This event took place on 29th June 2023

Professor Tel Amiel, University of Brasilia

Abstract

There is now significant analysis and research on the many issues that have emerged through 'big tech' platformization in public education, including threats to privacy and educational governance. Still, there is a significant gap on the availability of data on the scope of the institutional adoption of these platforms in the public sphere. To address this, the Education Under Surveillance Observatory was started in 2018. I present the methods used and the open data made available by the Observatory, including a recent analyses of tenders and contracts in Brazilian institutions which hint at how big tech uses philanthrocapitalist strategies to circumvent legal barriers and encourage platformization. Finally, I discuss how platformization advances an instrumentalist paradox: it pitches novel technologies (including Generative AI) as choice and mere tool at our disposal, while systematically diminishing teacher and institutional agency.

Biography

Tel Amiel is adjunct professor at the School of Education at the University of Brasilia (Brazil) where he coordinates the UNESCO Chair in Distance Education, and adjunct professor at University of Nova Gorica in the Leadership in Open Education program. Coordinator of the Open Education Initiative, and member of the Education Under Surveillance Observatory activist research groups.

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