features of the computer were eroded away: … the computer was now used to reinforce School’s ways. What had started as a subversive instrument of change was neutralized by the system and converted into an instrument of consolidation.
I think we were naive when we ever thought otherwise.
Sure, there are subversive features, but I think the computers also involve neoliberalism, imperialism, libertarianism, and environmental destruction. They now involve high stakes investment by the global 1% – it’s going to be a $60 billion market by 2018, we’re told. Computers are implicated in the systematic de-funding and dismantling of a public school system and a devaluation of human labor. They involve the consolidation of corporate and governmental power. They involve scientific management. They are designed by white men for white men. They re-inscribe inequality.
And so I think it’s time now to recognize that if we want education that is more just and more equitable and more sustainable, that we need to get the ideologies that are hardwired into computers out of the classroom.
In the early days of educational computing, it was often up to innovative, progressive teachers to put a personal computer in their classroom, even paying for the computer out of their own pocket. These were days of experimentation, and as Seymour teaches us, a re-imagining of what these powerful machines could enable students to do.
And then came the network and, again, the mainframe.
You’ll often hear the Internet hailed as one of the greatest inventions of mankind – something that connects us all and that has, thanks to the World Wide Web, enabled the publishing and sharing of ideas at an unprecedented pace and scale.
What “the network” introduced in educational technology was also a more centralized control of computers. No longer was it up to the individual teacher to have a computer in her classroom. It was up to the district, the Central Office, IT. The sorts of hardware and software that was purchased had to meet those needs – the needs and the desire of the administration, not the needs and the desires of innovative educators, and certainly not the needs and desires of students.
The mainframe never went away. And now, virtualized, we call it “the cloud.”
Computers and mainframes and networks are points of control. They are tools of surveillance. Databases and data are how we are disciplined and punished. Quite to the contrary of Seymour’s hopes that computers will liberate learners, this will be how we are monitored and managed. Teachers. Students. Principals. Citizens. All of us.
If we look at the history of computers, we shouldn’t be that surprised. The computers’ origins are as weapons of war: Alan Turing, Bletchley Park, code-breakers and cryptography. IBM in Germany and its development of machines and databases that it sold to the Nazis in order to efficiently collect the identity and whereabouts of Jews.
The latter should give us great pause as we tout programs and policies that collect massive amounts of data – “big data.” The algorithms that computers facilitate drive more and more of our lives. We live in what law professor Frank Pasquale calls “the black box society.” We are tracked by technology; we are tracked by companies; we are tracked by our employers; we are tracked by the government, and “we have no clear idea of just how far much of this information can travel, how it is used, or its consequences.” When we compel the use of ed-tech, we are doing this to our students.
Our access to information is constrained by these algorithms. Our choices, our students’ choices are constrained by these algorithms – and we do not even recognize it, let alone challenge it.
We have convinced ourselves, for example, that we can trust Google with its mission: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” I call “bullshit.”
Google is at the heart of two things that computer-using educators should care deeply and think much more critically about: the collection of massive amounts of our personal data and the control over our access to knowledge.
Neither of these are neutral. Again, these are driven by ideology and by algorithms.
You’ll hear the ed-tech industry gleefully call this “personalization.” More data collection and analysis, they contend, will mean that the software bends to the student. To the contrary, as Seymour pointed out long ago, instead we find the computer programming the child. If we do not unpack the ideology, if the algorithms are all black-boxed, then “personalization” will be discriminatory. As Tressie McMillan Cottom has argued “a ‘personalized’ platform can never be democratizing when the platform operates in a society defined by inequalities.”
If we want schools to be democratizing, then we need to stop and consider how computers are likely to entrench the very opposite. Unless we stop them.
In the 1960s, the punchcard – an older piece of “ed-tech” – had become a symbol of our dehumanization by computers and by a system – an educational system – that was inflexible, impersonal. We were being reduced to numbers. We were becoming alienated. These new machines were increasing the efficiency of a system that was setting us up for a life of drudgery and that were sending us off to war. We could not be trusted with our data or with our freedoms or with the machines themselves, we were told, as the punchcards cautioned: “Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate.”
Students fought back.
Let me quote here from Mario Savio, speaking on the stairs of Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley in 1964 – over fifty years ago, yes, but I think still one of the most relevant messages for us as we consider the state and the ideology of education technology:
We’re human beings!
There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
We’ve upgraded from punchcards to iPads. But underneath, a dangerous ideology – a reduction to 1s and 0s – remains. And so we need to stop this ed-tech machine."]]>edtech education audreywatters bias mariosavio politics schools learning tressuemcmillancottom algorithms seymourpapert personalization data security privacy howwteach howwelearn subversion computers computing lms neoliberalism imperialism environment labor publicschools funding networks cloud bigdata google historyhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:282af5f70ade/Lemming Suicide Is a Myth That Was Perpetuated by Disney2015-04-29T05:31:27+00:00
http://io9.com/lemming-suicide-is-a-myth-that-was-perpetuated-by-disne-1549040246
robertogrecolemmings disney 1958 nature animals propoganda data bigdata herdmentality slander arctic tundra annaleenewitz 2015https://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:14e7b77fe443/Ideas About Education Reform: 22 Things We Do As Educators That Will Embarrass Us In 25 Years by Terry Heick2015-03-31T06:36:42+00:00
http://hacking-curriculum.tumblr.com/post/84716775082/22-things-we-do-as-educators-that-will-embarrass
robertogrecoeducation schools teaching howweteach howwelearn unschooling deschooling terryheick literacy content curriculum gradelevels agesegregation crowdsourcing wikipedia community vacations standards standardization preofessionaldevelopment money waste bureaucracy technology edtech mobile phones smartphones criticalthinking socialemotional civics citizenship digitalcitizenship social learning lectures data bigdata quantification apprenticeships testing standardizedtesting assessment fail sharing socialemotionallearninghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6691021e720a/Mapping the Sneakernet – The New Inquiry2015-03-25T05:42:32+00:00
http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/mapping-the-sneakernet/
robertogrecoaccess africa internet online connectivity 2015 anxiaomina bigdata digital maps mapping cartography bias sneakernets p2p peer2peer uganda music data bluetooth mobile phones technology computing networks northkorea christopherkirkley sms communication usb andrewblum sneakernethttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:59415ffb5efa/The Total Archive.2015-03-20T09:16:23+00:00
http://thetotalarchive.tumblr.com/
robertogrecotumblr classification maps knowledge 2015 tumblrs archives universality collections data politics bigdata history encyclopedias paulotlet mundaneum isaacasimov encyclopediagalactica wholeearthcatalog museums ideology highmodernism sccifi sciencefiction humangenomeproject libraries wikipedia universalknowledgehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:58b1bd29e141/Jen Lowe :: Deep Lab Lecture Series on Vimeo2014-12-26T18:22:15+00:00
https://vimeo.com/114393677
robertogrecojenlowe politics data datamining 2014 deeplab quiet silence activism purpose protest corporatism ethics culture corporations colonialism capitalism tracking prediction privacy algorithms cruelty power google facebook internet bigdata chicago mastercard predictivepolicing foia lawenforcement police quantification bias ninasimone freedom love canon qualitative militarization vulnerability awareness slow refuge immigration arizona border borders immigrants law legal anonymity darkweb wildwest resistance blackmirror dissent performance danger money subversion commodification online webhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c44e3fe8c5bd/Shoshanna Zuboff: Dark Google2014-12-18T15:36:37+00:00
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshanna-zuboff-dark-google-12916679.html?printPagedArticle=true
robertogrecoethics google surveillance 2014 business politics data evil bigdata power control innovation absolutism ericschmidt finance capitalism nsa colonization self-determination reality raykurzweil europe soshanazuboff selfdeterminationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6f9b039ab275/Yeah, We're Really Screwing This Up | Just Visiting @insidehighered2014-12-07T19:21:14+00:00
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/yeah-were-really-screwing
robertogreco2014 johnwarner via:audreywatters surveillance highered highereducation freedom inequality control quantification highstakes education learning howweteach howwelearn scriptedlearning affordability society bigdata goldieblumenstykhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:2a3a72f45901/Convivial Tools in an Age of Surveillance2014-11-14T06:15:46+00:00
http://hackeducation.com/2014/11/13/convivial-tools-in-an-age-of-surveillance
robertogrecotoolforconviviality ivanillich audreywatters edtech technology education 2014 seymourpapert logo alankay dynabook mikecaufield wardcunningham web internet online schools teaching progressive wikipedia smallestfederatedwiki wikis society politics policy decentralization surveillance doxxing gamergate drm startups venturecapital bigdata neilpostman paulofreire paulgoodman datapalooza knewton computers computing mindstorms control readwrite everettreimer 1960s 1970s jonathankozol disruption revolution consensus safety bravery courage equity freedom justice learninghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:e442f3ecf58e/The Pitfalls of Productivity - NYTimes.com2014-10-21T19:02:07+00:00
http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/the-pitfalls-of-productivity/
robertogrecogtd gettingthingsdone productivity busyness 2014 annanorth chrisbailey stevenpoole frederickwinslowtaylor efficiency melissagregg slow taylorism jessicalamb-shapiro bigdata nelsonlichtenstein mindfulness labor work capitalism industrializationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:77d95c86d20c/Smart Stories: Matt Adams (Future of StoryTelling 2014) on Vimeo2014-10-04T07:41:23+00:00
https://vimeo.com/105692520
robertogrecomattadams storytelling technology blastheory her karen data bigdata mobile 2014 interactivefiction games play gaming personalization culture psychology interactive ifhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:49ac6b85969b/Shoshan Zuboff on “Big Data” as Surveillance Capitalism2014-09-22T17:06:44+00:00
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshan-zuboff-on-big-data-as-surveillance-capitalism-13152525.html?printPagedArticle=true
robertogrecososhanazuboff via:steelemaley 2014 bigdata declarations internet web online edwardsnowden joaquinalmunia hannaharendt hamesburnham frankschirrmacher germany europe advertising capitalism surveillancecapitalism surveillance privacy democracy counterdeclarations feedom courage law legal dataexhaust data datamining googlehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:461b98ade0cd/PLAY Stories: An Interview With John Marshall2014-08-26T02:55:06+00:00
http://playgallery.org/stories/whithervane/
robertogrecojohnmarshall art weathervanes internet fear 2014 news twitter rootoftwo whitervanes python raspberrypi projectideas bigdatahttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:be2b12a44253/The Problem with “Personalization”2014-06-13T04:58:51+00:00
https://modernlearners.com/the-problem-with-personalization/
robertogrecorocketshipschools audreywatters education personalization bigdata legibility autonomy personallearning learning schools policy adaptivelearningtechnology data datacollection adaptivelearning adaptivetechnologyhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a8242e7ef6b5/Jeremy Rifkin: "The Zero Marginal Cost Society" | Authors at Google - YouTube2014-04-23T18:50:42+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-iDUcETjvo
robertogrecosocialcommons cooperatives 2014 jeremyrifkin internetofthings zeromarginalcostsociety society economics sharing sharingeconomy consumers prosumers marginalcosts markets collaborativecommons collaboration capitalism bigdata analytics efficiency technology abundance commons exchange networks qualityoflife climatechange google geopolitics biosphereconsciousness cyberterrorism biosphere iothttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7de5d570b0cb/This Woman's Online Heartbeat Will Make You Think About Big Data And The Quantified Self | Co.Exist | ideas + impact2014-04-08T20:08:13+00:00
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3028308/this-womans-online-heartbeat-will-make-you-think-about-big-data-and-the-quantified-self
robertogreco2014 jenlowe data bigdata onehumanheartbeathttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:1b84529f70b0/Blight and Mirrors – Allen Tan is…writing2014-04-06T03:43:57+00:00
http://tanmade.com/writing/2014/04/05/medusa/
robertogrecoallentan 2014 privacy data datadrama ingridburrington networks cloud online internet legibility illegibility urbanism janejacobs surveillance cities bigdata liamyoung information securityhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:96215460d986/Usman Haque: 'Messiness will inevitably arise' in spite of smart cities' (Wired UK)2013-07-19T03:23:37+00:00
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/07/ideas-bank/in-praise-of-messy-cities
robertogrecousmanhaque cities smartcities urbanism bigdata measurement urban data messiness grubcity planning unplanninghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cc103c4e6073/Strata Summit 2011: Marc Goodman, "The Business Of Illegal Data..." - YouTube2013-07-18T04:13:37+00:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ueKilyThQg
robertogrecodata bigdata crime organizedcrime 2011 via:timcarmody information marcgoodman datamininghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b129f568adcd/You Can't Just Hack Your Way to Social Change - Jake Porway - Harvard Business Review2013-03-11T19:38:32+00:00
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/03/you_cant_just_hack_your_way_to.html
robertogrecodata bigdata jakeporway 2013 hacking hackathons problemsolving framing questionasking askingquestionshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b5d3f60b17ff/How Facebook could get you arrested | Technology | The Observer2013-03-10T20:58:32+00:00
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/09/facebook-arrested-evgeny-morozov-extract
robertogrecofacebook police surveillance ethics bigdata legal law democracy justice policing solutionism security 2013 socialnetworking technology internet web evgenymorozovhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:244ad6abe62c/a beginners guide to streamed data from Twitter (tecznotes)2012-09-20T09:29:10+00:00
http://mike.teczno.com/notes/streaming-data-from-twitter.html
robertogreco2012 michalmigurski howto bigdata streaming data python api twitterhttps://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:9b966f43b252/Maps, Maps And MOAR Maps At The Society Of Cartographers And Expedia | Gary's Bloggage2012-09-07T07:26:48+00:00
http://www.vicchi.org/2012/09/06/maps-maps-and-moar-maps-at-the-society-of-cartographers-and-expedia/
robertogreconoaa bigdata data exploration aaronstraupcope flickr googlemaps bingmaps agi osm openstreetmap yahoo nokia geography stamen mattbiddulph garygale 2012 history neocartography mapping mapshttps://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d41ca57a3ecb/Mapmaker, Artist, or Programmer? - Arts & Lifestyle - The Atlantic Cities2012-08-31T23:40:46+00:00
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/08/mapmaker-artist-or-programmer/3132/
robertogrecotwitter flickr exploratorium chicago sanfrancisco transportation dataviz transit bigdata urbanism urban discovery geolocation geotagging ericjaffe cities google datavisualization datavis data interviews 2012 mapping maps ericfischerhttps://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:84040de24afc/Everything You've Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong2012-08-23T19:01:29+00:00
http://www.motherjones.com/print/188516
robertogrecostandardization standards commoncore publicschools history tfa wendykopp billgates michellerhee latinos immigration learning sanfrancisco missionhigh bigdata education policy robertglaser assessment standardizedtesting rttt nclb kristinarizga 2012 teachforamericahttps://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f3dc8d1a04f7/The Danger of Big Data: Social Media as Computational Social Science2012-07-11T21:47:15+00:00
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/3993/3269
robertogrecodigitalhumanities bloggable via:ayjay bigdata socialsciencehttps://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b1601b34e6b8/To Know, but Not Understand: David Weinberger on Science and Big Data - David Weinberger - Technology - The Atlantic2012-01-15T23:35:51+00:00
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/to-know-but-not-understand-david-weinberger-on-science-and-big-data/250820/
robertogrecomodeling modelessinnovation models understanding technology epistemology davidweinberger knowledge complexity bigdata data science 2012https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6356262c3403/Of Data Scientists, Big Data, the City and Dancers « Rev Dan Catt's Blog2011-06-05T01:53:59+00:00
http://revdancatt.com/2011/06/02/of-data-scientists-big-data-the-city-and-dancers/
robertogrecorevdancatt cities fata henrilefebvre understanding urban urbanism empathy objectivity bigdata datascience statistics programming 2011https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d8a341e36f8f/