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From Imaginaries to Action: A Manifesto for Critical Digital Practice


I have published a new piece in my series on critical digital pedagogy. It examines how our digital environments shape judgment, agency and the kinds of learning that become possible. The argument calls for a move from tool centred thinking to thoughtful and imaginative digital practice that places pedagogy first.

You can read the full post here:

e-learning-rules.com/blog/0057…

#DigitalPedagogy #CriticalPedagogy #OnlineLearning #AIinEducation

Retro-futuristic control room where a diverse group collaboratively rewires glowing networks above a connected city, evoking democratic, experimental digital pedagogy.



Time, Care, and Educational Infrastructure


Much of what sustains digital learning happens quietly and without recognition. Platforms are maintained, content is updated, and learners are supported through invisible acts of care. These forms of labour make education possible, yet they are rarely valued as part of pedagogy.

In my latest post, I explore what might change if we began to see time, care, and maintenance as essential educational practices rather than background work.

Read it here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0055…

#eLearning #DigitalPedagogy #HigherEducation #OnlineLearning #CriticalPedagogy

Retro 1970s sci-fi scene: people in a circle linked to a glowing tree amid analog consoles and clocks, symbolising time, care, and humane learning within technological infrastructure.



Building Commons in Digital Learning


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



Teaching Against the Interface




Plurality, Natality, and the Promise of Education


Education is often presented as the transmission of knowledge. Yet Hannah Arendt’s ideas of plurality and natality point us toward a richer promise.

Plurality reminds us that education always involves the meeting of diverse perspectives. Natality highlights that each new generation brings the possibility of new beginnings. Together they suggest that education is not only about continuity but also about creating conditions for renewal.

In a time when digital platforms and institutional pressures often move us toward uniformity, how can online learning preserve openness to plurality and to the unexpected promise of renewal?

Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0050…

#elearning #digitalpedagogy #education #highereducation

Retro 1970s sci-mag scene: a circular forum of diverse figures around a glowing sapling whose branches become constellations and city paths; circuit grids dissolve into organic forms, suggesting open, plural futures.



Institution, Technology, and the Reproduction of Society


Education is not only the transmission of knowledge. It is always involved in the reproduction of society. Institutions decide what counts as knowledge and how it is valued. Technology extends this process, reinforcing institutional logics but also opening new possibilities for change.

In my latest blog post, I draw on the work of Cornelius Castoriadis to explore how digital learning technologies mediate between reproduction and transformation. The key question is whether these technologies serve mainly to reproduce existing institutional patterns, or whether they can also create genuine spaces for collective imagination.

Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0049…

Hashtags: #Education #eLearning #DigitalPedagogy #CriticalPedagogy #EducationalTechnology

Retrofuturist cityscape blending classical columns and glowing circuitry with silhouetted figures co-designing illuminated cubes beneath a vivid sunset.



Imaginaries of the Common Good – From Market Logic to Democratic Renewal


How can digital learning move beyond a market logic that frames learners as customers and platforms as products, towards practices that strengthen democracy and the common good?

In this post I explore how imaginaries shape education and how shifting from efficiency and scale to collaboration and shared responsibility might open new possibilities for digital pedagogy.

Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0047…

#elearning #digitalpedagogy #onlinelearning #highereducation #commongood

Retrofuturist agora: diverse groups co-create under a radiant prism while cold metric towers fade and organic light threads bloom—education imagined as democratic, plural, and caring.



Education as Polis – Reclaiming the Public Dimension of Learning


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.



Rewriting the Imaginary: Educators as Moral Agents of Reinstitution


What if the greatest barrier to change in education is not technology or funding, but the way we imagine what education is?

Institutions are never neutral. They carry histories, values, and priorities that shape what is possible in teaching and learning. When we accept these frameworks as fixed, even our innovations can end up reinforcing their limits.

In my latest blog post, I explore how educators can act as moral agents of reinstitution, helping to rewrite the structures and values that underpin education: e-learning-rules.com/blog/0045…

What changes could you make in your own context that challenge the default system rather than adapt to it?

#eLearning #DigitalPedagogy #EducationalTechnology #OnlineLearning #HigherEducation #Pedagogy

Surreal sci-fi painting of silhouetted figures amid glowing architectural forms and a radiant cosmic figure, symbolising moral agency and imaginative reinstitution in education.



Strong Evaluation in a Flat World: Resisting the Neutrality of Platforms


Are platform-based evaluations really neutral? Or do they conceal embedded assumptions about what counts as valuable, measurable, or meaningful in education?

In this post, I explore how digital platforms often flatten pedagogical nuance by presenting value-laden processes as objective. I argue for strong evaluation - evaluation that is grounded in explicit ethical, pedagogical, and social commitments.

Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0044…

#EdTech #DigitalPedagogy #eLearning #CriticalEdTech #PlatformStudies #HigherEd #Assessment #educationaltechnology

Retro-futuristic painting of a woman studying data panels with human silhouettes and bar charts against a cosmic nebula background, evoking critical reflection on educational platforms.



The Public Sphere and the Digital University: Imaginaries of Voice and Visibility


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.



Merit, Measurement, and Moral Order: The Market Imaginary in Education


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.



The Autonomous Individual Learner: Taylor, EdTech, and the Buffered Self


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.

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The Moral Background of Education: Introducing the Social Imaginary


What if the real limits of digital education are not just technical or institutional, but moral and cultural?

In my latest blog post, I explore the idea of the social imaginary as a way of understanding the background beliefs and assumptions that shape how we design, deliver, and interpret education. These moral frameworks often go unexamined, yet they determine what counts as legitimate learning and who the imagined learner is.

By surfacing these assumptions, we open the door to reimagining education in more inclusive, democratic, and imaginative ways.

Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0040…

More reflections at:
e-learning-rules.com/

#elearning #digitalpedagogy #education #criticalpedagogy #socialimaginary #learningdesign #edtech

A lone figure stands on a glowing platform in deep space, facing a radiant sun at the centre of a cosmic grid, evoking retro-futuristic contemplation and the architecture of thought.



Reimagining the Digital University – A Call for Democratic Pedagogical Institutions


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.



Time, History, and the Institution of Learning – Beyond the Eternal Present of EdTech


Much of edtech is designed for immediacy. Speed, convenience, and disruption dominate the narrative. But learning is not instantaneous. It is slow, situated, and shaped by time and tradition.

In this post, I explore how digital learning environments might better respect the temporal and institutional dimensions of education. What might it mean to design technologies that support slowness, memory, and pedagogical depth?

Read the full post:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0038…

More at:
e-learning-rules.com/

#elearning #edtech #digitalpedagogy #criticalpedagogy #highereducation #blogpost

A surreal, retro-futuristic painting shows an elderly man deep in thought beside a glowing hourglass. Behind him, vintage monitors display graphs, and a figure walks a radiant path toward Earth in space.



Critique as Creation - From Technological Solutionism to Political Pedagogy


Too often, critique in digital education is dismissed as negativity or resistance. But what if critique could be something more constructive? What if it was a way of creating rather than simply opposing?

In my latest blog post, I argue that we need to move beyond solutionism and reclaim critique as a generative force. Drawing on Feenberg and Illich, I explore how political pedagogy and design grounded in educational values can open new spaces for imagining what learning could be.

Read the full post here:
e-learning-rules.com/blog/0037…

#eLearning #CriticalPedagogy #EducationalTechnology #DigitalEducation #PoliticalPedagogy #LearningDesign #CritiqueAsCreation

A retro-futuristic digital painting of a surreal educational landscape with organic and mechanical structures blending into a dreamlike environment, inspired by 1970s sci-fi aesthetics.



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.