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Articles

“Digital Ethics”, or Ethical Digitalisation?

Perhaps surprisingly – given that its title was “Digital ethics” – last week’s SOCITM panel session spent a lot of  time exploring things that aren’t “digital”. Although the discussion focussed on local government, a lot of the ideas seemed relevant to education, too. Don’t be solutionist: technology might not be the right option. When identifying […]

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Presentations

Is our technology comforting?

When I was invited to join a panel at the SOCITM ShareNational event for local government I presumed my role was to provide a different, external, perspective on “Ethical Use of Emerging Technologies and Data”. So I offered to contribute a five-minute “sparkler” introduction: a bit of illumination, some striking of ideas, maybe a smile. […]

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Articles Tools

Wellbeing Analytics Code of Practice

We’re delighted to have launched our Wellbeing Analytics Code of Practice, something we’ve been working on in the ICO’s Regulatory Sandbox for almost exactly a year. The resulting Code builds on Jisc’s widely-used Learning Analytics Code of Practice and includes tools for Data Protection Impact Assessment and Purpose Compatibility assessment. We hope it will give […]

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Closed Consultations

Wellbeing Analytics Code of Practice: Consultation

[UPDATE 2nd June 2020: thanks for your feedback. Final text has now gone into the Jisc production process :)] Jisc has been providing expert, trusted advice on digital technology in the education sector for more than 30 years. We know that technology and data have the ability to transform the student experience. But, as a […]

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Presentations

Thinking about data?

The question mark in the title of my Digifest talk is the key point, because I wonder whether data is the wrong place to start. In our current digital landscape, we’re all too used to hearing ourselves described as “silkworms”, donating “new oil” to “surveillance capitalists”; even the term “data subject” has a dehumanising feel. […]

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Articles

Data, Flows and Benefits

[A second post arising out of excellent discussions at the DALTAí project seminar in Dublin this week] We’re all familiar, perhaps too familiar, with how data flows typically work online. We give commercial companies access to data about ourselves; they extract some benefit from it, for example by selling profiled advertising space; they share some […]

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Presentations

Learning Analytics: helping tutors help students

Talking to new audiences, who may not share your preconceptions, is a great way to learn new things. So I was delighted to be invited to Dublin to talk about learning analytics as part of their DALTAí project (an English backronym creating the Irish for student: bilingualism creates opportunities!). The audience – and my fellow […]

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Presentations

Showing accountability for personal data

A few weeks ago I gave a presentation to an audience of university accommodation managers (thanks to Kinetic for the invitation), where I suggested that we should view Data Protection as an opportunity, rather than a challenge. That may seem strange, given that universities probably have the most complex data flows of any organisation. And […]

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Articles

Wellbeing analytics: legal explorations

While colleagues are looking at whether data can be used to pick up early signs of mental health and wellbeing problems, I’m exploring possible legal frameworks for doing that safely. As the diagram shows, trying to deliver an early warning service to all students falls into a gap between three reasonably familiar areas of data […]

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Presentations

My Algorithmic “Friend”

In a workshop at last week’s AMOSSHE conference, we discussed how wellbeing analytics might be able to assist existing Student Support services. Slides: jisc andrew cormack 4×3 v2 Student support is simplest when an individual themselves asks for help: a support service can immediately begin to discuss – using toolkits such as that developed by UHI […]