The Initiative

For a (self)conscious use of digital and data technologies in educational institutions

UNBLACK THE BOX is a network initiative founded in 2019 by researchers from education science, sociology, information technology, media and health education, as well as educators in schools, universities, pedagogical training and non-formal education. Our goal is to support educational institutions and teachers to respond to the growing datafication and digitisation of education and its dynamic application of AI products with critical and conscious decision-making, even without extensive IT knowledge.

WHAT

UNBLACK THE BOX so far includes the following activities:

  • Website with information about ongoing research and projects with regards to datafication of education
  • Bimonthly newsletter (in German) with event tips, recommendations for recent publications, guidelines for practitioners, teaching material and further resources, and commentaries on current developments
  • Resources, tools and instruments for download to reflect on digital technologies in educational contexts critically (e.g., the Alternative Checklist or the EdTechReflector)
  • Ready-to-use teaching concepts (in German) for higher education, schools and informal education and training (e.g., workshops)
  • Organisation of national and international workshops and contribution to different events
  • Collaboration with educational institutions regarding the reflection on digitisation, algorithms & co. (including existing software, implementation choices, organizational development, etc.)
  • (Further) Development of training modules and training content for educators
  • Invited talks, workshops and expert inputs (e.g., in podcasts)
  • and more to come…


WHY

In today’s culture of digitality, schools, higher education institutions, institutions of early childhood and informal education are increasingly permeated with digital technologies that affect their social and pedagogical practice. This includes hardware and infrastructures, but equally a growing number of digital platforms, learning software and learning analytics, as well as the expanding usage of AI technologies. In most cases, the implementation of technologies goes together with promises to improve students’ learning performance, educational equality or efficiency, as well as to relieve teachers’ workload.

Even though the field of critical (academic and practical) investigation of digital technologies has become increasingly differentiated over the past years, the majority of voices from education policy and also the majority of teacher training formats continue to primarily focus on usage skills and hard-/software implementation. Critical perspectives are often limited to data security issues, ethics (oftentimes in the form of checklists), cyberbullying or disinformation. This means, however, that the logics and multiple infrastructural backgrounds of digital technologies remain a black box for many users.

This is where UNBLACK THE BOX contributes by:

  • supporting a more holistic, critical-reflective perspective on the background, functionalities and effects of digital technologies in educational (governance) contexts;
  • providing educational institutions and educators with tools for a critical investigation and (re)design of technologies. This (re)design deliberately includes the usage of analogue techniques.