# data[].attributes.headline
Alternative Models beyond Corporatization to Digitalization of Education

# data[].attributes.subject
Alternative Models beyond Corporatization to Digitalization of Education

# data[].attributes.body
School systems are under pressure to support digitalization without the necessary funding or training or need to procure “freeware”. Some free products come at the cost of children’s human rights, dignity and freedoms. Economic exploitation of their personal data, products with intrusive advertising, invasive behavioural surveillance or embedded bias such as discrimination by-design are routine. These consequences extend beyond the school grounds and into private and family life.

Furthermore, proprietary providers can put in limitations on the control of future services, choices or costs, with long-term implications for the sustainable delivery of education and the  power of corporatization of digital educational reform.

Models

# data[].attributes.body
Across all stages of conceptualisation, design, development, adaptation, use - in infrastructure as well as tools.

# data[].attributes.body
When education is digitized, it is often done by private corporations/ institutions. One of the many issues among the many is that the process of digitization and more particularly the data and model are hidden behind propitiatory rights. However, it is crucial that these process, data and models remain open.

# data[].attributes.body
Need for local funding for digital solutions

# data[].attributes.body
Cross-cutting issue: who benefits from digitisation?

# data[].attributes.body
Investment in technologies but also in diverse other needs of users

# data[].attributes.body
Greater investment in affordable assistive technologies, local innovation with local distribution networks

# data[].attributes.headline
'Access to learning' vs 'learning to access'

# data[].attributes.subject
'Access to learning' vs 'learning to access'

# data[].attributes.body
investing in users

# data[].attributes.headline
Better alignment with global commitments

# data[].attributes.subject
Better alignment with global commitments

# data[].attributes.body
on education

# data[].attributes.headline
Inherent limitations and reductivism of digitisation

# data[].attributes.subject
Inherent limitations and reductivism of digitisation

# data[].attributes.body
Education is a complex, historical, social and interactive phenomena that takes place in the space between learners and educators. Much of this phenomena defies digitization due to the reductive nature of digitization. One central point in this regard is a realistic expectation about what can (and can't) be digitized, a point worth emphasizing in the face of over-promise and over-hype around data driven practices, machine learning systems and AI in general.

# data[].attributes.body
States and stakeholders must address ethical issues related to developments in frontier technologies, such as virtual reality artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology, which have shown tremendous opportunities for transforming and digitalizing education but further exacerbate new digital inequities by increasing inequalities that continue to present challenges for an inclusive digital society. There are opportunities but if we don't have a proper framework to address issues of diversity we will reproduce existing equalities

# data[].attributes.body
States and other stakeholders must link the discussion of digitalization of education with social movements for educational justice. This requires connecting design justice work with the student, teacher, and parent-led community organizing groups locally and globally that focus on addressing injustices in educational systems.

# data[].attributes.body
States and stakeholders must address inequalities through a holistic framework that builds technology literacy, capacity, and support beyond school to include the home and community. Digitalization of education that focuses only on school is not holistic and creates a disconnect as less-resourced students cannot count on support outside school.

# data[].attributes.headline
Intersectional approach to digital inclusion

# data[].attributes.subject
Intersectional approach to digital inclusion

# data[].attributes.body
Stakeholders must adopt an intersectional approach in digital inclusion educational projects and policies. As such, an intersectional approach that encompasses determinants such as gender (Ono and Zavodny 2003, 2007, 2008), race and ethnicity (Mesch and Talmud 2011), and socioeconomic status (Witte and Mannon 2010) is required to address digital inequities to ensure that existing social inequities are not reinforced or exacerbate.

# data[].attributes.body
Although there are benefits, not all Indigenous knowledges and education can be digitised (Prehn, Peacock, Guerzoni, & Walter, 2020).

# data[].attributes.body
Indigenous peoples are more likely to be impacted by social factors negatively impacting access to digital education (Anderson et al., 2016).

# data[].attributes.headline
Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Indigenous Data Governance

# data[].attributes.subject
Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Indigenous Data Governance

# data[].attributes.body
should be used by Indigenous peoples regarding the digitisation of education to allow self-determination (Maiam nayri Wingara, 2018).

# data[].attributes.headline
Local innovation and community technologies

# data[].attributes.subject
Local innovation and community technologies

# data[].attributes.body
While I am critical of overly optimistic accounts of makerspaces or the reduction of costs through using the volunteer labor of makers to produce assistive technologies such as 3D printed hands, fostering strong local communities around technologies supports capabilities important to the priorities above.

# data[].attributes.headline
Maintenance and repair in the community 

# data[].attributes.subject
Maintenance and repair in the community 

# data[].attributes.body
While we've begun to see an emphasis on participatory design of technologies, their entire lifecycle must take into account the communities who will ultimately have to maintain and repair them, in and around schools. The focus on innovation in technology means this is often ignored.

# data[].attributes.body
With more complex educational technology tools and platforms, we often lose in interoperability - the ability to access, modify, use the same content using different tools. While it is not enough to enable independent learning by all, it's crucial for community members such as teachers to make the necessary adaptations, or reuse content.