Taming EdTech: Why Children Stand to Lose in an Unregulated Digitised Classroom

As education becomes more dependent on data-intensive algorithmic systems, private corporate power continues to grow. Left unregulated, the implications for children’s basic rights and future life chances are not to be underestimated. In this book, Velislava Hillman argues that datafication, i.e. turning all human actions into data, and surveillance have been normalised in eductional settings and shows how edtech products are not improving education equally for all children. She calls for a licensing regime which drives the edtech industry towards ethical practices and meeting appropriate standards before they are allowed to operate in schools. Looking beyond edtech’s potentials, this book outlines a governance framework across socio-technical, ethical, critical pedagogic, and human rights imperatives for governing the digitisation of education.