The University of Data: Ethical and Social Futures of Data-Driven Education

Project dates (estimated):

Sep 2020 – Aug 2024

Name of the PhD student:

Joe Noteboom

Supervisors:

Karen Gregory – School of Social and Political Sciences (Sociology)
Jen Ross - Moray House School of Education and Sport (Institute for Education, Community and Society)

Project aims:

This project explores the ethical and political implications of digitalisation and datafication in higher education. In particular, this research investigates the changing experiences and subjectivities of students in contemporary UK universities amid the growing importance of digital technologies, data and platforms.

Disciplines and subfields engaged:

  • Digital sociology

  • Higher education studies

  • Digital education

  • Critical data studies

  • Platform studies

  • Science and technology studies

Research Themes:

  • Ethics and Politics of Data

    • Ethics of Data Ownership, Governance and Stewardship

    • Dataveillance and Data Privacy

  • Emerging Technology, Health and Flourishing

    • Emerging Tech and Community Flourishing

Related outputs:

Publications:

  • ​Fawns, Tim, Jen Ross, Henrietta Carbonel, Joe Noteboom, Sam Finnegan-Dehn, and McKenzie Raver. 2023. ‘Mapping and Tracing the Postdigital: Approaches and Parameters of Postdigital Research’. Postdigital Science and Education, February. 🔗

Conference Presentations:

  • The dark sides of participation? Emerging ethical tensions in bottom-up data futures research. Presented at Exploratory Workshop on the Ethics and Values of Future(s)-oriented Methods in Educational Sciences. Stockholm University. 29 September 2023.

  • Exploring University Students’ Lived Experiences of Datafication, Data Literacies and the Potential for Collective Data Governance in UK Higher Education, to be presented at Data Justice Conference, Cardiff University, 19 June 2023.

  • The Student as User: Insights from a Student-Level View of Platformisation and Data Assetization in Higher Education, presented at Digital Rentiership and Asset-Making in Higher Education and Beyond Workshop, Lancaster University, 17 May 2023.

Grants:

  • ​EFI Student Research Awards (Feb 2023, £900, w/ Aditya Singh): Exploring models for participatory data governance at EFI.

  • British Sociological Association Postgraduate Regional Day Events funding (Feb 2023, £1000): From Data to Theory: Theorising at the intersection of digital sociology, economic sociology and STS.

Other Outputs:

  • ​Student panellist: Sustaining Connections – The Participatory and Intercultural Potential of Digital Learning, 2nd German U15-Universities Scotland Joint Conference on Digital Learning and Teaching, Edinburgh Napier University (April 2023).

  • Workshop (w/ Bhargavi Ganesh): Interdisciplinary collaboration in AI, ethics and society. AI, Ethics and Society Doctoral Colloquium, University of Edinburgh (October 2022).

  • Guest lecture: Student data in higher education: issues and tensions. Undergraduate computer science Professional Issues course, University of Edinburgh (October 2022).

  • Funded participant: LERU Summer School on the University of the Future, Urban Futures Studio, Utrecht University (July 2022).

PhD ResearchSteven ScottTech and Flourishing, Ethics and Politics of Data