This article explores potential uses, misuses, beneficiaries, and tensions of learning analytics in higher education. While those promoting and using learning analytics generally agree that ethical practice is imperative, and student privacy and rights are important, navigating the complex maze of ethical dilemmas can be challenging, particularly…

Amid the increasing reliance on digital tools and services in education, this article examines the datafication and commodification of student life in Denmark. We analyse the web and app (iOS and Android) versions of 45 tools and services that teachers in Danish public primary schools use as part of their teaching, the types of data generated by…

The last decade has seen a rise in big data approaches, including in the humanities, whereby large quantities of data are collected and analysed. In this paper, we discuss long-form audio recordings that result from individuals wearing a recording device for many hours. Linguists, psychologists and anthropologists can use them, for example, to…

Text and data mining activities -- that is, the automated processing of digital materials to uncover new knowledge -- have become more frequent in all areas of scientific research. Because they require a massive use of copyrighted work, there are evident conflicts with copyright legislation. Countries at the forefront of research and development…

This paper examines and builds on an earlier contribution to this journal focusing on private supplementary tutoring -- widely known as shadow education -- in Francophone West and Central Africa. Drawing on wider literature about research methods in this domain, it examines the basis for the numerical estimates presented in the original article…

In the recent Australian 2021 census, the socio-technical construct of algorithmically driven decision-making processes made LGBTQI+ data as a category of diversity, inclusion and belonging an absent presence. In this paper, we position the notion of 'data justice' in relation to the entrenchment of inequalities and exclusion of LGBTQI+ lives and…

With the advent of the big data internet era, the corresponding multimedia technology is also developing. At the same time, as an important place for students to improve their cognitive level and expand their knowledge coverage, the construction of knowledge and information in university libraries will have an important impact on the growth of…

Businesses use data to enhance operational performance, creating demand for professionally trained data/business analytics graduates. Universities offer a variety of academic programs in response to the increasing labor market demands. Yet, research on how well educational offerings adapt to market demand is scant. This paper aims to evaluate how…

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union contains directions on how user data may be collected, stored, and when it must be deleted. As similar legislation is developed around the globe, there is the potential for repercussions across multiple fields of research, including educational data mining (EDM). Over the past two…

While violence against children (VAC) has been a long-established global concern, more recently attention has been drawn to how violence occurs in and around schools (VACS) and the role of education in preventing and responding to violence. Whilst awareness about VACS is growing, more robust data are needed to inform policy and practice. Concerns…

Against the background of a data-driven education system that has detrimental effects on teachers' personal and professional lives, we report on an exploratory project in which seven primary teachers in England shared experiences of literacy teaching through generating 'small' data visualised on postcards. Thematic analysis of their data-sharing…

Over recent decades, higher education infrastructures have become increasingly digitized and datafied. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption of online learning platforms, trading the walls of the classroom for digital systems. Yet the surveillance, privacy, and discrimination issues that such systems raise are minimally understood by those…

There is a rapidly expanding and proliferating number of commercial early childhood platforms, competing for market share in what has become a crowded marketplace. Early childhood platforms provide a wide range of functions including an all-in-one digital ecosystem offering a learning management system; social media communication between…

Contemporary schooling is seen to be altering significantly in light of a combined 'digitisation' and 'datafication' of key processes. This paper examines the nature and conditions of the datafied school by exploring how a relatively prosaic and longstanding school metric (student attendance data) is being produced and used in digital form.…

This article presents a descriptive, critical analysis of the comparability of information concerning students, teachers, and school resources gathered by organisations within government jurisdiction, and the pitfalls for the unwary researcher using government data banks. Differences in the method of compiling information about citizens, and…