The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked unprecedented large-scale online teaching practices. Education blurs the boundaries between school, home and society, meaning it can take place anywhere. Blended learning has been widely used in local learning in recent years. Before Covid-19, Victoria University had only a handful of online courses, and now the integration of blended learning is more common. I strongly agree with this in reading: the advantages of integrating face-to-face synchronous communication and text-based online asynchronous communication are powerful complements for higher education purposes (Vaughan et al., 2013). Blended learning somehow better combines the advantages of traditional learning and online learning, and professors and students have more independence to think about textual content.
However, in the mode of combining modern education with traditional education, the issue of privacy is worthy of our attention. I can understand the intent of the student classification and tracking presented in “Edtech, Big Data, and the Ethical Challenges of Personalized Learning: Classifying and Tracking Students in the Twenty-First Century,” but it would be a massive collection of The relevant privacy content of students, and the classification of students according to big data, this is undoubtedly an unfair manifestation of students. Some students have different learning resources due to different economic or social status, which does not mean that the student is not smart or hardworking.
The generation of “big data” is also a reflection of the usage of apps in our daily life. Our usual browsing and online purchase records are transmitted to the database, which also means that different people will receive completely different content based on the database. The school also classifies students according to this model. When I was in high school, the school would classify the class according to the students’ situation to select the elite class and the second-best class. The teachers in the class would also make the corresponding seats according to the students’ families. This is undoubtedly a manifestation of injustice to students. Many students are neglected by the school because of their family’s economic or social status. This does not mean that the student is a stupid student.
The “invisibility” and lack of understanding/ambiguity of tracking through EdTech is part of the larger problem today. The problem here is the inability to critically address the looming problems of these systems because they are ignored or obscured. We should review these processes to prevent fragmented systems caused by factors such as socioeconomic status.
Reference
Regan, P., & Jesse, J. (2019). Ethical challenges of edtech, big data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167-179. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2
leihan
July 12, 2022 — 10:34 pm
Hi, Yilin
I agree with what you said that the integration of blended learning is now more common, and big data teaching has brought convenience to educators and students, it is easier to review the previous content, and you can also complete all the work at home, but I think that online classes are always less practical, students are more likely to lose their minds when they are in class, and educators are more likely to ignore the acceptance of students when teaching, and the advantages and disadvantages are obvious to me.
The best
Lei.
zitongzhao
July 12, 2022 — 10:48 pm
Hi Yilin，
In fact, there are some differences between traditional teaching and new teaching methods, which are not open learning and traditional learning. However, according to the continuous progress of society, these two learning methods can actually be combined, perhaps for us to have more benefits.