The Education and Digital Culture courses was created more than a decade ago and was designed to be an experiment around teaching and learning in the public spaces of the web. This remains key to the ethos of the course as we look to collect a range of cultural artefacts and then use them to offer critical insights into the nature of contemporary education. There is nothing exceptional about a course that makes use of spaces beyond the institutional LMS, and resources beyond the reading list: on the contrary, many programmes across the disciplines depend on students accessing video content, news media, conversation and other content hosted in the public spaces of the web. The difference with our own course is that it takes place almost entirely in these spaces. For this reason, it is important to consider issues around privacy and accessibility.
Looking back to the discussions and activities that took place on the An Introduction to Digital Environments for Learning course, you will already be aware of the some of the key issues surrounding openness and data in education. You will have spent time reflecting on questions that arise when teaching and learning takes place on the open web, and will also know some of ethical and commercial sensitivities associated with the gathering of student data. As digital education scholars, we want you to carry this awareness and critical inquisitiveness with you as we access, produce and share content in the coming weeks. In a practical sense, we encourage you to use your student email account when setting up any accounts. Meanwhile if you would prefer to not use your full name in networked spaces, that is absolutely fine. The dominant platform we will be using during EDC is Miro, where you will build galleries within our collective exhibition. We have chosen Miro because, among things, it better supports accessibility compared with some other white board platforms. More information about Miro’s approach to privacy and data compliance can be found here:
Miro privacy policy https://miro.com/legal/privacy-policy/
Miro GDPR compliance https://miro.com/security/
Miro educators forum https://community.miro.com/educators-forum-64