Share Paper: Technoethics and Emergency Remote Education: Addressing the (In)Justice of Google Classroom

  1. Benjamin Gleason, Iowa State University, United States
  2. Marie Heath, Loyola University, United States
Thursday, April 1 11:35-11:55 AM Room 6

Abstract: Our study investigated how Google Meet and Google Classroom embed beliefs about schools, knowledge, privilege, and pedagogy into their design. Using a conceptual framework of the technoethical audit, we found these technologies help perpetuate and reproduce injustice. Google limited meaningful educational interaction, envisioning students as technology users with little agency or control. It predisposed students to unnecessary practices of surveillance and monitoring, all while subjecting them to regimes of data collection and sharing for corporate profit. While many critical scholars have long noted the systemic injustices embedded in public schooling, the stressor of the global pandemic spotlighted these injustices. We ...