Education Technology Society

The environmental harms associated with our tech use are becoming increasingly apparent ... so how should the ed-tech community be responding? Colm O’Neill (South East Technological University) talks about the need to rethink ed-tech in light of its environmental costs, and introduces the intriguing alternative of ‘perma-computing’. Accompanying reference >>> O’Neill, C. (2026).  EdTech as climate criminal: Considering the excesses of the ITC sector, and Higher Education’s complicity. Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning. 

Education and technology in the US is currently mired in the volatile politics of the second Trump administration. Dr. Morgan Anderson (University of Northern Iowa) reflects on the state of EdTech in the US in 2026, and highlights emerging issues that need our urgent attention. Accompanying reference >>> Anderson, M. (2022). Public education in the digital age: neoliberalism, EdTech, and the future of our schools.  Routledge

The COVID-19 pandemic was a significant turning-point in the history of ed-tech. Mark West (UNESCO) argues that we should look back on COVID remote schooling as an ‘Ed-Tech tragedy’, and use our pandemic experiences to develop radically different visions of digital education. Accompanying reference >>> West, M. (2025). An Ed-Tech tragedy? Educational technologies and school closures in the time of COVID-19. Routledge

There is growing talk about ‘AI ethics’ in education. We talk to Michał Wieczorek (University College Dublin) about how to think about tech ethics in a philosophically-grounded manner, and how much of the current push for AI in education is ethically questionable. Accompanying reference >>> Wieczorek, M., Hosseini, M., & Gordijn, B. (2025). Unpacking the ethics of using AI in primary and secondary education: a systematic literature review. AI and Ethics, 1-19.

Carlo Perrotta, researcher on education, platforms and AI, explores the surge around agentic AI and its limits. He critiques claims of fully autonomous agents and the performance of automation. He discusses hidden labour, industry hype, policy pitfalls and wider social anxieties about AI.

Efforts are growing in many countries to get devices out of classrooms and push for a general ‘de-digitisation’ of education.  Ingrid Forsler (Södertörn University) talks about recent developments in Sweden and how we can make sense of this growing turn against digital education.  Accompanying reference >>>  Forlser, I. et al.  (2025).  Hijacking the digital backlash in education.  Postdigital Science & Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-025-00601-9

We talk with legal expert Liane Colonna (Stockholm University) about the EU ‘AI Act’ and what it means for the use of AI in education. To what extent can we rely on regulation to enforce safer and more beneficial forms of AI use in education? Accompanying reference >>>  Colonna, L. (2025). Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED): Towards More Effective Regulation. European Journal of Risk Regulation, doi:10.1017/err.2025.10039 

Professor Arathi Sriprakash (University of Oxford) wants us to reimagine edtech along radically different lines.   What might digital education look like if it was based around principles of reparation, sovereignty, care and democratisation? Accompanying reference >>>  Sriprakash, A., Williamson, B., Facer, K., Pykett, J. & Valladares Celis, C. (2025) Sociodigital futures of education: reparations, sovereignty, care, and democratisation, Oxford Review of Education, 51:4, 561-578 

Philosopher Gene Flenady (Monash University) has strong reservations about the current push for GenAI into university teaching and learning. If we accept that ChatGPT is an ‘irresponsible bullshitter’ then why is it being welcomed into universities … and what can we do about it? Accompanying reference >>>  Flenady, G. & Sparrow, R. (2025). Cut the bullshit: why GenAI systems are neither collaborators nor tutors. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-10.

Niels Kerssens (Utrecht University) joins us to talk about the concept of 'platformisation' that came out of Utecht led by Jose Van Dijck in the 2010s and how this is now coming to bear on the classrooms and schools of 2025. We also talk about Niels’ new concept of ‘digital autonomy innovators’ and the growing demand for more collaborative and non-corporate forms of ed-tech.Accompanying reference >>>  Kerssens, N. & van Es, K. (2025). Fostering autonomy in the digital classroom. in Governing the digital society. (pp. 227-244). Amsterdam University Press.