Lindsay Weinberg, "Smart University: Student Surveillance in the Digital Age" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2024)
Dec 21, 2024
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Lindsay Weinberg, a clinical assistant professor and Director of the Tech Justice Lab at Purdue University, dives into the complex realm of technology in higher education. She discusses how student surveillance compromises autonomy and privacy, and critiques the risks tied to automated decision-making and predictive analytics. Weinberg highlights the corporate influences that shape educational policies and the need for structural reforms to protect student rights. A riveting look at the intersection of technology and justice in academic spaces!
Lindsay Weinberg critiques how technologies like predictive analytics in smart universities exacerbate existing racial and economic biases in student recruitment processes.
The ethical implications of extensive data collection in smart universities raise serious concerns about student privacy, consent, and understanding of data usage.
Deep dives
The Rise of Smart Universities
Smart universities are characterized by an increasing reliance on digital technologies for various aspects of campus life, including student recruitment, retention, and operational efficiency. These technologies encompass predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, which aim to enhance the educational experience while addressing challenges like declining enrollment and budget constraints. However, this shift often prioritizes administrative control and efficiency over the well-being of students, potentially perpetuating biases encoded within the data used to guide these technologies. Consequently, understanding the implications of becoming a smart university involves recognizing both the opportunities and the ethical concerns tied to the integration of technology in higher education.
Impacts of Predictive Analytics on Recruitment
Predictive analytics have transformed the student recruitment process by allowing universities to identify and target potential students based on historical success data, often leading to ethical dilemmas regarding bias and discrimination. Universities, faced with declining enrollment, find themselves relying on data sets that include demographic information, online engagement, and academic performance to create 'risk scores' for prospective students. This data-driven approach can inadvertently reinforce racial and socioeconomic biases, as factors like zip codes can serve as proxies for race and class. Ultimately, the use of these analytics raises critical questions about fairness, equity, and the true motivations behind university recruitment strategies.
Challenges of Student Labels and Nudges
As institutions increasingly rely on predictive analytics, students may be labeled as 'at-risk' based on data inputs that often overlook broader systemic issues affecting their educational journey. Such labels can lead to interventions aimed at guiding students into specific programs or paths that may not align with their interests or circumstances, effectively narrowing their academic choices. This practice, along with the increasing surveillance of student behaviors, can create a stigmatizing environment that precludes consideration of the structural barriers many students face. Educators must recognize the potential harm caused by these predictive models and advocate for strategies that honor students' agency rather than constrain it.
Ethical Considerations in Data Collection
The extensive data collection inherent in smart universities raises significant ethical concerns about student privacy and consent, particularly regarding third-party vendors and educational technologies. Many students unknowingly sign agreements that grant institutions and their partners access to personal data, which can be exploited for commercial purposes, often without transparent oversight. Moreover, privacy policies tend to be complex and inaccessible, making it difficult for students to fully understand how their data is used. Therefore, a more critical approach to data ethics is needed, one that prioritizes informed consent and involves students in discussions about their data privacy rights within the academic environment.
In Smart University: Student Surveillance in the Digital Age(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024), Lindsay Weinberg evaluates how this latest era of tech solutions and systems in our schools impacts students' abilities to access opportunities and exercise autonomy on their campuses. Using historical and textual analysis of administrative discourses, university policies, conference proceedings, grant solicitations, news reports, tech industry marketing materials, and product demonstrations, Weinberg argues that these more recent transformations are best understood as part of a longer history of universities supporting the development of technologies that reproduce racial and economic injustice on their campuses and in their communities.
Mentioned in this episode is this piece that Dr. Weinberg wrote in Inside Higher Ed:
Lindsay Weinberg is a clinical assistant professor and the Director of the Tech Justice Lab in the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University.
Dr. Michael LaMagna is the Information Literacy Program & Library Services Coordinator and Professor of Library Services at Delaware County Community College.
