Expanding (digital) access, openness and flexibility: Contradictions, complicity, costs and contestations

Paul PrinslooUniversity of South Africa (Unisa)

@14prinsp

World Conference on Online Learning: Teaching in a Digital Age Toronto, CanadaTuesday 17 October 2017

Expanding (digital) access, openness and flexibility: Contradictions, complicity, costs and contestations

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How do we understand the potential and perils of online learning in the context of the hype that online learning is, per

se, better, more equitable and the solution for the “brokenness” of education and society?

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How do we understand the potential and perils of online learning in the context of the hype that online learning is,

per se, better, more equitable and the solution for the “brokenness” of education and society?

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2011

Source credit: http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/08/28/the-digital-revolution-and-higher-education/

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Source credit: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/friedman-revolution-hits-the-universities.html

2013“Nothing has more potential to lift more

people out of poverty — by providing them an affordable education to get a job or improve in the job they have. Nothing has more potential

to unlock a billion more brains to solve the world’s biggest problems.”

Image credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13587160-to-save-everything-click-here

Morozov, E. (2013). To save everything, click here: The folly of technological solutionism. Public Affairs

“We must not fixate on what this new arsenal of digital technologies allows us to

do without first inquiring what is worth doing.”

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The tree of ‘onlife’

Online learning is “a knot of social, political, economic and cultural agendas that is riddled with complications, contradictions and conflicts”

(Selwyn, 2014, p. 6)

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The tree of ‘onlife’ is in a walled garden where access depends on your geopolitical location, your gender,

culture, capital*, data providers, infrastructure, regulatory frameworks and politics

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Image credit: http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/06/apartheids-urban-legacy-in-striking-aerial-photographs-south-africa-cities-architecture-racism/487808/

What happens when we consider digital access through the lens of intergenerational

and structural inequality?

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• More than 60% of the world is still offline (World Bank, 2016). Though access is increasing, access is embedded and often perpetuates structural inequalities based on gender, race, class/cultural formations

• 4 billion people do not have internet access, nearly 2 billion do not use a mobile phone, and almost half a billion live outside of areas with a mobile signal (World Bank, 2016)

• Some of the benefits of online learning are offset by emerging risks – polarized labor markets, rising inequality, replacing many workers, and increasing the precariousness of many others

What happens when we consider digital access as participating in and possibly even perpetuating

inequality?See Watters, A. (2016, December 21). Education technologies’ inequalities. [Web log post]. Retrieved from

http://hackeducation.com/2016/12/21/top-ed-tech-trends-inequality

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“Redlining was a term coined in the 1960s to describe the practice of denying or charging more for service to persons in certain communities—usually Black, inner-city neighborhoods—no matter how qualified the individual. The term originated since banks—then the most infamous perpetrators—would draw a red line on a map to delineate the areas they would not serve” (Prince, 2015)

Digital redlining – Digital apartheid

See Zenitha Prince (2015) http://www.afro.com/is-digital-redlining-causing-internet-caste-system/

The podcast by Chris Gilliard (2016) - http://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/digital-redlining-privacy/

Chris Gilliard (2016, May 26). Digital redlining, access, and privacy. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/privacy/blog/digital-redlining-access-privacy

“Digital justice isn't only about who has access but also about what

kind of access they have, how it’s regulated, and

how good it is” (Chris Gilliard, 2016)

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The new Jim Crow. Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness – Michelle Alexander (2012)

A digital Jim Crow. Exclusion in a networked and networking society…

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And once inside, we become the product and become digital serfs to the Not-So-

Gentle-GiantsImage credit: https://pixabay.com/en/fence-freedom-prison-hands-fingers-2163951/

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1 August 2016

Source credit: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/01/facebook-free-basics-internet-africa-mark-zuckerberg

Digital colonialism?

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Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/fence-freedom-prison-hands-fingers-2163951/Source credit: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2986988/privacy/the-price-of-free-how-apple-facebook-microsoft-and-google-sell-you-to-advertisers.html

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Referring to an essay by Douglas Rushkoff http://www.rushkoff.com/you-are-not-facebooks-customer/Joshua A T Fairfield (2017). Owned. https://www.amazon.com/Owned-Property-Privacy-Digital-Serfdom/dp/1316612201

How do we understand/scope ‘inequality’?

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Three types of inequality• Vital inequality: Life expectancy and chances of

survival directly correlates to my socio-economic class or geopolitical (dis)location

• Existential inequality: Certain categories of people are more vulnerable than others –women, blacks, LGBTQI, immigrants and refugees

• Material inequality: Individuals and communities have differentiated access to resources

Therborn, G. (2012). The killing fields of inequality. International Journal of Health Services, 42(4), 579-589.

Four mechanisms of inequality • Distantiation: Individuals/communities fall behind

through (un)intentional (in)action• Exclusion: Access and inclusion depends on a

variety of criteria, and where not everyone is included, but everyone is affected (Castells, 2009)

• Hierarchization: Hierarchies arise and are maintained

• Exploitation: Individuals and communities are exploited, often under the pretense of ‘free’

Therborn, G. (2012). The killing fields of inequality. International Journal of Health Services, 42(4), 579-589.

The “killing fields of inequality” (Therborn, 2012)The inter-generational legacy of distantiation/exclusion/ hierarchization/

exploitationThe current political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal

structuration of society

Going digital –to save everything ‘click here’

Distantiation Exclusion Hierarchization Exploitation

Vital inequality Existential inequality

Material inequality

Access Cost

Quality

Ethics

Social justice

See: Daniel, J., Kanwar, A., & Uvalić-Trumbić, S. (2010). Breaking higher education’s iron triangle: access, cost, and quality. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 41(2), 30—35. DOI: 10.3200/CHNG.41.2.30-35.

Access Cost

Quality

Ethics

Institutional access: providersStudent (no*) access

Cost of access: InstitutionCost of (no*) access: Students

How do we define quality through the

lens of addressing inequality? Whodefines quality?

Social justiceHow do we balance access with cost without compromising quality* or act unethically?

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Online learning is, for many, not the great equalizer, and may never be…

Some pointers for a way forward1. Understand the scope and mechanisms of inequality when

considering claims re the potential of online learning2. Online learning is not an unqualified good – despite our best

intentions3. Prepare students for ‘onlife’ – the need for critical capabilities

and agency4. Deepen our considerations about access, cost and quality in

the light of the “killing fields of inequality” (Therborn, 2012)5. Consider the cost of free, open and flexible6. But also the cost of not exploring openness, opening and

flexibility

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What does online learning as revolutionary, humanising, open and

flexible praxis look like?

(In)conclusion

Thank you

Paul Prinsloo Research Professor in Open Distance Learning (ODL)College of Economic and Management Sciences, Office number 3-15, Club 1, Hazelwood, P O Box 392Unisa, 0003, Republic of South Africa

T: +27 (0) 12 433 4719 (office)

[email protected] Skype: paul.prinsloo59

Personal blog: http://opendistanceteachingandlearning.wordpress.com

Twitter profile: @14prinsp

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