Towards Ubersity? Conflicts and contradictions of the digital university
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.21.2.20669Keywords:
university, information and communication technologies, technological change, educational innovation.Abstract
The university is an institution with a long history, which has fostered and survived multiple changes over the centuries. In recent decades, changes seem to be accelerating, partly linked to technology development. Digitisation is having a significant impact on how university develops its functions, but these processes are not linear or straightforward and will translate into complex, ambivalent and conflicting changes. This paper aims to analyse some of the most relevant effects of the implementation of digital technologies in the university teaching and research, from a socio-material point of view. In other words, we will not focus on these technologies as objects, neither on people on this context, but rather on how the relationships established between subjects and objects affect the action that takes place in the university, as a complex reality. To do this, the present article presents an analysis ranging from the particular to the general. Firstly, it analyses how "the digital" affects to teaching and research, then It will sketch some ideas about possible futures linked to digital technology and, finally, will propose some ideas on how to analyse the impact of technology in the university from a critical perspective.
Downloads
References
Abeysekera, L. y Dawson, P. (2015). Motivation and cognitive load in the flipped classroom: definition, rationale and a call for research. Higher Education Research and Development, 34(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2014.934336
Area, M., San Nicolás, M. y Fariña, E. (2010). Buenas prácticas de aulas virtuales en la docencia universitaria semipresencial. Teoría de la Educación. Educación y Cultura en la Sociedad de la Información, 11(1). Recuperado de http://revistas.usal.es/index.php/revistatesi/article/view/5787
Ball, S. J. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093022000043065
Barak, M., Hussein-Farraj, R. y Dori, Y. J. (2016). On-campus or online: examining self-regulation and cognitive transfer skills in different learning settings. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 13(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-016-0035-9
Barnett, R. (2016). Understanding the University: Institution, idea, possibilities. London; New York: Routledge.
Bartolomé, A. R., Bellver, C., Castañeda, L. J. y Adell, J. (2017). Blockchain en educación: introducción y crítica al estado de la cuestión. Edutec. Revista Electrónica de Tecnología Educativa, 61, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.21556/edutec.2017.61.915
Bricall, J. M. (1997). Visión de la Universidad en Europa: problemas diversos, soluciones comunes. En Los nuevos desafíos de la Universidad. Madrid: Institución Libre de Enseñanza.
Buckingham Shum, S., Sándor, Á., Goldsmith, R., Wang, X., Bass, R. y McWilliams, M. (2016). Reflecting on reflective writing analytics: Assessment challenges and iterative evaluation of a prototype tool. En Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge (pp. 213–222). New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2883851.2883955
Cabero, J. (2005). Las TIC y las universidades: retos, posibilidades y preocupaciones. Revista de la Educación Superior, XXXIV (3), (135). Recuperado de http://www.redalyc.org/resumen.oa?id=60413505
Castañeda, L. (2015). Investigación, conocimiento y participación en la academia 2.0: de la torre de marfil a la galería de los espejos. Temps d’Educació, (49), 89-104. Recuperado de http://www.raco.cat/index.php/TempsEducacio/article/view/303524
Castañeda, L. y Adell, J. (2013). Entornos personales de aprendizaje: claves para el ecosistema educativo en red. Alcoy: Editorial Marfil. Recuperado de http://www.um.es/ple/libro/
Castañeda, L., Dabbagh, N. y Torres-Kompen, R. (2017). Personal learning environments: Research-Based practices, frameworks and challenges. Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 6(1), 1-2. https://doi.org/10.7821/naer.2017.1.229
Corominas, A. y Sacristán, V. (2010). Construir el futuro de la universidad pública. Barcelona: Icaria editorial.
Costa, C. (2013). The habitus of digital scholars. Research in Learning Technology, 21(1), 21274. https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21.21274
Costa, C. (2016). Double gamers: academics between fields. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37(7), 993-1013. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2014.982861
Dabbagh, N. y Kitsantas, A. (2012). Personal learning environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet and Higher Education, 15(1), 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.06.002
De la Cruz, M. Á. (2003). Necesidad y objetivos de la formación pedagógica del profesor universitario. Revista de Educación, 331, 35-66. Recuperado de https://sede.educacion.gob.es/publiventa/detalle.action?cod=11294
Dunleavy, P., Margetts, H., Bastow, S. y Tinkler, J. (2006). New Public Management Is Dead—Long Live Digital-Era Governance. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 16(3), 467-494. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mui057
Fecher, B. y Friesike, S. (2014). Open science: one term, five schools of thought. En S. Bartling y S. Friesike (Eds.), Opening science. The evolving guide on how the Internet is changing research, collaboration and scholarly publishing (pp. 17-47). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00026-8_2
Feenberg, A. (2002). Transforming technology. Oxford University Press.
Fenwick, T. y Edwards, R. (2017). How sociomaterial approaches could support higher education as a critical practice. En B. Leibowitz, V. Bozalek, y P. Kahn (Eds.), Theorising learning to teach in higher education (pp. 34-52). London; New York: Routledge. Recuperado de https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317195733/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315559605-10
Ferguson, R. y Buckingham Shum, S. (2012). Social learning analytics: five approaches (pp. 23-33). Presentado en 2nd International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. https://doi.org/10.1145/2330601.2330616
Fitzgerald, T. y Gunter, H. M. (2017). Debating the agenda: the incremental uberisation of the field. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 49(4), 257-263. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2017.1342980
Floridi, L. (2017). The fourth revolution: how the Infosphere Is Reshaping Human Reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gunkel, D. J. (2017). Rage Against the Machine: Rethinking Education in the Face of Technological Unemployment. En K. LaGrandeur y J. J. Hughes (Eds.), Surviving the machine age (pp. 147-162). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51165-8_10
Gurría, A. (2017, Noviembre 24). “Unprecedented unpredictability: digital transformation. The future of jobs and trade in a digitalised world”. Recuperado de http://www.oecd.org/employment/gsg-future-of-jobs-in-digitalised-world-nov-2017.htm
Hall, G. (2016). The Uberfication of the University. Minnesota, USA: University of Minnesota Press.
Hamilton, E. C. (2016). Technology and the politics of university reform: the social shaping of online education. New York: Palmgrave Macmillan.
Hamilton, E. y Feenberg, A. (2005). The technical codes of online education. E-learning and Digital Media, 2(2), 104–121. https://doi.org/10.2304/elea.2005.2.2.1
Hand, E. (2010). Citizen science: People power. Nature News, 466(7307), 685-687. https://doi.org/10.1038/466685a
Jasanoff, S. (2015). Future imperfect: science, technology, and the imaginations of modernity. En S. Jasanoff y S.-H. Kim (Eds.), Dreamscapes of modernity: sociotechnical imaginaries and the fabrication of power. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Laviña, J. y Mengual, L. (Eds.). (2008). Libro blanco de la universidad digital 2010. Madrid: Ariel-Fundación Telefónica. Recuperado de https://www.fundaciontelefonica.com/arte_cultura/publicaciones-listado/pagina-item-publicaciones/itempubli/22/
Llopis Nebot, Á. M. (2017, Septiembre 21). Pensamiento reflexivo en el Prácticum I del alumnado de Grado de Maestro en Educación Primaria a través de diarios online (Ph.D. Thesis). Universitat Jaume I. Recuperado de http://hdl.handle.net/10803/430854
Manzano Arrondo, V. (2012). La universidad comprometida. Bilbao: Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Hegoa. Recuperado de http://publicaciones.hegoa.ehu.es/uploads/pdfs/212/Univ_comprometida.pdf
Martínez, F. y Prendes, M. P. (2003). ¿Adónde va la educación en un mundo de tecnologías? En F. Martínez (Ed.), Redes de comunicación en la enseñanza (pp. 281-300). Barcelona: Paidós. Recuperado de https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=756021
Martínez, M. y Payà, M. (2007). La formación de la ciudadanía en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. En J. L. García Garrido (Ed.), Formar ciudadanos europeos. Madrid: Academia Europea de Ciencias y Artes.
Michavila, F. y Calvo, B. (1999). La Universidad española hacia Europa. Madrid: Fundación Alfonso Martín Escudero.
Mulder, M., Weigel, T. y Collings, K. (2008). El concepto de competencia en el desarrollo de la educación y formación profesional en algunos Estados miembros de la UE: un análisis crítico. Profesorado: Revista de Curriculum y Formación del Profesorado, 12(3), 7. Recuperado de https://www.ugr.es/~recfpro/rev123ART6.pdf
Murphy, M. y Costa, C. (Eds.). (2015). Theory as method in research: on Bourdieu, social theory and education. London; New York, NY: Routledge.
Nouri, J. (2016). The flipped classroom: for active, effective and increased learning – especially for low achievers. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 13, 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-016-0032-z
Nurvala, J.-P. (2015). ‘Uberisation’ is the future of the digitalised labour market. European View, 14(2), 231-239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12290-015-0378-y
Olssen, M. y Peters, M. A. (2005). Neoliberalism, higher education and the knowledge economy: from the free market to knowledge capitalism. Journal of Education Policy, 20(3), 313-345. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930500108718
Ortega y Gasset, J. (1930). Misión de la universidad. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Pardo, A., Jovanovic, J., Dawson, S., Gašević, D. y Mirriahi, N. (2017). Using learning analytics to scale the provision of personalised feedback: Learning analytics to scale personalised feedback. British Journal of Educational Technology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12592
Peña-López, I. (2013). El PLE de investigación-docencia: el aprendizaje como enseñanza. En L. Castañeda y J. Adell (Eds.), Entornos personales de aprendizaje: claves para el ecosistema educativo en red (pp. 93-110). Alcoy: Marfil. Recuperado de https://digitum.um.es/xmlui/bitstream/10201/30413/1/capitulo6.pdf
Peters, M. A. (2017). Technological unemployment: educating for the fourth industrial revolution. Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, 5(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.22381/JSME5120172
Player-Koro, C., Bergviken Rensfeldt, A. y Selwyn, N. (2017). Selling tech to teachers: education trade shows as policy events. Journal of Education Policy, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2017.1380232
Prendes, M. P. y Roman, M. (2017). Entornos personales de aprendizaje: Una visión actual de cómo aprender con tecnologías. Barcelona: Octaedro.
Roorda, S. T. (2013). Towards the ‘neoliberal’ university. Higher education and innovation in the knowledge economy (Doctoral dissertation). Maastricht University, Maastricht. Recuperado de https://www.academia.edu/9161870/Towards_the_Neoliberal_University_Higher_Education_and_Innovation_in_the_Knowledge_Economy
Salinas, J. (1999). Enseñanza flexible, aprendizaje abierto. Las redes como herramienta para la formación. Edutec. Revista Electrónica de Tecnología Educativa, (10). https://doi.org/10.21556/edutec.1999.10.567
Schindler, L. A., Burkholder, G. J., Morad, O. A. y Marsh, C. (2017). Computer-based technology and student engagement: a critical review of the literature. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14, 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0063-0
Selwyn, N. (2014). Digital technology and the contemporary university: degrees of digitization. London: Society for Research into Higher Education. Recuperado de https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Technology-Contemporary-University-digitization-ebook/dp/B00KIRAZ4G/
Srnicek, N. (2016). Platform Capitalism. Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA: Theory Redux. Recuperado de https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Platform+Capitalism-p-9781509504909
Strayer, J. F. (2012). How learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation. Learning Environments Research, 15(2), 171-193. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-012-9108-4
Tur, G. y Marín, V. (2015). Exploring students’ attitudes and beliefs towards e-portfolios and technology in education. Enseñanza & Teaching, 33(1), 57-82. https://doi.org/10.14201/et20153315782
Uber-U is already here. (6 de mayo de 2016). Recuperado de https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/exploring-future-education/uber-u-already-here
Veletsianos, G. (2016). Social media in academia: networked scholars. Nueva York: Routledge.
Veletsianos, G. y Stewart, B. (2016). Discreet openness: scholars’ selective and intentional self-disclosures online. Social Media + Society, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116664222
Vlachopoulos, D. y Makri, A. (2017). The effect of games and simulations on higher education: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14, 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0062-1
Weller, M. (2011). The digital scholar: how technology is transforming academic practice. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Recuperado de https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-digital-scholar-9781849666268/

Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 RIED. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The articles that are published in this journal are subject to the following terms:
1. The authors grant the exploitation rights of the work accepted for publication to RIED, guarantee to the journal the right to be the first publication of research understaken and permit the journal to distribute the work published under the license indicated in point 2.
2. The articles are published in the electronic edition of the journal under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. You can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
3. Conditions for self-archiving. Authors are encouraged to disseminate electronically the OnlineFirst version (assessed version and accepted for publication) of its articles before publication, always with reference to its publication by RIED, favoring its circulation and dissemination earlier and with this a possible increase in its citation and reach among the academic community.