Education
Giving students, parents and teachers a powerful say
Underneath the near universal experience of going through formal education is significant diversity within a sprawling sector. With the education sector under strain and the subject of intense political scrutiny and debate, the introduction of digital technologies and EdTech is raising questions around student learning experience, the teaching profession and the role of private interests in public service.
Through working with partners and stakeholders in the sector, we are exploring how to centre the voices of school communities, and to build collective capabilities to ensure the mix of education and technology contributes to the wellbeing and educational outcomes of all.
How can affected communities have a powerful voice in shaping the adoption of data-driven technology in schools?
We brought together 17 participants for two online workshop sessions in January 2024 to explore:
- the growing use of data-driven educational technologies (EdTech) in UK schools;
- challenges around who has, and who does not, have a say in EdTech adoption;
- possible approaches to give affected communities a more powerful voice in EdTech decision making.
Participants included teachers and school counselors, teaching union representatives, and education researchers. Sessions were designed with support from Defend Digital Me.
This is an initial synthesis of workshop discussions shared to support further conversations.
Data-driven technologies and AI within EdTech are entering the school and classroom environment at pace, and are likely to increase. The UK government has recently made a series of announcements, including the promise of an AI assistant for every teacher. But concerns abound on the objectives and impact of this push, from displacing the need for new bricks and mortar and working conditions for school staff with tech-fixes, or the poorly understood effect of the learning experiences of children.
How can affected communities have a powerful voice in shaping the adoption of data-driven technology in schools?
On 5th December 2022, CONNECTED BY DATA organised an event in parliament, hosted and chaired by Lord Tim Clement-Jones, to explore three key areas around the future of data governance: automated decision-making, data at work and data in schools.
These are all areas that could be affected by the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, expected to return to parliament for its second reading at some point in 2023. We think the Bill represents an opportunity to influence how data is governed in a more democratic and participatory way, but worry that – in its present form – it undermines existing safeguards and misses the chance to extend democratic data governance.
The three areas under discussion also represent domains where growing data collection and use could have both significant benefits and harms in the future, regardless of what happens to the Bill. The event invited opening contributions from civil society and academic experts on each topic before opening up to a wider discussion. The experts were on the record unless they requested otherwise, with everyone else being unattributed under the Chatham House Rule.
Jonathan attended the online launch of the Digital Futures Commission report on the reality of education data.
Opinion
The Department for Education has recently released public attitudes research on what parents and pupils think about AI in education, as part of its announcement of a £4m investment to create a dataset to support building AI tools. This is a bit of a hangover from the previous government (the work was carried out earlier in 2024), but reflective of the current government’s commitment to maximising adoption of AI across the public sector.
Before I dig into the details, I should first say that it’s fantastic to see public sector organisations carrying out public attitudes research to inform how they approach the adoption of AI. This kind of research can be used to prioritise investments, inform governance processes to address anticipated harms, and identify barriers and blockers to adoption, as well as working out how to communicate about governmental plans.
Here I want to pull out some specific insights from the research that highlight considerations for how technology is rolled out for public services, namely about profit sharing; schools as trusted decision makers; and points about equity and choice. Then I’m going to discuss some lessons that should be taken into future similar public engagement exercises, particularly about shifting understanding and acceptance of technology; consulting teachers and workers; and the overall approach we need of “you said, we listened”.
Weeknotes
Weeknotes are a combination of updates and personal reflection written on a routine basis