Institution and Imaginary – How Educational Technology Reproduces the Social-Historical
Educational institutions are not static structures. They are created and sustained by the social imaginaries that shape them. In my latest blog post, I explore how educational technologies are not neutral tools, but active participants in reproducing these institutional logics.
If we want to reimagine education, we also need to rethink the role technology plays in shaping what education is and could become.
Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0036…
#edtech #criticalpedagogy #digitallearning #elearning #highereducation #sociologyofeducation
A retro-futuristic scene showing abstract educational technology structures merging with surreal landscapes, symbolising the intersection of institutional design and imaginative possibility.
Autonomy and the Educated Subject: Rethinking Learning Beyond Instrumentality
What if educational autonomy was not about self-managing learning tasks, but about becoming a subject capable of critical thought, reflection, and agency?
Too often, online education reduces autonomy to individualised control over pace and content. My latest blog post argues for reclaiming autonomy as a central educational aim - not a system feature.
Read more here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0035…
#CriticalPedagogy #OnlineLearning #DigitalEducation #HigherEd #Assessment #learningdesign
A faceless figure stands before a cosmic backdrop with a glowing sun, geometric networks, and floating shapes, evoking a surreal vision of thought, space, and digital interconnectedness.
Imagining Otherwise – Castoriadis, Radical Imagination, and the Crisis of Educational Futures
What if the challenge in digital education is not about the technology, but about our failure to imagine education differently?
In this new post, I explore how Cornelius Castoriadis’ concept of radical imagination helps us question the institutional forms we often take for granted. Platforms, data, and automation are not neutral. They reflect and reinforce particular logics. Education can be otherwise.
Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0034…
#elearning #criticalpedagogy #digitaleducation #educationfutures #instructionaldesign #radicalimagination
A figure contemplates a glowing human head silhouette filled with a school, book, and stars, blending cosmic imagination with educational symbolism in a retro 1970s sci-fi painting style.
Reclaiming Pedagogy in a Platformed World – A Manifesto
Have educational platforms begun to shape teaching more than pedagogy itself?
In my latest post, I explore how Learning Management Systems and platformed environments quietly configure what is possible in teaching and learning. Rather than rejecting technology, I argue for reclaiming pedagogical space within it – prioritising care, agency, and purpose over system logic.
Read the full manifesto:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0033…
#CriticalPedagogy #DigitalEducation #PlatformedLearning #OnlineTeaching #InstructionalDesign #EdTech
A surreal, retro-futuristic landscape showing a lone figure facing a glowing portal amidst digital ruins, symbolising resistance, reflection, and reimagining in a platform-dominated world.
Critical Infrastructure: Reimagining the Digital University
What values are embedded in the digital infrastructure of our universities?
Too often we assume that platforms and tools are neutral. But the systems we rely on for teaching and learning shape pedagogy, constrain choices, and reflect commercial interests rather than educational ones.
In this post, I explore what it might mean to build a community-owned digital university that reflects our values and priorities.
Read here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0032…
#CriticalDigitalPedagogy #DigitalUniversity #OpenSource #HigherEd #PlatformPolitics #EdTech #eLearning
A retro-futuristic painting of a human and a robot seated at a console, gazing at each other, their hands near a glowing interface, evoking tension between organic and technological agency.
Digital Policy is Pedagogy: Why Educators Must Engage
Educational technologies are often introduced as neutral tools. But every platform carries embedded assumptions about teaching, learning, and control.
In my latest blog post, I argue that digital policy is not just an administrative concern. It is deeply pedagogical. If we want technology to serve education rather than shape it, educators must engage at the level of policy and platform design.
Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0031…
#DigitalPedagogy #CriticalPedagogy #EdTech #OnlineLearning #EducationPolicy #PlatformPolitics #OpenEducation
A surreal, retro-futuristic illustration of educators navigating a digital landscape shaped by data streams, control panels, and towering abstract systems, symbolising policy as a pedagogical struggle.
AI, Assessment, and the Automation of Judgement
If AI can write essays, mark them, and generate feedback, what does that say about the way we assess learning?
In this post, I explore how the use of AI in education does not just disrupt assessment - it reveals how mechanised our judgement already is. What happens when machines are better at performing the tasks we use to define student achievement?
Is this a crisis, or an invitation to reimagine assessment altogether?
Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0030…
#AI #Assessment #Education #CriticalPedagogy #DigitalLearning #AuthenticAssessment #EdTech #Automation #Friendica
A retro-futuristic illustration of a humanoid AI figure observing a student through a glowing interface, symbolising surveillance, judgement, and the automation of learning in a digital classroom setting.
The Hidden Curriculum of the LMS
Learning Management Systems do not just organise course content. They also organise thought.
In this blog post, I explore how the design of LMS platforms subtly shapes educational practice and limits pedagogical possibilities. These platforms carry values and assumptions that often go unquestioned.
What has your LMS taught you - unintentionally?
Read more: e-learning-rules.com/blog/0029…
Full blog: e-learning-rules.com
#elearning #LMS #digitalpedagogy #criticalpedagogy #highered #onlinelearning #instructionaldesign
This image shows a retro-futuristic illustration of a student interacting with a glowing computer screen showing a head silhouette, surrounded by psychedelic colours, quiz options, a padlock, and a floating eye symbol.
Framing the Digital: Why Pedagogy Must Come Before Platform
Too often, digital platforms silently shape our teaching practices. From VLE templates to AI-based assessment systems, technology influences pedagogy more than we realise.
This post argues for reversing that logic. Pedagogy must lead the design and use of digital tools, not follow it.
This is the first in a new blog series exploring how educators can reclaim agency in a platform-driven environment.
Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0028…
#DigitalPedagogy #CriticalPedagogy #OnlineLearning #EdTech #InstructionalDesign #PedagogyFirst #LMS #VLE #AIinEducation
Beyond the Redesign Rhetoric: Labour, Power, and the Hidden Costs of AI-Ready Assessment
What does it really mean to redesign assessment in response to AI?
This blog post explores how institutional structures, labour dynamics and managerial logics shape what kind of assessment redesign is possible. It argues that the call to “redesign assessment” often ignores the conditions under which such work is expected to happen.
How can we create the time, trust and infrastructure to support assessment that is meaningful, critical and educationally purposeful?
Read the post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0027…
#AIinEducation #AssessmentDesign #AcademicLabour #CriticalPedagogy #eLearning #HigherEducation #digitalpedagogy
Reclaiming Assessment Through Annotation
I have just published a new blog post: Reclaiming Assessment Through Annotation
Annotation is often treated as a peripheral academic skill. But what if we made it central to how we assess learning in online and distance education?
In this post, I explore how annotation supports critical digital pedagogy, enables authentic forms of assessment, and offers resilience against the growing influence of generative AI.
Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0026…
#Assessment #Annotation #OnlineLearning #DistanceEducation #CriticalPedagogy #AuthenticAssessment #AIResilience #DigitalPedagogy #EdTech
Reclaiming Society - How Progressive Education Can Resist the Rise of Extremism
New blog post now live.
What role can education - especially in its online and digital forms - play in resisting the rise of extremism and reclaiming democratic values?
In this piece, I explore how progressive, participatory learning can help counter polarisation, challenge market-driven narratives, and build civic agency. This isn’t just a curriculum question - it’s a question of what kind of society we want education to support.
Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0025…
#Education #CriticalPedagogy #ProgressiveEducation #DigitalLearning #OpenEducation #FriendicaEdu
Designing AI-Resilient Assessment: Reclaiming Human Learning in an Age of Automation
In my latest blog post, I explore how educators can design assessments that maintain their integrity and authenticity in an era increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence. How can we ensure assessment genuinely reflects human learning rather than AI-generated answers? I provide practical strategies and insights to keep learning human-centred and meaningful.
Read more at:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0024…
#Assessment #AI #HigherEducation #Pedagogy #DigitalLearning #CriticalEdTech #OnlineLearning #AcademicIntegrity
Pedagogy of the Connected – Building Community in Online Learning Spaces
How do we build genuine community in online education - not just simulate interaction?
In my latest blog post, I explore how connection in digital spaces demands more than tools and tech. It requires pedagogical intention, vulnerability, and co-authorship.
What does "community" mean in your online teaching practice - and how do you design for it?
Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0023…
More writing:
e-learning-rules.com/
#OnlineLearning #DigitalPedagogy #EdTech #ConnectedLearning #HigherEd #elearning #CommunityOfInquiry
Teaching Against the Interface: Reclaiming Pedagogy in Platformed Learning
What happens when the tools we use to teach quietly shape what and how we are able to teach?
In this blog post, I explore how platformed learning environments like Canvas constrain pedagogical possibilities—and how educators can resist the logic of the interface to reclaim space for critical, purposeful teaching.
Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0022…
#CriticalPedagogy #EdTech #DigitalEducation #OnlineLearning #CanvasLMS #PlatformCritique #HigherEd #OpenEducation #EduTooters #ScholarSocial
A Mirror or a Fix? Generative AI and the Crisis of Educational Imagination
Generative AI is sparking urgent conversations about plagiarism and assessment—but what if the deeper problem lies in our narrow educational imagination?
In my latest blog post, I explore how AI reveals a long-standing crisis in how we design teaching, learning, and assessment—and why it’s time to rethink, not just react.
👉 Read it here: e-learning-rules.com/blog/0021…
#AI #Education #Assessment #Pedagogy #CriticalEdTech #OpenEducation #GenerativeAI #DigitalEducation #FediverseEdu
Designing AI-Resilient Assessments in Online and Distance Education
As generative AI tools become more embedded in everyday academic life, detection is no longer enough.
In my latest blog post, I argue for a shift in how we think about assessment—especially in online and distance education. It's time to move beyond reactive measures and design assessments that are resilient, meaningful, and pedagogically grounded.
Read the full piece: e-learning-rules.com/blog/0020…
#Education #Assessment #AI #OnlineLearning #DistanceEducation #CriticalPedagogy #OER
🧠 Assessment at the End of the Turing Test
In an era when AI can generate essays that mimic human writing with startling fluency, the question "What are we actually assessing?" has never felt more urgent.
I’ve just published a new blog post reflecting on a recent conversation with a colleague who argues that remote assessment is no longer trustworthy. Their proposed solution? Reintroduce in-person elements—even brief ones—to every assessment.
But what if the real challenge isn't technological, but pedagogical?
What if the answer lies not in surveillance, but in reimagining the way we define and design assessment?
✍️ Read the full post here:
👉 e-learning-rules.com/blog/0019…
💬 I'd love to hear what others think:
Can assessment evolve to meet the age of AI without falling back on control?
Are there models out there that meaningfully integrate AI while maintaining academic integrity?
#Education #Assessment #GenerativeAI #EdTech #DigitalLearning #Pedagogy
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New blog post: Time to Reopen the Conversation on OERs
Open Educational Resources (OERs) once held real promise for widening participation and improving access in UK higher education. But in many institutions—especially within the Russell Group—they’ve faded from strategic view.
In this post, I reflect on why now is the right time to revisit the role of OERs in digital education, equity, and curriculum innovation.
📖 Read the full article:
👉 e-learning-rules.com/blog/0014…
#OER #OpenEducation #UKHE #HigherEducation #DigitalPedagogy #EducationTechnology #CriticalPedagogy
What We Leave Behind in TEL: The Silence Around Critical Pedagogy
In much of the UK's digital education research, there's a strong focus on scalability, platform integration, and institutional alignment.
What's often missing?
- Critical pedagogy
- Questions of power, justice, and values
- Grounded reflections on why we teach the way we do
In this blog post, I explore why those deeper questions are often absent -- and what we might do about it.
Read it here: elearning.home.nomagic.uk/0011…
I'd really welcome others' thoughts: are you seeing the same emphasis where you work?
#TEL #CriticalPedagogy #DigitalEducation #UKResearch #HigherEd
Why Critical Pedagogy and Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) Are Not Research Priorities in the UK
A personal blog from an eLearning professional.elearning.home.nomagic.uk