What would it mean to build digital learning environments that belong to everyone who participates in them?

Most online education still relies on platforms that prioritise control and efficiency over collaboration and shared care. Yet open education and federated infrastructures suggest an alternative. They point towards a digital learning commons where knowledge, resources, and practices are sustained collectively.

In my latest post, I explore how such commons might emerge through co-creation, reciprocity, and shared stewardship. How can we design digital learning spaces that foster participation rather than compliance?

Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0054…

Retro 1970s sci-fi city of modular servers and people linking, tending, and maintaining a federated learning network beneath orbital paths, evoking commoning, care, and shared digital infrastructure.

#DigitalPedagogy #OpenEducation #LearningCommons #eLearning #EdTech #CriticalPedagogy

What if we treated education as a public practice that builds a shared world, rather than reducing it to skills, metrics, or efficiency?

In my latest blog post I explore the idea of education as polis. This perspective sees learning as a collective act of world making, where classrooms, courses, and digital spaces can nurture the common good. Yet when platforms are structured around surveillance, competition, and control, the public dimension of education is put at risk.

I develop these ideas further here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0046…

How can we reclaim digital learning spaces so they truly serve the public good? What practices or examples have you seen that embody this vision?

Hashtags:
#education #elearning #pedagogy #digitallearning #edtech

Retro-futurist agora: glowing child surrounded by people in dialogue, marble steps merging with circuits under a cosmic sky of connected stars, symbolising education as shared civic space.

What role should universities play in the digital public sphere?

In my latest blog post, I explore how digital platforms are reshaping the visibility, legitimacy, and public voice of higher education. As teaching, research, and institutional presence increasingly depend on metrics and commercial infrastructures, we must ask how these changes affect the democratic and participatory ideals that underpin public education.

Can we reimagine the digital university in ways that support dialogue, inclusion, and critical engagement?

Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0043…

#DigitalUniversity #CriticalPedagogy #PublicSphere #HigherEducation #EdTech #OnlineLearning #DigitalEducation #AcademicFreedom

A glowing academic figure stands before large retro-futuristic screens showing graphs and faces, set in a cosmic university landscape with digital circuit floor.

What if the metrics we use in education are not just tools but moral arguments?

Dashboards, rankings, and engagement scores are often framed as neutral measures of learning. But these systems reflect a deeper imaginary shaped by the logic of markets - where efficiency, performance, and competition dominate.

In this post, I explore how educational technologies encode and reproduce a market-based moral order, and consider what it might mean to challenge that framing.

Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0042…

Explore more at:
e-learning-rules.com/

#Education #DigitalLearning #CriticalPedagogy #Assessment #EdTech #HigherEducation #Imaginaries #LearningDesign #PlatformPolitics

A solitary human figure interacts with glowing circuit patterns in a vast, retro-futuristic data centre beneath a cosmic night sky.

EdTech, Critical Pedagogy, Digital Education, Philosophy of Education

What kind of person does EdTech imagine when it speaks of the "autonomous learner"?

This post explores how the dominant model of autonomy in digital education often reflects an individualised, self-managing ideal rooted in what Charles Taylor calls the "buffered self." It questions what is lost when we strip autonomy of its relational and ethical dimensions.

Can we imagine a richer form of autonomy - one that foregrounds co-creation, dialogue, and critical agency?

Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0041…

#edtech #elearning #digitalpedagogy #criticalpedagogy #education #philosophy #fediverse

A retro-futuristic figure sits at a glowing control panel surrounded by abstract data screens and holographic profiles, evoking themes of autonomy, surveillance, and digital identity in education.

What kind of digital university are we helping to build when our platforms and systems quietly shape the terms of learning, participation, and institutional purpose?

In my latest blog post, I explore how the digital university often reflects managerial and instrumental priorities. I argue that we need to reclaim it as a democratic pedagogical institution - one that centres autonomy, co-creation, and meaningful engagement.

Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0039…

#DigitalPedagogy #CriticalPedagogy #HigherEducation #EdTech #PlatformPolitics #OnlineLearning #AcademicFediverse

A retro-futuristic digital university with Greco-Roman columns, bathed in golden light amid swirling cosmic clouds and planets, evoking imagination, autonomy, and the reinvention of education.

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.

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.

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.

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

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