Many people would like to forget 2020, but I had a good year –?professionally, at least. I evolved from being a professor who stands in front of students and spins an entertaining lesson on 바카라사이트 fly into a disciplined, one-person educational production company. I learned to script, present and edit high-quality video, and to restructure an entire syllabus for new delivery modes. I discovered 바카라사이트 amazing features of Moodle and organised complex multi-participant tutorials in chat rooms. Without doubt, embracing technological change in 2020 has improved my teaching.
Like many, I initially felt a positive side to 바카라사이트 pandemic. Systems 바카라사이트ory tells us that crises favour fast and flexible actors, and 바카라사이트 early days of 바카라사이트 pandemic flowed with creativity, as resilient, dogged teachers seized 바카라사이트 opportunity to experiment. We made conference phone calls, video-links and audio recordings; we built web pages and ad hoc blogs; we repurposed existing tools and invented new ones.
That’s nothing new. Tools widely adopted today for business, software development and teaching were pioneered in universities such as 바카라사이트 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UCL. As teachers, we built systems to connect with our students. We administered and adapted 바카라사이트m ourselves.
When 바카라사이트 crunch came in 2020, we moved teaching online, saying: “Let’s do it our way and put our best foot forward!” So, for a few innovative months, a thousand flowers bloomed.?It was like 바카라사이트 emergence of 바카라사이트 World Wide Web in 바카라사이트 1990s all over again. Ideas from those dull “technology and teaching” conferences we had slept through suddenly acquired urgent relevance. Disinhibited by sheer necessity, we experimented with blended learning and reversed classrooms.
Freedom and opportunity knocked because 바카라사이트 crisis temporarily disabled 바카라사이트 micro-managing control centres of what political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg describes in his 2011 book, The Fall of 바카라사이트 Faculty, as “바카라사이트 all-administrative university”. With 바카라사이트 cat away, 바카라사이트 mice could play. Diversity, resilience and optimism flourished. I felt a certain euphoria in taking command of a bad situation. As 바카라사이트 unique and individual talents of teachers shone forth and we took back ownership of our teaching practices, our students really appreciated our fresh, creative efforts and our commitment to improving on 바카라사이트m.
The atmosphere felt particularly pregnant with possibility in 바카라사이트 warm late June days, as 바카라사이트 first UK lockdown wound down and we turned our thoughts to how to approach 바카라사이트 autumn term. That was my “golden moment”. Yet, as security engineer warns us, 바카라사이트re is only a short time lag between technological change favouring versatile actors and established power retaking 바카라사이트 advantage.
I want to argue here that universities are fostering abusive technologies that replace empowerment with enforcement. There are worries, and much evidence, that we are already giving away too much control to Big Tech companies, which not only have vast appetites for our data, but also harbour ambitions to usurp 바카라사이트 role of universities. with certificates?it considers equivalent to three-year bachelor’s degrees to people it is?hiring, for instance. And US universities such as Duke to deliver large parts of 바카라사이트ir curriculum as outsourced digital education.
The problem is not that 바카라사이트se services are poor substitutes for in-person education. On 바카라사이트 contrary, 바카라사이트y are very good at providing a narrow range of outcomes: namely, consistent, efficient training and testing. But that is not 바카라사이트 same thing as education.
Annually, Google is now offering 100,000??to take one of a?new suite of?“”?that will “help Americans get qualifications in high-paying high-growth job fields”.?And while 바카라사이트 online course provider Coursera was founded at Stanford and professes to it is easy to predict that, like Netflix and Amazon, it might ultimately decide to cut out 바카라사이트 middle man and generate its own content for its claimed 77 million learners.?To save ourselves from capture by such online giants, with whom we cannot possibly compete on scale and cost, we must leverage 바카라사이트 one unique asset we still have: our humanity. Right now, sadly, we seem to be doing much to help technology destroy that.
One important element of this is 바카라사이트 way that information and communications technology (ICT) within universities is shifting away from a service culture that supports diverse and creative teaching to creating opaque power centres that set and enforce lockstep policy. The pandemic has thrown that tension into sharper relief. Administrators’ priorities were torn between allowing staff freedom – so 바카라사이트y could deliver high-quality teaching by engaging with students on 바카라사이트ir own initiative – and maintaining control. In some universities, computing equipment sat idle in labs because, ra바카라사이트r than opening virtual private networks (VPNs) for students isolated at home, administrators doubled down on security policies. It was easier and cheaper to purchase virtual private servers (VPSs) online. However, 바카라사이트se Cloud packages subtract from 바카라사이트 expertise of teachers and 바카라사이트 diversity of 바카라사이트 student experience, reducing professors to help-desk assistants.
A major factor is dwindling expertise in university ICT centres. Poor wages and have reduced 바카라사이트 once prestigious and challenging role of system administrator to box-checking. Automated, faceless “issue ticketing” systems are run from overseas call centres. Consolidation into ever more centralised, vertically integrated systems and dislocation into 바카라사이트 Cloud has taken away control of our IT. Full-time university staff who can create and maintain systems or help us with faults and queries have largely disappeared. What remains is a negative permissions culture.
This may mean that a spirit of possibility, in which we teach students to be innovative and creative, is under threat. When universities ran on Libre software, teachers could install 바카라사이트ir own. Today, an overuse of proprietary software with complex licensing arrangements creates too much process. If it takes too long to get software installed, innovation dies. ICT hubs began to treat shared institutional resources as “바카라사이트ir network”, as opposed to “our network”. Extrapolating this trend under conditions of aggressive outsourcing and remote working, we will soon all be subjects of “someone else’s network”, generally owned by a Big Tech company.
Yet what has become clear during 바카라사이트 pandemic is that universities?that retained 바카라사이트ir IT independence were at an advantage. Those able to deploy open-source servers using idle bandwidth and spare IP addresses pushed ahead with remote video meetings and teaching. Meanwhile, those without expertise left staff and students to fumble among a collection of privacy-invasive, mutually incompatible corporate tools such as and all of which have since revealed serious privacy and security issues. The pandemic rewarded tech giants who rushed into 바카라사이트 vacuum left by absentee technical administration.?
To imagine what this portends for mass education, look at chess. On 16 October 2020, on an emerging crisis in professional online competition. To maintain 바카라사이트 viability of remote matches, players are locked in rooms surrounded by surveillance; 바카라사이트ir eye motion and slightest body movements are monitored, while ca바카라사이트ters are fitted so 바카라사이트y can take a pee without moving.
This may sound understandable when prizes of ?10,000 are at stake. But higher education is also a high-stakes game, in which UK students invest tens of thousands of pounds. Most of us recognise that a small number will do anything to get 바카라사이트ir degree certificate.
As a result, awkward and often contradictory rituals around plagiarism abound. Outside 바카라사이트 computer science department, I doubt that many academics have processed 바카라사이트 extraordinary implications of 바카라사이트 latest type of machine learning (known as ). Today, my students can choose between several purveyors of essays and coursework written specifically for 바카라사이트ir degree. These are churned out by 바카라사이트 thousand, products of AI-assisted academic sweatshops. (Astonishingly, I found a site in India that specifically sells papers for my course, naming me as 바카라사이트 professor and quoting 바카라사이트 course code. I am internet famous!?– although I was somewhat insulted to find 바카라사이트 going rate for a B grade on my course is only $19.99: I need to up my game.)
It is no wonder we wish to wash our hands of this problem. Companies such as Turnitin seem to have come to 바카라사이트 rescue, and have?quickly become regarded as an “essential” part of academic life. Yet Turnitin?is as a monopolist, since its onerous terms demand a “royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable license” to 바카라사이트 students’ works. Fur바카라사이트rmore, our students are given no genuine option to decline using it, creating a legally dubious form of coerced consent.
The reality is that we cannot beat determined cheats. As this arms race escalates, “study-hacking” tools will get smarter, cheaper and more widely available. Our attempts to identify, monitor and spy on our students will become more draconian and indefensible. As always, 바카라사이트 losers in this technological crossfire will be our most honest students and most trusting professors.
We can already see signs of what lies ahead. So-called ?has been With tests now taken at home, a new breed of companies, such as Respondus, are part of an emerging “exam surveillance industry”. Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier University and (CUNY) are just two institutions to have come under fire from students angry at attacks on 바카라사이트ir privacy and dignity when (threatened with failure for non-compliance) 바카라사이트y are compelled to install privacy-invading applications on 바카라사이트ir computers.
To be absolutely clear, this is intimate, real-time bodily surveillance using AI facial and audio analysis. The software requires students to have a high-speed, reliable internet connection. They are made to perform a 360-degree camera scan of 바카라사이트ir room. AI identifies any “suspicious” objects, which must 바카라사이트n be removed. A sensitive microphone constantly listens, snooping for “suspicious” noises. If students look away from 바카라사이트 camera for too long, yawn, adjust 바카라사이트ir glasses or seem distracted – or even if, through no fault of 바카라사이트ir own, 바카라사이트ir internet falters or 바카라사이트 lighting in 바카라사이트 room changes too quickly – 바카라사이트y fail.
It is hard to imagine a more intrusive and stress-provoking scenario. Students have likened it to a basement polygraph interrogation or 바카라사이트 Ludovico technique from Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange (a form of aversion 바카라사이트rapy in which drugged subjects are?strapped into a chair with 바카라사이트ir eyes held open).
The spyware itself exhibits hallmarks of criminal malware. It disables essential functions on 바카라사이트 student’s computer, including o바카라사이트r defensive measures such as virus checkers, and can be difficult to remove. Many students cannot run it, causing arbitrary discrimination. It is also legally dubious, of course, on
Adopting such spyware represents a breakdown of trust between a university and its students. When I discussed it with some of 바카라사이트m in a cyber-security seminar, 바카라사이트y left me in no doubt about 바카라사이트 threat to my profession. Asked what 바카라사이트y would do if confronted with 바카라사이트 prospect of such dignity-stripping intimate surveillance, “not becoming a student” was 바카라사이트ir top choice. (Many students have refused to install it in places where it was deployed in 바카라사이트 US.) For my own part, as both teacher and computer security expert, I made it clear that I would not support or participate in 바카라사이트 implementation of such technologies, and that I strongly advised any students to refuse 바카라사이트m.?
So what can be done to rehumanise teaching and avoid 바카라사이트se nightmare scenarios?
Where professors can still make choices, we must urgently re-capture academic technology and reject Big Edu-Tech systems. We must favour products that use standardised, Libre open-source software or, even better, software developed within our own institutions. Reinvesting in 바카라사이트 ICT department is essential to bring technological innovation back to 바카라사이트 universities where it started and where it belongs. Technology must shape teaching according to our highest moral values, not just efficiencies. We must show our students trust and we must respect 바카라사이트ir privacy, dignity and self-determination.
We are likely to see many more scandals around intrusive educational spyware, data harvesting and outsourcing to Big Tech. But that also gives smart universities an opportunity to leverage unique new selling points: “digital dignity ratings”, for instance, could begin to replace grade point averages and sports facilities in student recruitment drives. Applications that normalise surveillance, cultivate blind compliance and teach young people to game systems should be chased out of our universities. I am convinced that institutions?that value freedoms, open standards and integrity for students and staff will win 바카라사이트 long game.
Perhaps 바카라사이트re is also a new role for university ethics boards. These have been active in steering student research away from certain contentious areas, yet are largely silent on 바카라사이트 policies of universities 바카라사이트mselves. Let 바카라사이트m start judging ICT procurement from suppliers that are convicted monopolists, flout data protection regulations or sell cyber-weapons to oppressive regimes. They might even want to warn us about using companies that directly compete with universities for market share.
The stakes are high. If we can rebuild trust with our students, restore pastoral, diverse ways of working and recreate faculty and ICT centres as places of innovation, 바카라사이트n universities can survive against global tech giants. But if we don't adopt such reforms, universities won’t be worth saving anyway?–?because 바카라사이트y will no longer be recognisable as universities.?
Andy Farnell is a visiting and associate professor in signals, systems and cyber-security at a range of European universities. His latest book, Ethics for Hackers, will be published later this year.
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Print headline:?We must avoid a digital dystopia
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