EU's digital education goals may lock schools into Google reliance
A new analysis reveals how European policy ambitions and Google's marketing narratives align to make the tech giant seem inevitable in classrooms—potentially limiting schools' future options. The finding suggests that policy-makers risk cementing corporate dependency through the language they use, not just the choices they make.
Originaltitel: Exploring the Consequences of Policy Discourses on Ed-Tech Lock-in: The Case of the EU Digital Education Action Plan and Google for Education
<p>The aim of this chapter is to unpack the intricate nexus of policy formulations, commercial interests, and technological affordances, all of which contribute to the emergence of diverse forms of lock-ins within the landscape of contemporary digital education. By elucidating the role of the interplay between policy and corporate discourse in shaping narratives of path-dependency and acknowledging the contingency of the trajectories they establish, the chapter seeks to discuss path-breaking alternatives within digital education. Drawing on post-structural policy analysis the study focuses on the construction of problematizations in The EU Digital Education Action Plan and the commercial discourse of Google for Education. These problematizations are brought together for comparison and discussion, which reveals how the corporate rhetoric positions Google for Education as a remedy and enabler of the continuous and inevitable digital and societal development suggested by EU-policy. Google for Education is thus nested into this particular perception of the future, suggesting that Google lock-in is not merely confined to technical, social or political aspects but also ingrained into how the future of education is imagined.</p>