We invite the Canberra education technology community to join us for a free event as part of Critical Studies of Education and Technology (CSET) 2025, which will be hosted online and in-person over the week of 17 – 21 February, 2025. This event was initiated by Professor Neil Selwyn from Monash University to host locally-run networking events to discuss the current concerns and hopes for education technologies.
This event will focus on our local context here in the Canberra region, and provide a great networking opportunity for third-space professionals in education (such as learning designers, education technologists, and more), academics, and professional staff based in Canberra.
How to participate
There will be one short blog post per day from Monday, 17 February to Thursday, 20 February 2025. Each post will each respond to one of the prompts for discussion:
- Topic #1. What are the pressing issues, concerns, tensions and problems that surround EdTech in our locality? What questions do we need to ask, and what approaches will help us research these questions?
- Topic #2. What social harms are we seeing associated with digital technology and education in our locality?
- Topic #3. What does the political economy of EdTech look like in our region? What do local EdTech markets look like? How are global Big Tech corporations manifest in local education systems? What does EdTech policy look like, and which actors are driving policymaking? What do we find if we ‘follow the money’?
- Topic #4. What grounds for hope are there? Can we point to local instances of digital technology leading to genuine social benefits and empowerment? What local push-back and resistance against egregious forms of EdTech is evident? What alternate imaginaries are being circulated about education and digital futures?
On Friday, 21 February 2025 from 5pm – 7pm, there will be a live event with in-person and online participation for you to network with other professionals and discuss the issues above.
The in-person event will be held at the Athenaeum in Llewellyn Hall at the ANU School of Music, with the online event via Zoom. Light refreshments will be provided for the in-person event, with an option to join for dinner afterwards (at your own cost). The Athenaeum is a flat-floor room in Llewellyn Hall with ample parking immediately next to the building.
It will be a lovely opportunity to network and discuss with colleagues the areas relevant to your institution, context, and our local region here in Canberra. This is a free event.
We look forward to engaging with you both online and in-person at this event. If you are not located in Canberra, there are a range of events being hosted all over Australia and internationally, which you can find on the CSET website. Please feel free to share this with your colleagues.
Organisers
The Canberra event is brought to you by volunteers from the EdTechPosium committee: Penny Wheeler, Emily Rutherford, Janene Harman, Karlene Dickens, and Katie Freund.
For queries relating to this event please contact Penny: pennyjw@proton.me
Thank you to ASCILITE and the TELEdvisors group and the EdTechPosium commmittee for their generous support for this event.
