1,721,017 research outputs found
Pathways for Social Justice in the Datafied Society: Reconsidering the educational response. Association of Teachers and Trainers
No full textCan education be a response to the injustices generated by datafication? Although education has been considered a crucial instrument to generate a more democratic and egalitarian society, there is no linear relationship between education and social justice. In the same vein, data literacy as an approach to generate data justice or social justice in the context of datafication should be explored. In this article, I offer a conceptual analysis of the educational response to datafication. Firstly, I introduce the analysis of the metaphors coined to understand the impact of datafication; the analysis then focuses on the tensions and contradictions concerning education’s contribution to the pursuit of social justice. Secondly, I introduce the debate on the social response to datafication provided by self- organised movements embracing data activism. Thirdly, I consider the relationship between education and social justice to establish the specific connection between data literacy and data justice. I hence question the direct impact of developing literacy as an enabler of change or resistance: data literacy can be implemented in several ways which may or may not support such actions. As a result of this exploration, I contend that, although the educational interventions are evolving towards forms of sensitivity and attention to the problem of datafication, there is a need for integrated approaches that take into account complexity. Indeed, digital infrastructures, regulations, and political contexts shape a problem that goes well beyond the educator’s degrees of freedom. Notwithstanding the fact that this set of contingencies might be seen as limitations, it is only by taking them into account that the educational response can be imagined. Notably, the educators’ role should go in the direction of expanding knowledge and criticism towards the digital infrastructures, beyond technological competence, to promote counter-hegemonic antagonisms as means to build new contexts of data justice, and therefore, social justice
Data Literacy and Social Justice: An oxímoron? Responses from the counter-hegemony
No full textThis work introduces educators' reactions from their professional practice to the injustice generated by the practices and narratives of datafication. A reflective and interpretive work approach based on the principles of hermeneutics is presented, implemented within a series of workshops (12) with the participation of 298 educators. From the interpretive synthesis it is observed that: A) although educators are developing forms of sensibility and attention to the problem of datafication, they feel that their degrees of freedom are limited. In a subordinate way to the first effect, it appears that B) in some cases, they abandon themselves to suffer the problems of datafication passively; C) in others, they wield their technical and technological skills to "hack the algorithm". In any of these situations, the need arises to organise the educational work beyond technological competence, to promote counter-hegemonic antagonisms as a way to build new contexts of data justice, and therefore, social justic
Calidad del eLearning e innovación tecnológica: un proceso en continuo desarrollo.
No full textHa existido desde siempre una gran preocupación por la visión de la educación en línea como un enfoque pedagógico de baja calidad o una solución menor, que ha cristalizado en varios debates en la literatura y, particularmente, en la consolidación de sistemas nacionales e institucionales.
El rápido avance de las tecnologías estimula continuas innovaciones que pueden provocar entusiasmo y adhesión, sin hacer una correcta valoración crítica de sus efectos en un sistema de calidad educativa. Asimismo, se ha debatido mucho la eficacia comprobada de la innovación tecnopedagógica.
La respuesta ante esta situación proviene de la propia investigación sobre el aprendizaje en línea o e-learning como un enfoque que permite llevar a la práctica pedagogías no solo innovadoras, sino también eficaces, que contribuyen a mejorar la calidad de la enseñanza
Towards a multilevel framework for analysing academic social network sites: A networked socio-Technical perspective
No full textDigital technology and social media are progressively transforming scholarly practices and academic identity into what has been named digital scholarship. However, while specific approaches to the topic have been adopted within diverse research strands, a unifying theoretical framework has yet to emerge and as a result the topic is advancing with separate research agendas. This is placing severe limits on the potential applicability of research results throughout academia, on the development of suitable infrastructures underpinning and supporting researchers' practices, and on the effectiveness of their professional development. This also seems to apply to academic social network sites (ASNS) as digital infrastructures for scholars. While it is quite evident that ASNS are impacting on academic and research, a clear theoretical framework is needed in order for emergent practices to become established. This study analyses a range of theories in the effort to produce a multi-layered and multi-Theory framework that might underpin research and practices related to ASNS as platforms for supporting digital scholarship. Firstly, the study adopts a socio-Technical approach to analyse social media platforms as microsystems that integrate emergent user practices and content at the organizational level. Secondly, it focuses on how social capital, a conceptual construct adopted as a specific requirement for knowledge sharing in social networks, applies to academic and research communities. The emerging framework for reflecting on ASNS comprises three different levels of analysis: 1) a macro-level, which constitutes the socio-economic layer corresponding to structural social capital; 2) a meso-level, which comprises the techno-cultural layer corresponding to (distributed) cognitive social capital; and 3) a micro-level, which constitutes the networked scholar layer corresponding to relational social capital. Within the micro-level, different kinds of social capital are exploited at different sub-levels of the networked scholar layer: structural social capital corresponding to the networking sub-level; (individual) cognitive social capital related to the knowledge-sharing sub-level; and relational social capital concerning the identity sub-level. The framework's expressive power does not lie so much in the single layers or elements, but in the connections between them, which reveal how platforms and sociality are tightly interrelated in the specific field of academic social networking. The paper also examines the implications of the study and provides suggestions for future research
Exploring the social activity of open research data on ResearchGate: implications for the data literacy of researchers
Full text linkPurpose: Although current research has investigated how open research data (ORD) are published, researchers' behaviour of ORD sharing on academic social networks (ASNs) remains insufficiently explored. The purpose of this study is to investigate the connections between ORDs publication and social activity to uncover data literacy gaps. Design/methodology/approach: This work investigates whether the ORDs publication leads to social activity around the ORDs and their linked published articles to uncover data literacy needs. The social activity was characterised as reads and citations, over the basis of a non-invasive approach supporting this preliminary study. The eventual associations between the social activity and the researchers' profile (scientific domain, gender, region, professional position, reputation) and the quality of the ORD published were investigated to complete this picture. A random sample of ORD items extracted from ResearchGate (752 ORDs) was analysed using quantitative techniques, including descriptive statistics, logistic regression and K-means cluster analysis. Findings: The results highlight three main phenomena: (1) Globally, there is still an underdeveloped social activity around self-archived ORDs in ResearchGate, in terms of reads and citations, regardless of the published ORDs quality; (2) disentangling the moderating effects over social activity around ORD spots traditional dynamics within the “innovative” practice of engaging with data practices; (3) a somewhat similar situation of ResearchGate as ASN to other data platforms and repositories, in terms of social activity around ORD, was detected. Research limitations/implications: Although the data were collected within a narrow period, the random data collection ensures a representative picture of researchers' practices. Practical implications: As per the implications, the study sheds light on data literacy requirements to promote social activity around ORD in the context of open science as a desirable frontier of practice. Originality/value: Researchers data literacy across digital systems is still little understood. Although there are many policies and technological infrastructure providing support, the researchers do not make an in-depth use of them. Peer review: The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-05-2021-0255
Is there a social life in open data? The case of open data practices in educational technology research
Full text linkIn the landscape of Open Science, Open Data (OD) plays a crucial role as data are one of the most basic components of research, despite their diverse formats across scientific disciplines. Opening up data is a recent concern for policy makers and researchers, as the basis for good Open Science practices. The common factor underlying these new practices-the relevance of promoting Open Data circulation and reuse-is mostly a social form of knowledge sharing and construction. However, while data sharing is being strongly promoted by policy making and is becoming a frequent practice in some disciplinary fields, Open Data sharing is much less developed in Social Sciences and in educational research. In this study, practices of OD publication and sharing in the field of Educational Technology are explored. The aim is to investigate Open Data sharing in a selection of Open Data repositories, as well as in the academic social network site ResearchGate. The 23 Open Datasets selected across five OD platforms were analysed in terms of (a) the metrics offered by the platforms and the affordances for social activity; (b) the type of OD published; (c) the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) data principles compliance; and (d) the extent of presence and related social activity on ResearchGate. The results show a very low social activity in the platforms and very few correspondences in ResearchGate that highlight a limited social life surrounding Open Datasets. Future research perspectives as well as limitations of the study are interpreted in the discussion
Centering complexity in ‘educators’ data literacy’ to support future practices in faculty development: a systematic review of the literature
Full text linkAs algorithmic decision-making and data collection become pervasive in higher education, how can educators make sense of the systems that shape life and learning in the twenty-first century? This paper outlines a systematic literature review that investigated gaps in the current framing of data and faculty development, and explores how these gaps prevent the formulation of potential pathways and principles for fostering educators’ data literacy. The analysis of 137 papers through classification by relevant categories and key word mapping shows that there is little attention on higher education teachers. It also makes clear that most approaches to educators’ data literacy address management and technical abilities, with less emphasis on critical, ethical and personal approaches to datafication in education. The authors conceptualize this situation as a ‘complicated’ approach to data literacy in the academic profession, as opposed to a complex vision which would bundle management and technical skills together with a critical, systemic approach to professional learning and data
Exploring the (missed) connections between digital scholarship and faculty development: a conceptual analysis
Full text linkAbstract The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between two research topics: digital scholarship and faculty development. The former topic drives attention on academics’ new practices in digital, open and networked contexts; the second is focused on the requirements and strategies to promote academics’ professional learning and career advancement. The research question addressing this study is: are faculty development strategies hindered by the lack of a cohesive view in the research on digital scholarship? The main assumption guiding this research question is that clear conceptual frameworks and models of professional practice lead to effective faculty development strategies. Through a wide overview of the evolution of both digital scholarship and faculty development, followed by a conceptual analysis of the intersections between fields, the paper attempts to show the extent on which the situation in one area (digital scholarship) might encompass criticalities for the other (faculty development) in terms of research and practices. Furthermore, three scenarios based on the several perspectives of digital scholarship are built in order to explore the research question in depth. We conclude that at the current state of art the relationship between these two topics is weak. Moreover, the dialogue between digital scholarship and faculty development could put the basis to forge effective professional learning contexts and instruments, with the ultimate goal of supporting academics to become digital scholars towards a more open and democratic vision of scholarship
Is data literacy a catalyst of social justice? A response from nine data literacy initiatives in higher education
Full text linkIs education and more specifically, data literacy initiatives in Higher Education, an appropriate instrument to promote social justice in a context of datafication? Education is (and has been) at the center of the debate over the achievement of social justice as a desirable quality of the human society. However, which type of educational interventions should be promoted to deal with a complex, multi-layered, emergent problem, such is the case of datafication in society? Since the problem is heavily entrenched with a shifting socio-economic model (the so called “surveillance capitalism”) and the technological infrastructures connected to it, educational approaches could be diversified and even contradictory in their purpose of heralding the skills to live in a datafied society. This paper explores nine initiatives in Higher Education aimed at developing the literacies to deal with data in society. Their efforts are concentrated in promoting freedom of choice, awareness, and agency. Though their original intention is not promoting social justice, the analysis is carried out on the theoretical basis provided by Martha Nussbaum on social justice. The initiatives span educational activities with open data as open educational resources, to more formal data literacy activities such as educational engagement with students’ data and students’ personal and educational data. There emerges a still fragmented panorama in responding to the need of promoting social justice in a context of datafication. Given this fragmentation, the article provides a conceptual scheme to address further pedagogical reflection and practice with the aim of supporting social justice against datafication
“Lifelong learning Ecologies: linking formal and informal contexts of learning in the digital era”
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