Transforming schooling through digital disruption : Big data, policy teaching and assessment

The chapter adopts a cross-disciplinary approach, drawing on three sets of literature, education policy and governance, assessment and testing, and the impact of the digital on how learning occurs. Utilizing a “socio-technical education data imaginary” we proffer ideas and challenges regarding possibilities for more productive and educative uses of digital technologies, data, and the affordances of both. The chapter explores the broader backdrop of digital disruption in education and relevant research literatures. This includes consideration of the changing policy and practice contexts and the rapidly evolving terrain of educational assessment. The authors discuss the impact of digital disruption on assessment and testing, including a focus on computer adaptive testing and new immersive forms. The place of edu-businesses and philanthropists in relation to these matters is also considered. Following this, we address digital disruption in and through big data, including the work of algorithms; digital disruption and its impact on teaching; and the need for new forms of teacher digital and data literacies. This leads into an overview of the chapters and provocations in the collection. Overall, the collection provides a catalyst for examining the place of digital disruption at a critical juncture of human history and the emerging transformation of schooling, teaching, testing, and learning. The authors note that we are at the very beginning of addressing profound educative, ethical, legal, privacy, and technical complexities, along with aporias of human+data interactions in general, in education, and in machine learning in particular.