Education by algorithm

Education by algorithm refers to automated solutions that algorithmic agents or social bots[1] offer to education, to assist with mundane educational tasks.[2] These are often instrumentalist “educational reforms” or “curriculum transformations”, which have been implemented by policy makers and are supported by proprietary education technologies.[3] New educational policies, mandated by transnational governance forums[4] (like the OECD), have manufactured a connection between economies and education.[5]

Governments, schools and universities are expected to introduce or prepare students for an “unknown future”, to “future proof” them against an identified issue or to mitigate a national crisis. Technologies are seen as a catalyst to effect these changes. However, these policies mask a deeper problem, which include the assetization of education[6] and the use of technologies as a means for surveillance and behavior modification.[7]

The traces that students and leave, through cookies, logins learning activities, assignments and tests, are collected, facetted, and shared with commercial organizations by these agents, to both predict future behavior and shape it.[8] Techno solutionist thinking has led to managers adopting educational policies and reforms, and looking towards technologies to act as disrupters, liberators or agents to improve efficiency.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many more students had to modify their learning and working circumstances to protect themselves. Academics shifted their assessment practices from the dominant assessment of learning paradigm to an orientation that saw value in "assessment for learning".[9] Big tech assisted, and teaching infrastructure became further privatized, and unbundling of education provision went a step further. Following the return to class, this assessment paradigm became rationalised in education.[10] Leaving the space for algorithmic agents to step in. Academics work was increasingly driven by learning experience platforms and student understanding was extended through interleaving, behavior modification nudges and rewards and scheduled high stakes assessments. This data collection may also be construed as surveillance.,[11] or perceived as evidence of a Fourth Industrial Revolution

## References

1. ↑ Duan, Zening; Li, Jianing; Lukito, Josephine; Yang, Kai-Cheng; Chen, Fan; Shah, Dhavan V; Yang, Sijia (2022-06-29). "Algorithmic Agents in the Hybrid Media System: Social Bots, Selective Amplification, and Partisan News about COVID-19" (in en). Human Communication Research 48 (3): 516–542. doi:10.1093/hcr/hqac012. ISSN 0360-3989. https://academic.oup.com/hcr/article/48/3/516/6587151.
2. ↑ Röhl, Tobias (2025). "Machine teaching? Teachers' professional agency in the age of algorithmic tools in education". British Journal of Sociology of Education 0: 1–15. doi:10.1080/01425692.2025.2495625. ISSN 0142-5692.
3. ↑ McDonald, Jason K.; Ventura, Berenice (2025-05-02). "Is education better because of us? How ed tech can answer the call to produce research that matters" (in en). Journal of Computing in Higher Education 37 (2): 543–560. doi:10.1007/s12528-025-09440-w. ISSN 1867-1233. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12528-025-09440-w.
4. ↑ Mahon, Rianne, ed (2008). The OECD and transnational governance. Vancouver: UBC Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-1555-0.
5. ↑ (in en) The OECD and Transnational Governance, University of British Columbia Press, 2009-07-01, doi:10.59962/9780774815567, ISBN 978-0-7748-1556-7, https://www.degruyterbrill.com:443/document/doi/10.59962/9780774815567/html, retrieved 2025-05-09
6. ↑ Komljenovic, J. (2024) Assetization of higher education's digital disruption. In book: World Yearbook of Education 2024: Digitalisation of Education in the Era of Algorithms, Automation and Artificial Intelligence (pp.122-139) Publisher: Routledge Taylor&Francis Group
7. ↑ Setiawaty, Tetty; Asrial, Asrial; Messakh, Jakobis Johanis; Tjahjono, Gunadi (2024-02-06). "Improving Students' Digital Literacy Skills Using Structured Assignments" (in en). 5th Vocational Education International Conference (VEIC 2023). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research. 813. Atlantis Press. pp. 1527–1533. doi:10.2991/978-2-38476-198-2_217. ISBN 978-2-38476-198-2. https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/veic-23/125997653.
8. ↑ Kavenna, Joanna (2019-10-04). "Shoshana Zuboff: 'Surveillance capitalism is an assault on human autonomy'" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/04/shoshana-zuboff-surveillance-capitalism-assault-human-automomy-digital-privacy.
9. ↑ Dison, L.; Padayachee, K. (2022-09-09). "Possibilities for long-term shifts in higher education assessment praxis: Reflecting on COVID-19 as a stimulus for change" (in en). South African Journal of Higher Education 36 (4): 154–172. doi:10.20853/36-4-5193. ISSN 1753-5913. https://www.journals.ac.za/sajhe/article/view/5193.
10. ↑ "SURVEILLANCE PRACTICES, RISKS AND RESPONSES IN THE POST PANDEMIC UNIVERSITY" (in en-US). 2022-02-03. https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/volume-141-papers/beetham-2022.
11. ↑ Bergviken Rensfeldt, Annika; Player-Koro, Catarina (2024), Buch, Anders; Lindberg, Ylva; Cerratto Pargman, Teresa, eds., "Platformized Teacher Work – Obstacles and Diffractions in Assessment Work Practices" (in en), Framing Futures in Postdigital Education: Critical Concepts for Data-driven Practices (Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland): pp. 39–58, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-58622-4_3, ISBN 978-3-031-58622-4, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-58622-4_3, retrieved 2025-05-14

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education by algorithm. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:Education_by_algorithm&oldid=3990833"