Edtech and the Post-Pandemic University: Understandings and Interventions

The pivot to emergency on-line education precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic has raised professors*, students', and the public's awareness of, and debate about, the incorporation of technology into university teaching. Yet, the ways in which, and extent to which, educational technologies and data services have grown to encompass every aspect of HE activity (including recruitment and admission services, student management and learning management systems, core digital infrastructure, management dashboards and analytics platforms, digital library and information systems, etc.) remain poorly understood. More seriously, the ways these developments transform the operations, orientations, contributions, and very future of higher education are also poorly understood and, therefore, virtually uncontested.

This session aims to move beyond debates about the dis/advantages of technology in teaching to explore how the proliferation of educational technologies and data services is fundamentally reorganizing the social relations of higher education and to consider the implications of this. Paper may focus on a particular aspect of this transformation (such as its impacts on university policy- making, governance, university-industry hybridities, student and staff surveillance, digital exclusion and educational inequality, intellectual property, academic freedom and professional autonomy, etc.). Alternatively, they may take up the issue more broadly, addressing, for example, Edtech's role in the privatization and commercialization of higher education or its implications for the university's future. In addition to critical analyses, papers that address strategic interventions are welcome.