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Learning, Media and Technology

@lmt-journal.bsky.social

#LMT 🟨🟪 aims to stimulate debate on digital media, digital technology and digital cultures in education. Edited by @benpatrickwill.bsky.social, @johnpp.bsky.social, @discoursology.bsky.social‬ & @lucipangrazio.bsky.social.

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Central question of the special issue: What would it mean to embed AI ethics within shared—institutional, infrastructural, and collective—responsibility frameworks in education? The aim is to move beyond “responsible use” narratives and reclaim ethics as a collective, situated, and future-oriented practice.

Central question of the special issue: What would it mean to embed AI ethics within shared—institutional, infrastructural, and collective—responsibility frameworks in education? The aim is to move beyond “responsible use” narratives and reclaim ethics as a collective, situated, and future-oriented practice.

🟨 Call for Papers 🟪

Submit an abstract for a Special Issue entitled "Reframing AI ethics in education: From individual responsibilisation to shared responsibility".

Abstracts ➡ 10 July 2026
Manuscripts ➡ 31 March 2027

Read more: tinyurl.com/5yzzprjy

27.02.2026 02:29 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
This paper explores teachers’ perceptions of digital citizenship education and the causal mechanisms that influence their perceptions. While digital citizenship education is promoted across the curriculum in New Zealand, school cultures, leadership priorities, and systemic pressures influence how digital citizenship education is interpreted and enacted. Drawing on data from 11 semi-structured interviews with secondary school teachers from across the eight learning areas in New Zealand, this study presents a visual representation of teachers’ perceptions across four domains – safeguarding, equipping, empowering, and resistance – followed by an examination of the realities of digital citizenship education in practice. Analysis suggests some consistency in teachers’ perceptions, particularly techno-optimistic narratives, but indicates that school culture, leadership, and curriculum demands are key factors shaping digital citizenship education. The findings indicate the paradoxical role of schools as both enablers and constrainers of digital citizenship education. Despite teachers’ appreciation for the importance of ‘thick’ understandings of digital citizenship education that equip and empower students as digital citizens, the realities of schooling constrain digital citizenship education to ‘thin’ approaches focused on skill development and risk management. The research addresses a critical gap in understanding how systemic and organisational-level factors mediate digital citizenship education policy intentions and classroom realities.

This paper explores teachers’ perceptions of digital citizenship education and the causal mechanisms that influence their perceptions. While digital citizenship education is promoted across the curriculum in New Zealand, school cultures, leadership priorities, and systemic pressures influence how digital citizenship education is interpreted and enacted. Drawing on data from 11 semi-structured interviews with secondary school teachers from across the eight learning areas in New Zealand, this study presents a visual representation of teachers’ perceptions across four domains – safeguarding, equipping, empowering, and resistance – followed by an examination of the realities of digital citizenship education in practice. Analysis suggests some consistency in teachers’ perceptions, particularly techno-optimistic narratives, but indicates that school culture, leadership, and curriculum demands are key factors shaping digital citizenship education. The findings indicate the paradoxical role of schools as both enablers and constrainers of digital citizenship education. Despite teachers’ appreciation for the importance of ‘thick’ understandings of digital citizenship education that equip and empower students as digital citizens, the realities of schooling constrain digital citizenship education to ‘thin’ approaches focused on skill development and risk management. The research addresses a critical gap in understanding how systemic and organisational-level factors mediate digital citizenship education policy intentions and classroom realities.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

Jack Webster looked at enablers and constrainers of #digitalcitizenship #education in #NewZealand #schools. He notably sheds a light on the conflict between "thick" and "thin" approaches.

Read the article: tinyurl.com/4jdxemew

26.02.2026 05:43 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
The hype surrounding the potential of AI to augment human capabilities and supercharge productivity is matched by fears that it will irrevocably change life and the world as we know it. On the one hand, AI is thought to be a ‘gamechanger’ in terms of its potential to transform industries and make new discoveries. But on the other hand, fears around AI replacing jobs, degrading the environment, and changing the way we think and learn are making many sceptics very cautious and pessimistic. For both the AI optimists and pessimists, however, literacy has been put forward as a response. If one is AI literate, then one is ‘empowered learners’ who use AI ‘ethically’ and ‘meaningfully’ (OECD Citation2025), not only guarding against the concerns but also ensuring one is making the most of its potential. In this sense, literacy becomes a kind of ‘cure all’ – a solutionist, normative approach to the complex and evolving phenomena of AI. But what exactly is literacy and can it be applied to AI?

The hype surrounding the potential of AI to augment human capabilities and supercharge productivity is matched by fears that it will irrevocably change life and the world as we know it. On the one hand, AI is thought to be a ‘gamechanger’ in terms of its potential to transform industries and make new discoveries. But on the other hand, fears around AI replacing jobs, degrading the environment, and changing the way we think and learn are making many sceptics very cautious and pessimistic. For both the AI optimists and pessimists, however, literacy has been put forward as a response. If one is AI literate, then one is ‘empowered learners’ who use AI ‘ethically’ and ‘meaningfully’ (OECD Citation2025), not only guarding against the concerns but also ensuring one is making the most of its potential. In this sense, literacy becomes a kind of ‘cure all’ – a solutionist, normative approach to the complex and evolving phenomena of AI. But what exactly is literacy and can it be applied to AI?

🟨 Volume 51, Issue 1 (2026) of LMT 🟪

In the editorial for our latest issue, @lucipangrazio.bsky.social questions the usefulness of #literacy as a response to #AI.

Read all articles: tinyurl.com/mma35vah

19.02.2026 01:30 — 👍 14    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 3
This article explores how more-than-human research approaches can respond to the complexity of political and ethical questions of AI-mediated practices amidst complex transformations of education practice. Three shifts to research practices are explored: understanding AI-data systems based on the day-to-day experiences of workers, evoking conceptual and methodological re-envisioning to produce new forms of situated data, and considering how researchers and professionals can work closely together to document and critically analyse the performative relations between AI systems and workers. A participatory research project, which worked with education practitioners to study how they are learning to work with AI-automated and assisted decision-making systems, provides empirical data to help illustrate facets of this methodology. Insights include working in the hyphenated AI-human space, materializing digital-human relations differently, and unsettling and shifting the gaze.

This article explores how more-than-human research approaches can respond to the complexity of political and ethical questions of AI-mediated practices amidst complex transformations of education practice. Three shifts to research practices are explored: understanding AI-data systems based on the day-to-day experiences of workers, evoking conceptual and methodological re-envisioning to produce new forms of situated data, and considering how researchers and professionals can work closely together to document and critically analyse the performative relations between AI systems and workers. A participatory research project, which worked with education practitioners to study how they are learning to work with AI-automated and assisted decision-making systems, provides empirical data to help illustrate facets of this methodology. Insights include working in the hyphenated AI-human space, materializing digital-human relations differently, and unsettling and shifting the gaze.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

Terrie Lynn Thompson explores the use of #more-than-human approaches to study how #educators are learning to work with #AI and automated decision making.

Read the article: lnkd.in/g64QGqsd

19.02.2026 01:13 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Voices of young people are essential in civic discourse about thriving futures. Yet dialogue can be complicated when the experiences of adults and young people are vastly different, for example in school spaces designed by adults in cities designed for adults. Vertical, highrise inner city schools represent this intersection. A new genre of school in Australia, vertical schools symbolise aspirations for young people and livable cities as designed by adults. This paper draws from data collected in the Thriving in Vertical Schools project to explore the importance of affective learning atmospheres for students, and the value of digital stories to prompt dialogue between young people and adults. 204 secondary students created 96 one-minute digital stories about what it takes to thrive in vertical schools. A close analysis of 4 representative videos shows how students communicated a wide range of affective, embodied experiences and used the friction inherent within digital narratives to highlight issues of importance, which promoted dialogue with adults in audio-recorded screening discussions. The power of digital stories to mediate civic discourse with adults, and new insights like the importance of unscripted, edge spaces as spaces for young people to learn to thrive, have implications for thriving schools and cities.

Voices of young people are essential in civic discourse about thriving futures. Yet dialogue can be complicated when the experiences of adults and young people are vastly different, for example in school spaces designed by adults in cities designed for adults. Vertical, highrise inner city schools represent this intersection. A new genre of school in Australia, vertical schools symbolise aspirations for young people and livable cities as designed by adults. This paper draws from data collected in the Thriving in Vertical Schools project to explore the importance of affective learning atmospheres for students, and the value of digital stories to prompt dialogue between young people and adults. 204 secondary students created 96 one-minute digital stories about what it takes to thrive in vertical schools. A close analysis of 4 representative videos shows how students communicated a wide range of affective, embodied experiences and used the friction inherent within digital narratives to highlight issues of importance, which promoted dialogue with adults in audio-recorded screening discussions. The power of digital stories to mediate civic discourse with adults, and new insights like the importance of unscripted, edge spaces as spaces for young people to learn to thrive, have implications for thriving schools and cities.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

Prue Miles, Kylie Boltin, @spoyntz.bsky.social and Jill Willis explored how #videostorytelling could be used to convey students' #affect toward #verticalschools, informing decision-makers in the process.

Read more: tinyurl.com/y6s99nu2

17.02.2026 05:28 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
This paper positions itself within a growing body of critical scholarship on the increasing impact of private sector actors, including various types of intermediaries and brokers, on the implementation of educational technologies (ed-tech) in public schooling. While we argue that such research has been crucial in raising awareness of the many problematic effects of digitalization, we aim to challenge the implicit assumption and dichotomous narrative that casts private actors as ‘harmful’ and the public sector as inherently ‘good’. To support this argument, we present insights from interviews with (private, local, and big-tech-independent) consultancy actors involved in (digital) school development. These actors understand themselves as ‘transformative’ in the sense of being fundamentally critical of both the public and the ed-tech sector's prevalent approaches toward integrating digital technologies in schools. We use a ‘constellations of valuation’ approach to analyze consultants' narrations, disentangling their notions of non-/transformative valuations and their strategies to navigate or enact them. The findings expand existing research perspectives by highlighting the heterogeneity within the landscape of educational consultants, as – unlike common tech-solutionist approaches – ‘transformative’ consultants aim to promote more holistic, participatory, sustainable and humanistic approaches to school development in the digital age.

This paper positions itself within a growing body of critical scholarship on the increasing impact of private sector actors, including various types of intermediaries and brokers, on the implementation of educational technologies (ed-tech) in public schooling. While we argue that such research has been crucial in raising awareness of the many problematic effects of digitalization, we aim to challenge the implicit assumption and dichotomous narrative that casts private actors as ‘harmful’ and the public sector as inherently ‘good’. To support this argument, we present insights from interviews with (private, local, and big-tech-independent) consultancy actors involved in (digital) school development. These actors understand themselves as ‘transformative’ in the sense of being fundamentally critical of both the public and the ed-tech sector's prevalent approaches toward integrating digital technologies in schools. We use a ‘constellations of valuation’ approach to analyze consultants' narrations, disentangling their notions of non-/transformative valuations and their strategies to navigate or enact them. The findings expand existing research perspectives by highlighting the heterogeneity within the landscape of educational consultants, as – unlike common tech-solutionist approaches – ‘transformative’ consultants aim to promote more holistic, participatory, sustainable and humanistic approaches to school development in the digital age.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

Lucas Joecks and Sigrid Hartong investigate the role of #digital #consultants in education. Using a ‘constellations of valuation’ approach they sketch a more nuanced picture of these stakeholders than inherently 'bad'.

Read more: tinyurl.com/3ezm7p3n

16.02.2026 05:35 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
This article examines how transgender youth used virtual reality (VR) painting to critique harm and imagine more livable futures. Drawing on a 2018 linear and 360° documentary with three trans youth, I analyze their 3D VR paintings and narratives to show how they moved from recounting exclusion and constraint to envisioning futures grounded in joy, kinship, and belonging. I frame these creative acts as virtual world-becoming – a process of pivoting between lived histories and imagined futures while creating virtual worlds. The analysis brings together trans-queer phenomenologies, studies of trans joy, speculative approaches, and restorying to explore how youth storytelling resists erasure and constructs counter-narratives. While the project is presented through Big Tech infrastructures, the youths’ stories emphasized cozy, accessible, and communal technologies rather than sleek corporate futurism. Their visions highlight the importance of collective spaces where trans and queer people can thrive. This work contributes to educational research on fiction and digital media by showing how digital storytelling can function as both critique and possibility: revealing how technologies are entangled with inequities while opening space for collective imagination and trans-queer joy.

This article examines how transgender youth used virtual reality (VR) painting to critique harm and imagine more livable futures. Drawing on a 2018 linear and 360° documentary with three trans youth, I analyze their 3D VR paintings and narratives to show how they moved from recounting exclusion and constraint to envisioning futures grounded in joy, kinship, and belonging. I frame these creative acts as virtual world-becoming – a process of pivoting between lived histories and imagined futures while creating virtual worlds. The analysis brings together trans-queer phenomenologies, studies of trans joy, speculative approaches, and restorying to explore how youth storytelling resists erasure and constructs counter-narratives. While the project is presented through Big Tech infrastructures, the youths’ stories emphasized cozy, accessible, and communal technologies rather than sleek corporate futurism. Their visions highlight the importance of collective spaces where trans and queer people can thrive. This work contributes to educational research on fiction and digital media by showing how digital storytelling can function as both critique and possibility: revealing how technologies are entangled with inequities while opening space for collective imagination and trans-queer joy.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

@mxdylanp.bsky.social looked at how #transyouth used #VR painting to envision livable and joyful futures for themselves, showing how #BigTech technologies can be used "towards liberatory ends".

Read more: tinyurl.com/nkwwj38t

12.02.2026 05:47 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
In this article, we conduct a follow-up study of the smartphone application TeacherTapp. In a previous study, we analysed TeacherTapp as a multiple enactment with an emphasis on its differences across various spaces such as England/Flanders, and the multiple enactment of the app’s data streams across social media and policy documents/debates. Here, we follow up on that study by providing a spatio-temporal analysis to trace the evolution of TeacherTapp over time since our first study, and complementing it with a study of how TeacherTapp’s data streams are enacted in research. More particularly, we find that the app, as a mutable mobile, has continued its divergent enactment between localities, whilst its common core remains the same (albeit expanding in scope). In so doing, the article seeks to promote why and how follow-up studies are a necessity to understand the dynamism in digital technology, which must be understood in relation to what remains static over time. Such studies, we argue, are not done enough in critical educational technology (edtech) studies, but they ought to be.

In this article, we conduct a follow-up study of the smartphone application TeacherTapp. In a previous study, we analysed TeacherTapp as a multiple enactment with an emphasis on its differences across various spaces such as England/Flanders, and the multiple enactment of the app’s data streams across social media and policy documents/debates. Here, we follow up on that study by providing a spatio-temporal analysis to trace the evolution of TeacherTapp over time since our first study, and complementing it with a study of how TeacherTapp’s data streams are enacted in research. More particularly, we find that the app, as a mutable mobile, has continued its divergent enactment between localities, whilst its common core remains the same (albeit expanding in scope). In so doing, the article seeks to promote why and how follow-up studies are a necessity to understand the dynamism in digital technology, which must be understood in relation to what remains static over time. Such studies, we argue, are not done enough in critical educational technology (edtech) studies, but they ought to be.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

@helgetun.bsky.social and Mathias Decuypere present a spatio-temporal analysis of #TeacherTapp. Most notably they look at how the app's #data streams are enacted differently over time and depending on geographic location.

Read more (🔓):
tinyurl.com/mrxk5n2e

10.02.2026 02:46 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Digitally enabled technologies and pedagogies, including the use of AI technologies, have become integral to higher education. Despite this, online teaching continues to give rise to particularly strong and variable affective responses, responses which orient the academics who feel them towards possible futures, whether desired or feared. In this paper, we consider what affective imaginaries might be informing the future of online teaching within higher education. We describe four affective stances which we interpret from our interviews with influential senior academics in Australia and the United Kingdom, and reflect on how affective imaginaries of online learning may be speaking academic practice into being. We conclude that giving legitimacy to the affective may support the collective potential of academics to mobilise their visions and hopes for higher education going forward.

Digitally enabled technologies and pedagogies, including the use of AI technologies, have become integral to higher education. Despite this, online teaching continues to give rise to particularly strong and variable affective responses, responses which orient the academics who feel them towards possible futures, whether desired or feared. In this paper, we consider what affective imaginaries might be informing the future of online teaching within higher education. We describe four affective stances which we interpret from our interviews with influential senior academics in Australia and the United Kingdom, and reflect on how affective imaginaries of online learning may be speaking academic practice into being. We conclude that giving legitimacy to the affective may support the collective potential of academics to mobilise their visions and hopes for higher education going forward.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

Rosalyn Black, Ceridwen Owen, @margaretbea.bsky.social and Rola Ajjawi analyse 4 influential academics'
#affectiveimaginaries of #onlineteaching in #highered.

Read more: tinyurl.com/79th3wc8

04.02.2026 06:06 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Digital play is a pedagogical construct used to explain children’s engagement with digital technologies. Much of the digital play literature draws upon theories of play derived from a time of pre-digitality in which play is understood as a central mode of learning. A more recent, but under-used, theoretical construct in digital play literature is that of technical code from critical constructivism. Technical code explains how alternative knowledge sources can be used to expand digital understandings in practice. Expanded knowledge in practice is represented within cultural-historical thinking as new cultural formations – or ways of thinking and doing. While digital play remains a dominant pedagogical construct, it is unclear how digital learning is understood by teachers, beyond a reliance on theories of play. This paper reports on a two-year collaborative project conducted with teachers working in the early years of schooling alongside three university-based researchers. Teachers and researchers used philosophy of technology, focusing on critical constructivism, as an alternative knowledge source to theories of play to expand digital play as a technical code. Findings showed that the teachers generated three new cultural formations related to the ‘digital’ aspect of digital play, including (1) cyber-safety; (2) networked technologies; and (3) creativity.

Digital play is a pedagogical construct used to explain children’s engagement with digital technologies. Much of the digital play literature draws upon theories of play derived from a time of pre-digitality in which play is understood as a central mode of learning. A more recent, but under-used, theoretical construct in digital play literature is that of technical code from critical constructivism. Technical code explains how alternative knowledge sources can be used to expand digital understandings in practice. Expanded knowledge in practice is represented within cultural-historical thinking as new cultural formations – or ways of thinking and doing. While digital play remains a dominant pedagogical construct, it is unclear how digital learning is understood by teachers, beyond a reliance on theories of play. This paper reports on a two-year collaborative project conducted with teachers working in the early years of schooling alongside three university-based researchers. Teachers and researchers used philosophy of technology, focusing on critical constructivism, as an alternative knowledge source to theories of play to expand digital play as a technical code. Findings showed that the teachers generated three new cultural formations related to the ‘digital’ aspect of digital play, including (1) cyber-safety; (2) networked technologies; and (3) creativity.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

Suzy Edwards, Louise Paatsch, Honor Mackley, Jacqui Jarvis, Martin Thomson, Courtney Mogensen, Claire Lay and Nichola Mead discuss how #criticalconstructivism can be used to theorise #digitalplay in the early years of #primaryschool.

Read more: tinyurl.com/48bkbcym

23.01.2026 04:37 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
This study critically explored the impact of learning analytics on students’ subjectivities in higher education. We introduce the perspective of algorithmic governmentality as a novel analytical lens for critical research in learning analytics, offering empirical insights into how students internalise, question or subvert subtle forms of technological guidance. Using a mixed qualitative methodology, we investigated the narratives of 103 students in a master’s programme in business education at an Austrian university. The study revealed fundamental ambivalences in students’ modes of subjectivation, oscillating between enthusiasm as well as resignation and anxiety. The introduction of learning analytics tends to result in a circumvention of reflexivity and an activation of self-regulation, which aligns students’ behaviours with data-driven norms. This engenders a restriction on the scope of action and the (re)production of educational inequalities. Conversely, this study indicates potential avenues for disruption and reflexive enquiry through students’ critical engagement with learning analytics.

This study critically explored the impact of learning analytics on students’ subjectivities in higher education. We introduce the perspective of algorithmic governmentality as a novel analytical lens for critical research in learning analytics, offering empirical insights into how students internalise, question or subvert subtle forms of technological guidance. Using a mixed qualitative methodology, we investigated the narratives of 103 students in a master’s programme in business education at an Austrian university. The study revealed fundamental ambivalences in students’ modes of subjectivation, oscillating between enthusiasm as well as resignation and anxiety. The introduction of learning analytics tends to result in a circumvention of reflexivity and an activation of self-regulation, which aligns students’ behaviours with data-driven norms. This engenders a restriction on the scope of action and the (re)production of educational inequalities. Conversely, this study indicates potential avenues for disruption and reflexive enquiry through students’ critical engagement with learning analytics.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

Drawing on #Foucault, Hannes Hautz and Silvia Lipp discuss how students internalise (and resist) the #algorithmic #governance of #learninganalytics, marked by self-optimisation, nudging, and standardised metrics.

Read more: tinyurl.com/4t8v72sx

21.01.2026 23:31 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
The creative industries are shifting rapidly with the emergence of generative AI technologies. These transitions provide new opportunities for young people entering higher education in the creative industries, while perpetuating existing patterns of extraction and marginalisation under late capitalism. This article turns to the algorithmic arts in search of counter-practices that disrupt instrumental applications of AI within creative industries and higher education. Bringing the philosophy of technology into conversation with education and the digital arts, the authors identify three tactics to inform educational design with AI: (1) continuous mattering between algorithms and world; (2) playing with algorithmic assemblages; and (3) ethics-in-formation. The article builds on these critical tactics to inform the development of AI-powered software for navigating education and work futures in Southeast Asia. By situating generative AI within broader assemblages of human relationships with algorithms, the article offers critical interpretations of AI and its situated design implications for the creative industries and higher education.

The creative industries are shifting rapidly with the emergence of generative AI technologies. These transitions provide new opportunities for young people entering higher education in the creative industries, while perpetuating existing patterns of extraction and marginalisation under late capitalism. This article turns to the algorithmic arts in search of counter-practices that disrupt instrumental applications of AI within creative industries and higher education. Bringing the philosophy of technology into conversation with education and the digital arts, the authors identify three tactics to inform educational design with AI: (1) continuous mattering between algorithms and world; (2) playing with algorithmic assemblages; and (3) ethics-in-formation. The article builds on these critical tactics to inform the development of AI-powered software for navigating education and work futures in Southeast Asia. By situating generative AI within broader assemblages of human relationships with algorithms, the article offers critical interpretations of AI and its situated design implications for the creative industries and higher education.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

David Rousell, Bixiao Zhang, Seth Brown, Susan Rook, Jonathan J. Felix, Bonnie Lester, Zihua Wu, and Ha Mi Tran-Dinh shed a light on practices challenging instrumental use of #AI in the #creativeindustry and in #education.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/3uk6ma72

21.01.2026 23:08 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers potential benefits for students with hidden disabilities like dyslexia but also risks exacerbating inequities due to digital poverty and commercial bias. This paper explores how commercial interests shape access to AI tools for students with dyslexia. Using the social model of disability, we critique how commercial influences shape access to assistive AI technologies through four speculative scenarios. The first scenario highlights exploitative commercial practices driving inequities, the second inadequate institutional policies failing to address digital poverty, the third insufficient accountability among developers prioritizing profit over fairness, and fourth weak government oversight lacking safeguards against commercial bias. We advocate for inclusive AI governance that recognizes the interconnected dynamics of human, technological, and commercial power to promote equitable access for students with disabilities, drawing on the social model of disability and Australia's Voluntary AI Safety Standards. While situated in the Australian context, the analysis contributes to global discussions on the role of AI in creating accessible learning environments. We argue that inclusive AI governance must address the entangled roles of human, computational, and commercial power to ensure accessibility for students with disabilities.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers potential benefits for students with hidden disabilities like dyslexia but also risks exacerbating inequities due to digital poverty and commercial bias. This paper explores how commercial interests shape access to AI tools for students with dyslexia. Using the social model of disability, we critique how commercial influences shape access to assistive AI technologies through four speculative scenarios. The first scenario highlights exploitative commercial practices driving inequities, the second inadequate institutional policies failing to address digital poverty, the third insufficient accountability among developers prioritizing profit over fairness, and fourth weak government oversight lacking safeguards against commercial bias. We advocate for inclusive AI governance that recognizes the interconnected dynamics of human, technological, and commercial power to promote equitable access for students with disabilities, drawing on the social model of disability and Australia's Voluntary AI Safety Standards. While situated in the Australian context, the analysis contributes to global discussions on the role of AI in creating accessible learning environments. We argue that inclusive AI governance must address the entangled roles of human, computational, and commercial power to ensure accessibility for students with disabilities.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

Using four speculative scenarios Bec Marland and @arantes.bsky.social look at the ways in which commercial interests affect access to #AI applications used to support #students with #dyslexia.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/5yz85nwd

09.01.2026 05:01 — 👍 7    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Extant research on teacher social media influencers tends to either describe influencer accounts and culture, or critique the intense neoliberal, capitalistic sensibilities promoted by teacher influencers. This paper takes a new theoretical lens, applying Erica Burman’s (Burman, E. 2019. “Child as Method and/as Childism: Conceptual – Political Intersections and Tensions.” Children & Society; Burman, E. 2022. Child as Method: Othering, Interiority and Materialism. New York: Routledge) ‘child as method’ approach to an analysis of three popular US teacher influencers on Instagram. My study of approximately one thousand teacher influencer posts from 2023 to 2024 reveals a striking absence of the child as a figure on teacher Instagram, even apart from privacy concerns about showing specific children. I offer various interpretations of this absence and I also show that when the child is recruited as part of teacher influencer identity, they are represented in very particular ways. Most notably, the child is shown as a threat or irritant but is also figured as someone in need of protection. I discuss how the platform of Instagram is particularly meaningful in terms of perpetuating social constructs of childhood because of its ubiquity, rapid-fire updates, and combination of visual, auditory, and textual material. The paper closes with implications for future research and teacher education.

Extant research on teacher social media influencers tends to either describe influencer accounts and culture, or critique the intense neoliberal, capitalistic sensibilities promoted by teacher influencers. This paper takes a new theoretical lens, applying Erica Burman’s (Burman, E. 2019. “Child as Method and/as Childism: Conceptual – Political Intersections and Tensions.” Children & Society; Burman, E. 2022. Child as Method: Othering, Interiority and Materialism. New York: Routledge) ‘child as method’ approach to an analysis of three popular US teacher influencers on Instagram. My study of approximately one thousand teacher influencer posts from 2023 to 2024 reveals a striking absence of the child as a figure on teacher Instagram, even apart from privacy concerns about showing specific children. I offer various interpretations of this absence and I also show that when the child is recruited as part of teacher influencer identity, they are represented in very particular ways. Most notably, the child is shown as a threat or irritant but is also figured as someone in need of protection. I discuss how the platform of Instagram is particularly meaningful in terms of perpetuating social constructs of childhood because of its ubiquity, rapid-fire updates, and combination of visual, auditory, and textual material. The paper closes with implications for future research and teacher education.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

Clio Stearns investigates the way in which the #child is recruited by teacher #influencers on #Instagram as part of their identity. While mostly absent, the child is framed both as a threat and something in need of protection.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/3tt7rmhu

07.01.2026 05:31 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1
Future challenges for critical research on educational technologies Editorial by Felicitas Macgilchrist, Luci Pangrazio, John Potter and Ben Williamson Learning, Media and Technology has sought to be the leading journal for critical research on educational technologies for 20 years, so as we now move into the late 2020s it’s a good opportunity to reflect on events like CSET and ECCES, as well as the current context, and surface some key challenges for researchers. Each of the present editors has reflected on their experiences at either CSET, ECCES, or both, and we offer here four challenges for researchers to address in coming years.

Future challenges for critical research on educational technologies Editorial by Felicitas Macgilchrist, Luci Pangrazio, John Potter and Ben Williamson Learning, Media and Technology has sought to be the leading journal for critical research on educational technologies for 20 years, so as we now move into the late 2020s it’s a good opportunity to reflect on events like CSET and ECCES, as well as the current context, and surface some key challenges for researchers. Each of the present editors has reflected on their experiences at either CSET, ECCES, or both, and we offer here four challenges for researchers to address in coming years.

🟨Volume 50, Issue 4 (2025) of LMT🟪

In this editorial for our new issue, @discoursology.bsky.social, @lucipangrazio.bsky.social, @johnpp.bsky.social & @benpatrickwill.bsky.social reflect on the current moment of critical research on educational technologies.

Read all articles: tinyurl.com/5ewyb9fn

29.12.2025 14:39 — 👍 8    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0
What is the problem with generative artificial intelligence in higher education? – a critical analysis of educator responsibility in the Swedish policy landscape by Elin Sporrong, Cormac McGrath, Olga Viberg and Teresa Cerratto Pargman ABSTRACT The widespread integration of Generative AI (GenAI) tools in higher education has compelled universities to develop policies for responsible GenAI use. As educators play a pivotal role in enacting policy in teaching and assessment practices, we conducted a policy study to critically examine how educator responsibility is articulated in this evolving landscape. Approaching policy discursively, we drew on Bacchi’s what’s-the-problem-represented-to-be approach and examined problems and assumptions represented in policy solutions targeting educators. Through the analysis of 37 policy documents collected nationwide from 14 out of a total of 18 Swedish universities, the study identified three overarching themes of problematisations. Specifically, we found represented problems pertaining to (i) threats to educational practices, (ii) concerns that higher education is falling behind, and (iii) the obscure role of GenAI in higher education. Underpinned by assumptions of the inevitability and solutionist nature of GenAI, and educators’ roles in addressing challenges associated with GenAI use, we identify that policies frame educator responsibility as multidimensional, under revision and key in safeguarding educational values. The study contributes insights on potential discursive shifts regarding educator responsibility in light of GenAI and highlights the need for careful deliberation concerning GenAI-mediated responsibility in higher education governance.

What is the problem with generative artificial intelligence in higher education? – a critical analysis of educator responsibility in the Swedish policy landscape by Elin Sporrong, Cormac McGrath, Olga Viberg and Teresa Cerratto Pargman ABSTRACT The widespread integration of Generative AI (GenAI) tools in higher education has compelled universities to develop policies for responsible GenAI use. As educators play a pivotal role in enacting policy in teaching and assessment practices, we conducted a policy study to critically examine how educator responsibility is articulated in this evolving landscape. Approaching policy discursively, we drew on Bacchi’s what’s-the-problem-represented-to-be approach and examined problems and assumptions represented in policy solutions targeting educators. Through the analysis of 37 policy documents collected nationwide from 14 out of a total of 18 Swedish universities, the study identified three overarching themes of problematisations. Specifically, we found represented problems pertaining to (i) threats to educational practices, (ii) concerns that higher education is falling behind, and (iii) the obscure role of GenAI in higher education. Underpinned by assumptions of the inevitability and solutionist nature of GenAI, and educators’ roles in addressing challenges associated with GenAI use, we identify that policies frame educator responsibility as multidimensional, under revision and key in safeguarding educational values. The study contributes insights on potential discursive shifts regarding educator responsibility in light of GenAI and highlights the need for careful deliberation concerning GenAI-mediated responsibility in higher education governance.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

By examining Swedish GenAI policies, this study by @sporrong.bsky.social, McGrath, Viberg & Cerratto Pargman provides insights into how policy problems and solutions contribute to constructing discourses of educator responsibility.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/2r7pupvf

29.12.2025 14:25 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Automating the learner: behavioural biometrics, inference, and the new visibility in education by Sandra Leaton Gray ABSTRACT This article examines the rise of biometric technologies that aim to interpret learners’ behaviour through automated facial, postural and attentional analysis. These systems are increasingly embedded in classrooms, platforms and assessment environments, offering institutions a stream of data about how learners appear to feel, engage or deviate. The paper introduces the concept of biometric behavioural legibility to describe the process by which learners’ bodies are made visible to automated systems, and through which institutional judgements are generated. Drawing on theories of datafication, platform governance and the sociology of the body, the analysis shows how these systems do not merely observe, but actively construct which forms of embodiment are intelligible, actionable and institutionally permissible. The article traces the infrastructural, pedagogical and ethical implications of this shift, arguing that such systems produce a narrowing of professional judgement and redefine learning as a machine-readable performance. The article introduces a conceptual framework that identifies the modes through which biometric inference is rendered institutionally actionable, offering a critical heuristic for scholars and practitioners concerned with the governance of learning. It concludes by calling for critical re-specification of what educational systems count as visibility, care and knowledge.

Automating the learner: behavioural biometrics, inference, and the new visibility in education by Sandra Leaton Gray ABSTRACT This article examines the rise of biometric technologies that aim to interpret learners’ behaviour through automated facial, postural and attentional analysis. These systems are increasingly embedded in classrooms, platforms and assessment environments, offering institutions a stream of data about how learners appear to feel, engage or deviate. The paper introduces the concept of biometric behavioural legibility to describe the process by which learners’ bodies are made visible to automated systems, and through which institutional judgements are generated. Drawing on theories of datafication, platform governance and the sociology of the body, the analysis shows how these systems do not merely observe, but actively construct which forms of embodiment are intelligible, actionable and institutionally permissible. The article traces the infrastructural, pedagogical and ethical implications of this shift, arguing that such systems produce a narrowing of professional judgement and redefine learning as a machine-readable performance. The article introduces a conceptual framework that identifies the modes through which biometric inference is rendered institutionally actionable, offering a critical heuristic for scholars and practitioners concerned with the governance of learning. It concludes by calling for critical re-specification of what educational systems count as visibility, care and knowledge.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study @drleatongray.bsky.social argues that the institutional adoption of biometric technologies must be critically and thoughtfully specified, which means asking not only whether a system works, but what it demands to see.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/3eddr8a2

29.12.2025 14:14 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Podcasting as critical praxis: fostering equity through arts-Based teacher inquiry by Donna Wake ABSTRACT This qualitative case study explored how podcast creation supported twenty K-12 teacher-researchers in developing culturally sustaining pedagogical practices within a graduate course on culturally responsive teaching. Grounded in culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) and equity literacy frameworks, the study analyzed how podcasting functions as embodied inquiry that fosters critical reflection and amplifies community-based counternarratives. Participants produced five-episode podcast series addressing educational equity through interviews with students, families, and educators in their local contexts. Data sources included the podcast series, weekly peer and instructor feedback, final reflections, and a member-checking focus group. Findings revealed two themes: (1) podcast creation engaged participants emotionally, affectively, and intellectually as embodied inquiry that transcended traditional research methods, and (2) the dialogic process deepened participants’ understanding of culturally sustaining practices through critical examination of positionality, development of asset-based perspectives, advocacy for systemic change, and relationships with families and communities. The study demonstrates how arts-based, community-engaged inquiry methods can support educators in developing critical consciousness, challenge systemic inequities and honor students’ and families’ cultural identities and practices.

Podcasting as critical praxis: fostering equity through arts-Based teacher inquiry by Donna Wake ABSTRACT This qualitative case study explored how podcast creation supported twenty K-12 teacher-researchers in developing culturally sustaining pedagogical practices within a graduate course on culturally responsive teaching. Grounded in culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) and equity literacy frameworks, the study analyzed how podcasting functions as embodied inquiry that fosters critical reflection and amplifies community-based counternarratives. Participants produced five-episode podcast series addressing educational equity through interviews with students, families, and educators in their local contexts. Data sources included the podcast series, weekly peer and instructor feedback, final reflections, and a member-checking focus group. Findings revealed two themes: (1) podcast creation engaged participants emotionally, affectively, and intellectually as embodied inquiry that transcended traditional research methods, and (2) the dialogic process deepened participants’ understanding of culturally sustaining practices through critical examination of positionality, development of asset-based perspectives, advocacy for systemic change, and relationships with families and communities. The study demonstrates how arts-based, community-engaged inquiry methods can support educators in developing critical consciousness, challenge systemic inequities and honor students’ and families’ cultural identities and practices.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study Wake demonstrates how podcast creation engaged participants emotionally, intellectually, and relationally while deepening their understanding of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP).

Read more: tinyurl.com/bdu6dxc5

29.12.2025 14:05 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Listen up!: game jams as spaces of pedagogical rupture, counterstorytelling and youth agency by Ezequiel Aleman, Michael Brown and Ethan Ruchotzke ABSTRACT This study explores how middle school youth engage in collaborative game design to question and reimagine the social structures that shape their everyday educational experiences. Conducted through a multi-day game jam, the project invited participants to create digital games that reflected their lived realities and challenged dominant narratives in schooling. Guided by the concept of pedagogical ruptures, understood as moments in which learners disrupt normative ways of knowing and open possibilities for critical reflection, the study examines how game design becomes a site for counterstorytelling through procedural rhetoric. Through qualitative analysis of student-created games, observations, and reflections, the findings show that youth used game mechanics such as loops, limited choices, and unwinnable scenarios to express feelings of constraint, critique authority, and reconfigure their sense of agency. These design choices operated as counterstories that exposed tensions within educational systems while envisioning alternative futures. The study argues that game jams can serve as spaces for pedagogical rupture, linking creativity and computation with acts of critique and social imagination.

Listen up!: game jams as spaces of pedagogical rupture, counterstorytelling and youth agency by Ezequiel Aleman, Michael Brown and Ethan Ruchotzke ABSTRACT This study explores how middle school youth engage in collaborative game design to question and reimagine the social structures that shape their everyday educational experiences. Conducted through a multi-day game jam, the project invited participants to create digital games that reflected their lived realities and challenged dominant narratives in schooling. Guided by the concept of pedagogical ruptures, understood as moments in which learners disrupt normative ways of knowing and open possibilities for critical reflection, the study examines how game design becomes a site for counterstorytelling through procedural rhetoric. Through qualitative analysis of student-created games, observations, and reflections, the findings show that youth used game mechanics such as loops, limited choices, and unwinnable scenarios to express feelings of constraint, critique authority, and reconfigure their sense of agency. These design choices operated as counterstories that exposed tensions within educational systems while envisioning alternative futures. The study argues that game jams can serve as spaces for pedagogical rupture, linking creativity and computation with acts of critique and social imagination.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study Aleman, Brown & Ruchotzke engage with ruptures as an analytical tool to inform pedagogical decisions that could help educators guide youth’s reflections and behaviors toward collective transformation.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/4tpe9k8h

29.12.2025 13:54 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
‘Visual White noise’? Stock photo literacies in English education by Lucinda McKnight, Cara Shipp, Leon Furze and Chris Zomer ABSTRACT This article, authored by White European/Australian and First Nations collaborators, addresses an under-recognised and under-researched digital literacy, the capacity to create, use and critique contemporary digital stock photography. Interest in this medium emerges from an Australian study of the teaching of digital writing in secondary English classes, and the development of a writing lab website incorporating images. We propose that researching and studying stock photography demonstrates the complexity of culturally sensitive and respectful digital writing practices. While seeming banal and every day, stock photography provides an accessible example of the ideological powers and potential harms of images deployed at scale by digital platforms. Given the ubiquity of such imagery in society, and the ubiquity of camera technologies, we also reflect on education’s enduring resistance to media studies and other paradigms that seek to develop understanding of digital photography, in use, in the world.

‘Visual White noise’? Stock photo literacies in English education by Lucinda McKnight, Cara Shipp, Leon Furze and Chris Zomer ABSTRACT This article, authored by White European/Australian and First Nations collaborators, addresses an under-recognised and under-researched digital literacy, the capacity to create, use and critique contemporary digital stock photography. Interest in this medium emerges from an Australian study of the teaching of digital writing in secondary English classes, and the development of a writing lab website incorporating images. We propose that researching and studying stock photography demonstrates the complexity of culturally sensitive and respectful digital writing practices. While seeming banal and every day, stock photography provides an accessible example of the ideological powers and potential harms of images deployed at scale by digital platforms. Given the ubiquity of such imagery in society, and the ubiquity of camera technologies, we also reflect on education’s enduring resistance to media studies and other paradigms that seek to develop understanding of digital photography, in use, in the world.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study McKnight, Shipp, @leonfurze.com & @chriszomer.bsky.social find that stock photography’s process of ‘turning humans into vaguely human-shaped ideas’ needs to be negotiated carefully as a vital component of digital writing.

Read more: tinyurl.com/4te7nszr

29.12.2025 13:42 — 👍 6    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
Stories we make: speculative fiction and rememorative futures in civic learning by Ezequiel Aleman and Ricardo Martinez ABSTRACT This study examines how autobiographical narratives and speculative fiction from a group of teachers shaped the design of an alternate-reality game (ARG). Drawing from educators’ lived experiences as youth during and after Uruguay’s military dictatorship (1973–1984), the project explored how rememorative storytelling informed the speculative worldbuilding that later guided the creation of a critical data literacy game-based curriculum. This paper focuses on the collaborative narrative co-design process through which educators and the researcher co-produced the fictional world that would later underpin the game design. Educators’ rememorative narratives re-activated memories of fear, resistance, and collective belonging, which became central themes in the fictional world they later created. These stories enabled educators to reframe their past civic experiences as resources for imagining equitable digital futures for youth. Through this intergenerational narrative process, speculative fiction functioned as both a pedagogical and design tool, thus transforming personal memories into civic imaginaries.

Stories we make: speculative fiction and rememorative futures in civic learning by Ezequiel Aleman and Ricardo Martinez ABSTRACT This study examines how autobiographical narratives and speculative fiction from a group of teachers shaped the design of an alternate-reality game (ARG). Drawing from educators’ lived experiences as youth during and after Uruguay’s military dictatorship (1973–1984), the project explored how rememorative storytelling informed the speculative worldbuilding that later guided the creation of a critical data literacy game-based curriculum. This paper focuses on the collaborative narrative co-design process through which educators and the researcher co-produced the fictional world that would later underpin the game design. Educators’ rememorative narratives re-activated memories of fear, resistance, and collective belonging, which became central themes in the fictional world they later created. These stories enabled educators to reframe their past civic experiences as resources for imagining equitable digital futures for youth. Through this intergenerational narrative process, speculative fiction functioned as both a pedagogical and design tool, thus transforming personal memories into civic imaginaries.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study Aleman & Martinez examine the use of Nayah-Irú curriculum, an alternate-reality game, that promotes youth (re)mapping of digital platforms and their relationship with data in a critical data literacy curriculum.

Read more: tinyurl.com/mr3z5sc9

29.12.2025 13:29 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
The form and function of education fiction: a design heuristic to foster convivial forms of inquiry by Adam Matthews and Charlie Davis ABSTRACT The production of education fiction fosters social inquiry to imagine more equitable and socially just education futures. To support these claims, we reflect on our work developing character-based stories representing aspects of what it might mean to become an academic of working-class heritage and propose a design heuristic for creators and analysts of education fiction. We consider the relationship between form and function; encoding (making) and decoding (interpreting) to explore the affordances of education fiction as both process and material product. The design heuristic is conceptually grounded in our own projects, and is informed by media and cultural studies, the broader humanities and education. Our work illustrates how the design heuristic can be used as a prompting device in both the analysis and creation of education fiction. We argue that the design heuristic supports people to convivially work and live with difference to imagine more inclusive education futures through education fiction projects.

The form and function of education fiction: a design heuristic to foster convivial forms of inquiry by Adam Matthews and Charlie Davis ABSTRACT The production of education fiction fosters social inquiry to imagine more equitable and socially just education futures. To support these claims, we reflect on our work developing character-based stories representing aspects of what it might mean to become an academic of working-class heritage and propose a design heuristic for creators and analysts of education fiction. We consider the relationship between form and function; encoding (making) and decoding (interpreting) to explore the affordances of education fiction as both process and material product. The design heuristic is conceptually grounded in our own projects, and is informed by media and cultural studies, the broader humanities and education. Our work illustrates how the design heuristic can be used as a prompting device in both the analysis and creation of education fiction. We argue that the design heuristic supports people to convivially work and live with difference to imagine more inclusive education futures through education fiction projects.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study @adam-matthews-bham.bsky.social & Davies present the design heuristic to guide producers and researchers to consider relationships between form and function when creating education fiction.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/bdhk4n49

29.11.2025 10:19 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Stories from the future of lifelong learning: fiction, technology and speculative pedagogies by Jen Ross ABSTRACT Speculative fiction approaches have been growing in importance in educational futures research over the past decade, but the speculative work of students themselves has been relatively neglected, and pedagogical approaches for fostering divergent thinking in this work has been under-explored. This article makes the case that attention to university students’ creative and critical engagements with speculative fiction writing has much to reveal about possible futures for educational technology, and the nature of speculative pedagogies. Focusing on a case study of an assessment design that engaged speculatively with the future of lifelong learning and the practice of heritage thinking, it examines the nature of technology in students’ fictions about lifelong learning. It argues that bringing heritage thinking together with speculative fiction-writing can help unsettle the landscape of digital futures by counteracting the closures and static visions of technology futures that dominate educational discourses.

Stories from the future of lifelong learning: fiction, technology and speculative pedagogies by Jen Ross ABSTRACT Speculative fiction approaches have been growing in importance in educational futures research over the past decade, but the speculative work of students themselves has been relatively neglected, and pedagogical approaches for fostering divergent thinking in this work has been under-explored. This article makes the case that attention to university students’ creative and critical engagements with speculative fiction writing has much to reveal about possible futures for educational technology, and the nature of speculative pedagogies. Focusing on a case study of an assessment design that engaged speculatively with the future of lifelong learning and the practice of heritage thinking, it examines the nature of technology in students’ fictions about lifelong learning. It argues that bringing heritage thinking together with speculative fiction-writing can help unsettle the landscape of digital futures by counteracting the closures and static visions of technology futures that dominate educational discourses.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this paper @jenr.bsky.social explores how the use of speculative pedagogy to support students’ speculative fictions can help keep digital education futures open.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/45k2urwk

29.11.2025 10:06 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Relational dynamics at the intersection of technology and higher education: perspectives on GenAI use among humanities master’s students by Ani Encheva , Karin van Es and Dennis Nguyen ABSTRACT The rapid uptake of generative AI (GenAI) tools in academic contexts has prompted a wave of responses regarding pedagogical reconfiguration, assessment, shifting academic norms, values, and practices. While scholarly discourse increasingly examines the benefits, limitations, and ethical implications of GenAI in higher education, students’ perspectives remain underrepresented and often limited to survey-based research focused on academic integrity and plagiarism. To gain a deeper understanding of the multifaceted role GenAI plays in students’ academic lives, this study draws on 14 semi-structured interviews with Humanities (Research) Master’s students at a major Dutch university and is guided by the following research question: How do students navigate their use of GenAI tools in academic contexts? The findings reveal critical self-reflections on skills development, learning trajectories, and the institution’s role in shaping their perspectives, decision-making, and lived experiences. We find that students do not accept GenAI’s role in education as a fait accompli, but instead actively engage in boundary-making practices and legitimization strategies in context-dependent, reflective, and relational ways. These insights serve as a critical counterpoint to dominant techno-solutionist and technologically deterministic discourses, drawing attention to the need for ethical guidelines grounded in the relational dynamics at the intersection of technology and higher education.

Relational dynamics at the intersection of technology and higher education: perspectives on GenAI use among humanities master’s students by Ani Encheva , Karin van Es and Dennis Nguyen ABSTRACT The rapid uptake of generative AI (GenAI) tools in academic contexts has prompted a wave of responses regarding pedagogical reconfiguration, assessment, shifting academic norms, values, and practices. While scholarly discourse increasingly examines the benefits, limitations, and ethical implications of GenAI in higher education, students’ perspectives remain underrepresented and often limited to survey-based research focused on academic integrity and plagiarism. To gain a deeper understanding of the multifaceted role GenAI plays in students’ academic lives, this study draws on 14 semi-structured interviews with Humanities (Research) Master’s students at a major Dutch university and is guided by the following research question: How do students navigate their use of GenAI tools in academic contexts? The findings reveal critical self-reflections on skills development, learning trajectories, and the institution’s role in shaping their perspectives, decision-making, and lived experiences. We find that students do not accept GenAI’s role in education as a fait accompli, but instead actively engage in boundary-making practices and legitimization strategies in context-dependent, reflective, and relational ways. These insights serve as a critical counterpoint to dominant techno-solutionist and technologically deterministic discourses, drawing attention to the need for ethical guidelines grounded in the relational dynamics at the intersection of technology and higher education.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study Encheva, @kfvanes.bsky.social & Nguyen show how students navigate the impact of #GenAI on their learning experiences with awareness, reflexivity, and a high degree of personal judgment.

Read more: tinyurl.com/2xexdv83

29.11.2025 09:56 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Media literacy provision from the perspective of policymakers and civil society organisations in five areas of the UK: a case study approach by Gianfranco Polizzi, Jeanette D’Arcy, Rebecca Harris, Simeon Yates and Frances Yeoman ABSTRACT Despite efforts to promote media literacy provision (i.e., the support provided to develop people’s media literacy within and outside formal education) in the UK, this provision remains fragmented, under-supported, and under-evaluated. Employing a case study methodology, this article explores the state of media literacy policy and provision within five areas of the UK: Birmingham and the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Scotland, and Wales. Based on semi-structured interviews with policymakers and representatives of civil society organisations, key findings suggest that government bodies within all five areas have established digital inclusion networks, with media literacy provision piggybacking on these networks. While best practice is often based on forms of collaboration (e.g., to access target populations, co-design/co-deliver initiatives), significant barriers remain, including funding and the lack of an overarching framework for coordinating media literacy provision across the UK. The implications of these findings for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

Media literacy provision from the perspective of policymakers and civil society organisations in five areas of the UK: a case study approach by Gianfranco Polizzi, Jeanette D’Arcy, Rebecca Harris, Simeon Yates and Frances Yeoman ABSTRACT Despite efforts to promote media literacy provision (i.e., the support provided to develop people’s media literacy within and outside formal education) in the UK, this provision remains fragmented, under-supported, and under-evaluated. Employing a case study methodology, this article explores the state of media literacy policy and provision within five areas of the UK: Birmingham and the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Scotland, and Wales. Based on semi-structured interviews with policymakers and representatives of civil society organisations, key findings suggest that government bodies within all five areas have established digital inclusion networks, with media literacy provision piggybacking on these networks. While best practice is often based on forms of collaboration (e.g., to access target populations, co-design/co-deliver initiatives), significant barriers remain, including funding and the lack of an overarching framework for coordinating media literacy provision across the UK. The implications of these findings for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study Polizzi, D’Arcy, Harris, Yates & Yeoman show how government bodies establish formal networks relevant to #medialiteracy provision that allow stakeholders from different sectors to share knowledge and best practice.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/2s3jy6wr

28.11.2025 07:25 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Preview
Media literacy provision from the perspective of policymakers and civil society organisations in five areas of the UK: a case study approach Despite efforts to promote media literacy provision (i.e., the support provided to develop people’s media literacy within and outside formal education) in the UK, this provision remains fragmented,...

New publication in Learning, Media, and Technology from Dr. Simeon Yates, Dr. Jeanette D’Arcy, and Rebecca Harris of the department’s Digital Media and Society Institute!

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

17.11.2025 13:11 — 👍 0    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
Imagining personalisation: EdTech and the shift towards neuroliberal governance Xiaonan Huang , Hongzhi Yang and Kalervo N. Gulson ABSTRACT This paper examines how educational technology (EdTech) companies construct and promote the concept of personalisation, arguing personalisation functions less as a pedagogical innovation and more as neuroliberal governance. Drawing on a sociotechnical imaginaries approach, the paper analyses promotional materials from EDUtech Australia 2024 to explore how personalisation is framed, legitimised, and operationalised in commercial discourse. While personalisation is often associated with learner autonomy and educational equity, this analysis reveals its growing alignment with institutional efficiency, behavioural tracking and optimisation. The paper identifies five dominant imaginaries, reflecting a neuroliberal logic that privileges internalise self-governance over pedagogical depth. These imaginaries produce what we term a ‘hallucination of autonomy’: a paradoxical experience and understanding of autonomy, where users believe they are actively shaping teaching, learning and management, despite their choices appearing to be systematically pre-configured by the platforms and built into everyday educational practices. The paper concludes by highlighting the risks of neuroliberal personalisation and calls for greater scrutiny of how personalised EdTech shape the future of educational governance.

Imagining personalisation: EdTech and the shift towards neuroliberal governance Xiaonan Huang , Hongzhi Yang and Kalervo N. Gulson ABSTRACT This paper examines how educational technology (EdTech) companies construct and promote the concept of personalisation, arguing personalisation functions less as a pedagogical innovation and more as neuroliberal governance. Drawing on a sociotechnical imaginaries approach, the paper analyses promotional materials from EDUtech Australia 2024 to explore how personalisation is framed, legitimised, and operationalised in commercial discourse. While personalisation is often associated with learner autonomy and educational equity, this analysis reveals its growing alignment with institutional efficiency, behavioural tracking and optimisation. The paper identifies five dominant imaginaries, reflecting a neuroliberal logic that privileges internalise self-governance over pedagogical depth. These imaginaries produce what we term a ‘hallucination of autonomy’: a paradoxical experience and understanding of autonomy, where users believe they are actively shaping teaching, learning and management, despite their choices appearing to be systematically pre-configured by the platforms and built into everyday educational practices. The paper concludes by highlighting the risks of neuroliberal personalisation and calls for greater scrutiny of how personalised EdTech shape the future of educational governance.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study Huang, Yang & Gulson argue that rather than expanding the authorship of learning, #personalisation supplies an experience of autonomy while configuring behaviour towards efficiency, standardisation, and performance.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/5xr62ssw

28.11.2025 07:15 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
Making education manageable: school management systems and the discursive construction of data-driven classrooms by Lulu P. Shi ABSTRACT This study investigates the growing influence of school management systems in U.K. schools, focusing on how these tools discursively conceptualise core aspects of classroom education. Through a discourse analysis of school management product descriptions, this study provides insights into how management tool providers configure roles and practices in the classroom, knowledge, and social relationships. The analysis shows that, through datafication, school management systems reinforce a management-centric perspective on all aspects of education, going beyond purely administrative work. While tool providers often use language familiar to schools such as ‘community’, these terms reflect marketing strategies more than genuine efforts to foster social relations. This study provides a critical perspective on the role of school management systems in reconfiguring the classroom as a site of management.

Making education manageable: school management systems and the discursive construction of data-driven classrooms by Lulu P. Shi ABSTRACT This study investigates the growing influence of school management systems in U.K. schools, focusing on how these tools discursively conceptualise core aspects of classroom education. Through a discourse analysis of school management product descriptions, this study provides insights into how management tool providers configure roles and practices in the classroom, knowledge, and social relationships. The analysis shows that, through datafication, school management systems reinforce a management-centric perspective on all aspects of education, going beyond purely administrative work. While tool providers often use language familiar to schools such as ‘community’, these terms reflect marketing strategies more than genuine efforts to foster social relations. This study provides a critical perspective on the role of school management systems in reconfiguring the classroom as a site of management.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this study @lulushi.bsky.social examines the discourse promoted by school management system providers by analysing their websites – the outward-facing narratives intended to speak to potential buyers and users of these tools.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/5a2zdymu

23.10.2025 13:01 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Teacher agency and generative artificial intelligence: teaching in higher education as a responsive, cultural activity by Peter Kahn, Mark Carrigan, Paul Smith, Lisa Murtagh, Ruirui Liu and Fangtong Song ABSTRACT The widespread adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools by students poses a challenge to teachers in Higher Education. This study aimed to explore the nature of teacher agency in a setting where students were making extensive use of Large Language Models. The study was conducted in a research-intensive university in the UK, adopting a sequential mixed methods research design. It found that challenges entailed in university teaching can helpfully be framed in terms of a relationship between the agency of teachers and the agency of students, even as this relationship is subject to cultural influences. Given a reflexive basis for agency, this framing underscores the importance of dialogue between teachers and students, even as the uncertainty generated by Large Language Models undercuts the conditions which make the dialogue possible. The study also highlights the limitations of existing perspectives on higher education pedagogy that see the relation between teaching and learning as something primarily determined by structural considerations. It offers an original conceptualisation of higher education pedagogy that sees teacher agency as incorporating a collective response to shifts in the epistemic agency of students – in a fashion that accounts for the affordances of contemporary digital tools and expertise in their use.

Teacher agency and generative artificial intelligence: teaching in higher education as a responsive, cultural activity by Peter Kahn, Mark Carrigan, Paul Smith, Lisa Murtagh, Ruirui Liu and Fangtong Song ABSTRACT The widespread adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools by students poses a challenge to teachers in Higher Education. This study aimed to explore the nature of teacher agency in a setting where students were making extensive use of Large Language Models. The study was conducted in a research-intensive university in the UK, adopting a sequential mixed methods research design. It found that challenges entailed in university teaching can helpfully be framed in terms of a relationship between the agency of teachers and the agency of students, even as this relationship is subject to cultural influences. Given a reflexive basis for agency, this framing underscores the importance of dialogue between teachers and students, even as the uncertainty generated by Large Language Models undercuts the conditions which make the dialogue possible. The study also highlights the limitations of existing perspectives on higher education pedagogy that see the relation between teaching and learning as something primarily determined by structural considerations. It offers an original conceptualisation of higher education pedagogy that sees teacher agency as incorporating a collective response to shifts in the epistemic agency of students – in a fashion that accounts for the affordances of contemporary digital tools and expertise in their use.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this paper Kahn, Carrigan, Smith, Murtagh, Liu and Song present a project seeking to make sense of the implications for the agency of university teachers resulting from student use of LLMs in assessed work.

Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/2udbx73j

23.10.2025 12:55 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Midwifing liberatory education futures with education fiction: on the need to cultivate decolonial imagination by Shandell Houlden and George Veletsianos ABSTRACT This paper argues that for education fiction to be a valuable methodology for studying education technology and futures, it must be rooted in the context of our current era, marked by polycrisis, collapse, and the enduring influence of colonial modernity. We begin with a reflexive analysis of academic knowledge production and then explore how education fiction can inadvertently reproduce colonial logics of these contexts are ignored. Drawing on the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective’s concept of ‘hospicing modernity,’ we propose cultivating a decolonial imagination, one that holds grief, complicity, and possibility, as a strategy for midwifing liberatory education futures. We further argue that education fiction can function as a prefigurative method: a space to practice relational, decolonial ways of knowing and worldmaking. This approach is especially urgent in relation to education technologies, which remain deeply entangled with extractive systems.

Midwifing liberatory education futures with education fiction: on the need to cultivate decolonial imagination by Shandell Houlden and George Veletsianos ABSTRACT This paper argues that for education fiction to be a valuable methodology for studying education technology and futures, it must be rooted in the context of our current era, marked by polycrisis, collapse, and the enduring influence of colonial modernity. We begin with a reflexive analysis of academic knowledge production and then explore how education fiction can inadvertently reproduce colonial logics of these contexts are ignored. Drawing on the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective’s concept of ‘hospicing modernity,’ we propose cultivating a decolonial imagination, one that holds grief, complicity, and possibility, as a strategy for midwifing liberatory education futures. We further argue that education fiction can function as a prefigurative method: a space to practice relational, decolonial ways of knowing and worldmaking. This approach is especially urgent in relation to education technologies, which remain deeply entangled with extractive systems.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪

In this paper Houlden & @veletsianos.bsky.social argue that education fiction is of value insofar as it creates a space for liberation for all beings and all that supports the continuity and regeneration of life on this planet.

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17.10.2025 10:40 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0