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A group of professors from Italian universities have written an open letter on the consequences of using proprietary digital platforms in distance learning. They hope that a discussion on the future of education will begin as soon as possible and that the investments discussed in recent weeks will be used to create a public digital infrastructure for schools and universities. The author of these lines recommends, if interested in getting closer to this elusive concept, Enrico Nardelli's article published on Key4Biz on October 19, 2020.

 


 

Dear colleagues and students,

as you already know, since the COVID-19 emergency began, Italian schools and universities have relied on proprietary platforms and tools for distance learning (including exams), which are mostly produced by the “GAFAM” group of companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon). There are a few exceptions, such as the Politecnico di Torino, which has adopted instead its own custom-built solutions. However, on July 16, 2020 the European Court of Justice issued a very important ruling, which essentially says that US companies do not guarantee user privacy in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As a result, all data transfers from the EU to the United States must be regarded as non-compliant with this regulation, and are therefore illegal.

A debate on this issue is currently underway in the EU, and the European Authority has explicitly invited “institutions, offices, agencies and organizations of the European Union to avoid transfers of personal data to the United States for new procedures or when securing new contracts with service providers.” In fact the Irish Authority has explicitly banned the transfer of Facebook user data to the United States. Finally, some studies underline how the majority of commercial platforms used during the “educational emergency” (primarily G-Suite) pose serious legal problems and represent a “systematic violation of the principles of transparency.”

In this difficult situation, various organizations, including (as stated below) some university professors, are trying to help Italian schools and universities comply with the ruling. They do so in the interests not only of the institutions themselves, but also of teachers and students, who have the right to study, teach and discuss without being surveilled, profiled and catalogued. The inherent risks in outsourcing teaching to multinational companies, who can do as they please with our data, are not only cultural or economic, but also legal: anyone, in this situation, could complain to the privacy authority to the detriment of the institution for which they are working.

However, the question goes beyond our own right, or that of our students, to privacy. In the renewed COVID emergency we know that there are enormous economic interests at stake, and the digital platforms, which in recent months have increased their turnover (see the study published in October by Mediobanca), now have the power to shape the future of education around the world. An example is what is happening in Italian schools with the national “My Smart Class” project, financed with EU funds by the Ministry of Education. This is a package of “integrated teaching” where Pearson contributes the content for all the subjects, Google provides the software, and the hardware is the Acer Chromebook. (Incidentally, Pearson is the second largest publisher in the world, with a turnover of more than 4.5 billion euros in 2018.) And for the schools that join, it is not possible to buy other products.

Finally, although it may seem like science fiction, in addition to stabilizing proprietary distance learning as an “offer”, there is already talk of using artificial intelligence to “support” teachers in their work.

For all these reasons, a group of professors from various Italian universities decided to take action.

Our initiative is not currently aimed at presenting an immediate complaint to the data protection officer, but at avoiding it, by allowing teachers and students to create spaces for discussion and encourage them to make choices that combine their freedom of teaching with their right to study. Only if the institutional response is insufficient or absent, we will register, as a last resort, a complaint to the national privacy authority. In this case the first step will be to exploit the “flaw” opened by the EU court ruling to push the Italian privacy authority to intervene (indeed, the former President, Antonello Soro, had already done so, but received no response). The purpose of these actions is certainly not to “block” the platforms that provide distance learning and those who use them, but to push the government to finally invest in the creation of a public infrastructure based on free software for scientific communication and teaching (on the model of what is proposed here and which is already a reality for example in France, Spain and other European countries). On the other hand, UNESCO itself approved in 2019 a Recommendation for the use of free access educational tools and resources, and since April 2020 it has launched several initiatives at a global level in this same sense. As we said above, before appealing to the national authority, a preliminary stage is necessary. Everyone must write to the data protection officer (DPO) requesting some information (attached here is the facsimile of the form for teachers we have prepared). If no response is received within thirty days, or if the response is considered unsatisfactory, we can proceed with the complaint to the national authority. At that point, the conversation will change, because the complaint to the national authority can be made not only by individuals, but also by groups or associations. It is important to emphasize that, even in this avoidable scenario, the question to the data controller is ot necessarily a “protest” against the institution, but an attempt to turn it into a better working and study environment for everyone, conforming to European standards.


Translated by Desmond Schmidt and published first by Geoffrey Rockwell in Theoreti.ca, November 18, 2020.

 

Mesa Redonda “Digital Humanities / Humanidades Digitales / Informatica Umanistica. Un diálogo intercultural”

El próximo 20 de abril, Medialab UGR tomará parte en la Mesa Redonda “Digital Humanities/Humanidades Digitales/Informatica Umanistica” que se celebrará en Roma, en la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas de la Università degli Studi Roma Tre. Este evento, de formato multilingüe, forma parte de las acciones desarrolladas en el marco de “Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades Digitales del Sur“, un espacio de reflexión distribuido y abierto en torno a la conexión entre las Ciencias Sociales y las Humanidades y el medio digital. La coordinación del encuentro corre a cargo de Domenico Fiormonte, profesor de la universidad italiana que acoge la mesa redonda y miembro del equipo de Knowmetrics, proyecto de investigación impulsado por Medialab para el análisis y evaluación de las nuevas dinámicas de producción y diseminación del conocimiento científico que las tecnologías digitales están posibilitando.

Esteban Romero Frías, director de Medialab UGR e investigador principal de Knowmetrics, será uno de los participantes. Junto a él, intervendrán:

  • Barbara Bordalejo, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
  • Manuel Salamanca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
  • Teresa Numerico, Università Roma Tre
  • Manuel Portela, Universidade de Coimbra.
  • Ernesto Priani, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
  • Ernesto Priego, City University of London.
  • Nuria Rodríguez, Universidad de Málaga.
  • Amelia Sanz, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

En palabras de los propios organizadores, la reflexión que fija la temática del evento y centrará el debate entre los asistentes, podría formularse tal que así:

[Español]

Las denominadas “Digital Humanities” están cada vez más consolidadas a nivel internacional, bien sea institucionalmente, a través de la creación de nuevos centros y organizaciones, bien en el plano de la financiación de la investigación, pues, cada vez más a menudo, tiende a privilegiarse el componente “digital” del proyecto. Aunque las DH pueden constituir un potente instrumento de innovación, es importante recordar que ninguna tecnología es culturalmente neutra. Por ello, esta mesa redonda se propone reflexionar sobre el fenómeno de las DH desde el punto de vista de la sociedad y de la cultura del “Sur”, sometiendo a discusión la adopción crítica de modelos epistemológicos provenientes del Norte del mundo, y ofreciendo una visión alternativa sobre la relación entre saberes, territorios y tecnología digital.

20 de abril, 2017.
14:30 horas.
Sala de reuniones, cuarta planta.
Facultad de Ciencias Políticas,
Università Roma Tre.
Via Chiabrera, 199 – Roma.

[Italiano]

Le cosiddette “Digital Humanities” si stanno sempre più affermando a livello internazionale e istituzionale. Attraverso la creazione di nuovi centri e nuove organizzazioni attraggono risorse e finanziamenti, giacché sempre più spesso nei progetti di ricerca umanistici e sociali viene privilegiata la componente “digitale”. Ma se le DH da un lato possono essere un potente di strumento di innovazione, dall’altro occorre ricordare che nessuna tecnologia è culturalmente neutra. Questa tavola rotonda intende riflettere sul fenomeno delle DH dal punto di vista delle società e delle culture del “Sud”, mettendo in discussione l’adozione acritica di modelli epistemologici e culturali provenienti dal Nord del mondo e offrendo una visione alternativa del rapporto fra saperi, territori e tecnologie digitali.

20 aprile, 2017.
Ore 14.30.
Sala riunioni, IV piano.
Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche,
Università Roma Tre.
Via Chiabrera, 199 – Roma.

[Inglés]

The so-called “Digital Humanities” are nowadays more and more spread at international level; institutionally, on the one hand, considering the raising of new centres and organisations, or taking into account the allocation of resources and the financing of the research, on the other, since the “digital” is turning into a privileged component of the project. Even though the Digital Humanities could be a powerful push towards innovation, it should not be forgotten that any technology is culturally neutral. Hence, this round table seeks to reflect on the DH phenomena from the point of view of the society at large and the culture of the “South”, bringing into discussion the critical adoption of epistemological models coming from the North, at the same time an alternative vision about the relationship amongst knowledge, territories and digital technology is proposed.

20th april, 2017.
14:30 PM.
Meeting room, 4th floor.
Faculty of Political Science,
Università Roma Tre.
Via Chiabrera, 199 – Roma.

 

Relacionado

 

Verona 28-30 October: Humanities and Information Technology Seminar.

You are invited to join us from 28 to 30 October at the University of Verona, for the seminar Humanities and information Technologies. An introduction to the Digital Humanities. The seminar is aimed at Ph.D students and researches who are interested in the application of digital technologies to the study of the humanities. The event is organized by Anna Bognolo (University of Verona), Domenico Fiormonte (University of Roma Tre) e Tiziana Mancinelli (university of Reading).

Here is the program:

Tuesday 28th October

4:00-5:15pm: LECTURE 1

OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL HUMANITIES: Overview of the main current national and international trends in digital humanities

Break

5:30-7:00pm: WORKSHOP 1

Wednesday 29th October

10:00-11:15am: LECTURE 2

DOCUMENT’S DIGITAL REPRESENTATION: Introduction to text encoding and markup languages, especially XML-TEI and other advanced languages

Break

11:30am-1:00pm: WORKSHOP 2

Lunch

4:00-5:15pm: LECTURE 3

THEORIES AND TECHNIQUES OF SCHOLARLY DIGITAL EDITION: Digital editions, critical editions, text analyses, corpora, text retrieval, XML and databases (XSLT and XQuery)

Break

5:30-7:00pm: WORKSHOP 3

Thursday 30th October

10:00-11:15am: LECTURE 4

RESEARCH IN A NETWORKED ERA: FROM OPEN ACCESS TO DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURES: Overview of current models and initiatives in Europe and the world in the field of digital academic publishing

Break

11:30am-1:00pm: WORKSHOP 4

 

DATES: 28-30 October 2014

LOCATION: University of Verona, Dpt. Lingue e Letterature straniere, Lungadige di Porta Vittoria, 41, 3719.

For more information, please contact: Questo indirizzo e-mail è protetto dallo spam bot. Abilita Javascript per vederlo. or Questo indirizzo e-mail è protetto dallo spam bot. Abilita Javascript per vederlo.

 

 

 

The foundation of 'Centro di Umanistica Digitale'

12/09/2014 - The Instituto per la Storia del Pensiero Filosofico e Scientifico Moderno (ISPF) inaugurates the first Centro di Umanistica Digitale, based in Napoli. Ain't that good news? Its intent is to encourage the expansion of the Italian DH, combining technical awareness and cultural criticism. The ISPF involvement in electronic publishing and the digital humanities dates back to the late nineties, see Portale Vico. The Institute is also involved in the use of digital technologies for studying the circulation of ideas and the dissemination of scientific culture.
 

DIXiT Camp 2 in Graz

The second DiXiT camp, run by the Centre for Information Modeling – Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities (Graz), will be an intensive training on XML TEI P5 for Digital Scholarly Editions and on standards, tools and software for creating digital editions. It will provide students with theoretical knowledge and practical experience in creating digital editions using the open international encoding standard XML TEI P5. Basics of representing textual phenomena and features for the description, transcription and representation of primary sources will be covered, from data input to publication.

The camp is funded by the Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network (DiXiT) and will take place in Graz, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, the University of Cologne, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, SynchRO, TEI-C, and Text Grid.

The lectures will be held by experts from the DiXiT partners and will cover the following areas:

• General introduction on XML TEI P5 
• Transcription and editorial interventions 
• Critical apparatus 
• Genetic editing 
• Tools for digital editing 
• Customization of the TEI schema 
• Workflow and solutions to create an online presentation out of TEI 
• Metadata standards 
• Edition beyond text: image-text-linkage and music editions

For more information, please visit the website

DiXiT is funded under Marie Curie Actions within the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme.

 
Altri articoli...
  • And the winner is TILT!
  • Digital Variants is partner of DiXiT
  • The Mobile Text Conference
  • New Humanities

<< Inizio < Prec. 1 2 3 4 Succ. > Fine >>

Pagina 1 di 4

News
  • Why basing universities on digital platforms will lead to their demise
  • Mesa Redonda “Digital Humanities / Humanidades Digitales / Informatica Umanistica. Un diálogo intercultural”
  • Verona 28-30 October: Humanities and Information Technology Seminar.
  • The foundation of 'Centro di Umanistica Digitale'
  • DIXiT Camp 2 in Graz
Infolet
  • Geopolitica della conoscenza: le slide del seminario
  • VI Foro Mondiale Scienze e Democrazia: pandemia e ruolo delle tecnologie
  • Perché l’università delle piattaforme è la fine dell’università
  • Testo-Politica-Computer: il trittico rivoluzionario di Raul Mordenti
  • Internet in Palestina: repressione governativa e censura dei colossi digitali
New Texts
  • "By eye and cross" (Roberto Vacca)
  • "L' improvviso attacco dei Tartari", versione B, 1992 (Roberto Vacca)
  • "L' improvviso attacco dei Tartari", versione A, 1965 (Roberto Vacca)
  • "Una sorta di traditori: la lettera perduta" (Roberto Vacca)
  • "La giustizia invertita", versione B, 29/7/98 (Roberto Vacca)

Credits

Domenico Fiormonte, Coordinator, Università Roma Tre.


Benedetta Brasile, Web developer, Università Roma Tre.


Veronica Giannini, Interaction design, Sapienza Università di Roma.


Centro Interstrutture di Servizi Informatici e Telematici per le Facoltà Umanistiche, Hosting


Luana Babini, Teaching section, University of Edinburgh.


Ángel García Galiano, Translation, Universidad Complutense, Madrid.


Palomar New Media Srl, Grafic design


Cinzia Pusceddu

 

Scientific Board

Domenico Fiormonte, Dipartimento di Italianistica, Università di Roma Tre.

 

Desmond Schmidt, University of Queensland, Australia.

 

Giulio Lughi, Dipartimento di Scienze Letterarie, Università di Torino.

 

José Antonio Millán.

 

Xavier Renedo Puig, Departament de Filologia i Filosofia, Universitat de Girona.

 

Massimo Riva, Department of Italian Studies, Brown University.