Data ecosystems in education: opportunities and challenges

Abstract

The integration of ecosystems that promote the massive use of data and the large-scale processing of this data into educational processes represent an unprecedented social challenge. This change, which we could consider paradigmatic, has been promoted by various factors which mutually magnify each other's effects. In recent years the massive collection and storage of data has intensified through ubiquitous technologies, which co-exist with human actors. In addition, we have witnessed an increase in the intentional processing power of this data at a speed unimaginable a few years ago (through the application of Artificial Intelligence, hereafter AI) . This has turned many aspects of our lives into data, from which value is extracted by third parties through processes of datafication. Concurrently, the public at large - including the educational sector - has been promised educational ‘personalisation’, a concept derived directly from other industrial production scenarios where AI is already in use, and every experience is datafied. In addition, a rapidly growing economic sector - the EdTech industry - has emerged with a capacity to monetise the educational sphere at a global level, extracting not only profits from its present and future actions with private or institutional clients, but also generating income based on capturing the motivation of their users and achieving significant levels of social and political influence. All of the above is magnified by the proliferation of the use of online platforms and tools in educational spaces (such as learning analytics and online exam proctoring), accelerated by the demand for online educaiton resulting from ‘lockdowns’ during the CoVid-19 pandemic. This special issue aims to bring together articles that problematise the challenges and unintended effects that new mechanisms and dynamics fuelled by these data-driven technologies have introduced into education. This call aims to encourage researchers and practitioners to share studies, research, debates and academically well-founded reflections that propose critical visions. This aims to provide those who are interested in education (either as teachers, academic faculty, researchers or managers ) deeper analyses, to allow us to understand the current educational and technological landscape, and to foster a revaluation of relevant educational issues that should be part of our work in the coming years.