Carlo Perrotta
Biographic Data
| ID | 189687 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carlo Perrotta |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carlo |
| FAMILY NAME | Perrotta |
| SIGNATURE | PERROTTA C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Monash University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3572-0844 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
‘Whack the prompt in there and see what it says’
Using a communication lens, this article shows how interactions with a persuasive, but not entirely trustworthy, artificial partner (ChatGPT) are explained and ‘made sense of’ in an educational setting. The argument draws on a year-long qualitative study in a language school for international students. The findings draw attention to communicative negotiations about contextual criteria of authority, pedagogical meaning, and trust. In particular, t…
Atmospheric Analytics
This article challenges the view of technologies, and more particularly generative artificial intelligence (AI), as augmenting experience through binary human–computer interactions and offloading tasks. Instead, it argues that such technologies exhibit atmospheric qualities, shaping situated encounters through an interplay of infrastructure and affect. The article proposes atmospheric analytics as a heuristic framework for investigating these enc…
Making Sense of the Digital Automation of Education
Digital Technologies and the Automation of Education — Key Questions and Concerns
Education — as with most areas of contemporary life — is becoming steadily infused with small acts of technology-based automation. These automations are intrinsic to the software, apps, systems, platforms and digital devices that pervade contemporary education. Viewed on a case-by-case basis, each of these different automations might appear to be of minor importance, and can quickly fade into the background of any school, university or other educ…
Advancing data justice in education
This article proposes a pragmatic approach to data justice in education that draws upon Nancy Fraser's theory. The main argument is premised on the theoretical and practical superiority of a deontological framework for addressing algorithmic bias and harms, compared to ethical guidelines. The purpose of a deontological framework is to enable the evaluation of justice claims, not as a burden for individuals or groups, but as part of an ongoing pub…
The critical study of digital platforms and infrastructures
Digital platforms have become integral to contemporary schooling. Google Classroom, Compass, Office 365, EdQuire, ClassDojo and Canvas are just some of the many platforms that litter students’ and teachers’ computers today. While students may have only one school to physically attend, there is a labyrinth of digital enclosures for them to navigate as part of their schooling. The rise of digital platforms in education has occurred at an erratic ra…
How do teachers enact assessment policies as they navigate critical ethical incidents in digital spaces
Teachers are increasingly required to enact assessment policies in digitalised spaces, raising ethical issues of privacy and surveillance in the process. Yet, while policy enactment has been examined extensively, there remains research uncertainty around the ethical dimensions associated with assessment policy in digitalised settings. Drawing upon Ball et al.’s Typology of Policy Positions, and utilising Australian teachers’ interviews, we illust…
Amazon and the New Global Connective Architectures of Education Governance
In this analytical essay, part of Harvard Educational Review’s symposium on Platform Studies in Education, Ben Williamson, Kalervo N. Gulson, Carlo Perrotta, and Kevin Witzenberger argue that global technology companies have begun acting as governance organizations in education. Their analysis focuses on the global technology company Amazon, which has begun penetrating education through a connective architecture of digital infrastructure and plat…
Artificial intelligence and the affective labour of understanding
Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) language models has grown considerably following the release of ‘generative pre-trained transformer’ (GPT). Framing AI as an extractive technology, this article details how GPT harnesses human labour and sensemaking at two stages: (1) during training when the algorithm ‘learns’ biased communicative patterns extracted from the Internet and (2) during usage when humans write alongside the AI. This second pha…
What might the school of 2030 be like? An exercise in social science fiction
This article addresses the deliberately speculative question of ‘What might the school of 2030 be like?’, with a specific focus on the influences of digital technologies. The article adopts the methodological approach of ‘social science fiction’ to explore the ways in which digital technologies might be used in one Australian high school in 2030 (Lakeside), and what this might mean for the people whose lives are enmeshed with these technologies. …
Deep learning goes to school
In Applied AI, or ‘machine learning’, methods such as neural networks are used to train computers to perform tasks without human intervention. In this article, we question the applicability of these methods to education. In particular, we consider a case of recent attempts from data scientists to add AI elements to a handful of online learning environments, such as Khan Academy and the ASSISTments intelligent tutoring system. Drawing on Science a…
Empowering learners with personalised learning approaches? Agency, equity and transparency in the context of learning analytics
The emergence of personalised data technologies such as learning analytics is framed as a solution to manage the needs of higher education student populations that are growing ever more diverse and larger in size. However, the current approach to learning analytics presents tensions between increasing student agency in making learning-related decisions and ‘datafying’ students in the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting data. This ar…
Automation, APIs and the distributed labour of platform pedagogies in Google Classroom
Digital platforms have become central to interaction and participation in contemporary societies. New forms of ‘platformized education’ are rapidly proliferating across education systems, bringing logics of datafication, automation, surveillance, and interoperability into digitally mediated pedagogies. This article presents a conceptual framework and an original analysis of Google Classroom as an infrastructure for pedagogy. Its aim is to establi…
Games as (Not) Culture
This article presents a critical examination of European policy in relation to gamification. We begin by describing how gamification “traveled” as an idea, evolving from controversial yet persuasive buzzword to legitimate policy priority. We then focus on how gamification was represented in Horizon 2020: the flagship European Research & Development program from 2014 to 2020, worth nearly €80 billion of funding. The article argues that the ethical…
Digital Learning in the UK
Focusing on the UK context, and drawing on freely available information about online learning and the underlying commercial agreements between institutions, Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms and Online Program Management (OPM) companies, this article shows how digitization and universities' global expansion strategies are involved in forms of transnational marketization. In particular, the article shows that the online learning market…
The rise of the video-recorder teacher
This paper draws on actor-network theory and on the sociology of cultural consumption to examine the phenomenon of corporate Massive Open Online Courses. Through an analysis of texts available in the public domain, the paper argues that over a short period (between 2012 and 2013) digitisation technology became associated with the emergence of a hybrid ‘actor’: the digital video-recorder teacher. A parallel is drawn between the ‘interactive afford…
Automation, APIs and the distributed labour of platform pedagogies in Google Classroom
Digital platforms have become central to interaction and participation in contemporary societies. New forms of ‘platformized education’ are rapidly proliferating across education systems, bringing logics of datafication, automation, surveillance, and interoperability into digitally mediated pedagogies. This article presents a conceptual framework and an original analysis of Google Classroom as an infrastructure for pedagogy. Its aim is to establi…
Artificial intelligence and the affective labour of understanding
Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) language models has grown considerably following the release of ‘generative pre-trained transformer’ (GPT). Framing AI as an extractive technology, this article details how GPT harnesses human labour and sensemaking at two stages: (1) during training when the algorithm ‘learns’ biased communicative patterns extracted from the Internet and (2) during usage when humans write alongside the AI. This second pha…
The rise of the video-recorder teacher
This paper draws on actor-network theory and on the sociology of cultural consumption to examine the phenomenon of corporate Massive Open Online Courses. Through an analysis of texts available in the public domain, the paper argues that over a short period (between 2012 and 2013) digitisation technology became associated with the emergence of a hybrid ‘actor’: the digital video-recorder teacher. A parallel is drawn between the ‘interactive afford…
Digital Learning in the UK
Focusing on the UK context, and drawing on freely available information about online learning and the underlying commercial agreements between institutions, Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms and Online Program Management (OPM) companies, this article shows how digitization and universities' global expansion strategies are involved in forms of transnational marketization. In particular, the article shows that the online learning market…
The rise of the video-recorder teacher
This paper draws on actor-network theory and on the sociology of cultural consumption to examine the phenomenon of corporate Massive Open Online Courses. Through an analysis of texts available in the public domain, the paper argues that over a short period (between 2012 and 2013) digitisation technology became associated with the emergence of a hybrid ‘actor’: the digital video-recorder teacher. A parallel is drawn between the ‘interactive afford…
Digital Learning in the UK
Focusing on the UK context, and drawing on freely available information about online learning and the underlying commercial agreements between institutions, Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms and Online Program Management (OPM) companies, this article shows how digitization and universities' global expansion strategies are involved in forms of transnational marketization. In particular, the article shows that the online learning market…
Games as (Not) Culture
This article presents a critical examination of European policy in relation to gamification. We begin by describing how gamification “traveled” as an idea, evolving from controversial yet persuasive buzzword to legitimate policy priority. We then focus on how gamification was represented in Horizon 2020: the flagship European Research & Development program from 2014 to 2020, worth nearly €80 billion of funding. The article argues that the ethical…
What might the school of 2030 be like? An exercise in social science fiction
This article addresses the deliberately speculative question of ‘What might the school of 2030 be like?’, with a specific focus on the influences of digital technologies. The article adopts the methodological approach of ‘social science fiction’ to explore the ways in which digital technologies might be used in one Australian high school in 2030 (Lakeside), and what this might mean for the people whose lives are enmeshed with these technologies. …
Deep learning goes to school
In Applied AI, or ‘machine learning’, methods such as neural networks are used to train computers to perform tasks without human intervention. In this article, we question the applicability of these methods to education. In particular, we consider a case of recent attempts from data scientists to add AI elements to a handful of online learning environments, such as Khan Academy and the ASSISTments intelligent tutoring system. Drawing on Science a…
Empowering learners with personalised learning approaches? Agency, equity and transparency in the context of learning analytics
The emergence of personalised data technologies such as learning analytics is framed as a solution to manage the needs of higher education student populations that are growing ever more diverse and larger in size. However, the current approach to learning analytics presents tensions between increasing student agency in making learning-related decisions and ‘datafying’ students in the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting data. This ar…
Automation, APIs and the distributed labour of platform pedagogies in Google Classroom
Digital platforms have become central to interaction and participation in contemporary societies. New forms of ‘platformized education’ are rapidly proliferating across education systems, bringing logics of datafication, automation, surveillance, and interoperability into digitally mediated pedagogies. This article presents a conceptual framework and an original analysis of Google Classroom as an infrastructure for pedagogy. Its aim is to establi…
Amazon and the New Global Connective Architectures of Education Governance
In this analytical essay, part of Harvard Educational Review’s symposium on Platform Studies in Education, Ben Williamson, Kalervo N. Gulson, Carlo Perrotta, and Kevin Witzenberger argue that global technology companies have begun acting as governance organizations in education. Their analysis focuses on the global technology company Amazon, which has begun penetrating education through a connective architecture of digital infrastructure and plat…
Artificial intelligence and the affective labour of understanding
Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) language models has grown considerably following the release of ‘generative pre-trained transformer’ (GPT). Framing AI as an extractive technology, this article details how GPT harnesses human labour and sensemaking at two stages: (1) during training when the algorithm ‘learns’ biased communicative patterns extracted from the Internet and (2) during usage when humans write alongside the AI. This second pha…
Making Sense of the Digital Automation of Education
Digital Technologies and the Automation of Education — Key Questions and Concerns
Education — as with most areas of contemporary life — is becoming steadily infused with small acts of technology-based automation. These automations are intrinsic to the software, apps, systems, platforms and digital devices that pervade contemporary education. Viewed on a case-by-case basis, each of these different automations might appear to be of minor importance, and can quickly fade into the background of any school, university or other educ…
Advancing data justice in education
This article proposes a pragmatic approach to data justice in education that draws upon Nancy Fraser's theory. The main argument is premised on the theoretical and practical superiority of a deontological framework for addressing algorithmic bias and harms, compared to ethical guidelines. The purpose of a deontological framework is to enable the evaluation of justice claims, not as a burden for individuals or groups, but as part of an ongoing pub…
The critical study of digital platforms and infrastructures
Digital platforms have become integral to contemporary schooling. Google Classroom, Compass, Office 365, EdQuire, ClassDojo and Canvas are just some of the many platforms that litter students’ and teachers’ computers today. While students may have only one school to physically attend, there is a labyrinth of digital enclosures for them to navigate as part of their schooling. The rise of digital platforms in education has occurred at an erratic ra…
How do teachers enact assessment policies as they navigate critical ethical incidents in digital spaces
Teachers are increasingly required to enact assessment policies in digitalised spaces, raising ethical issues of privacy and surveillance in the process. Yet, while policy enactment has been examined extensively, there remains research uncertainty around the ethical dimensions associated with assessment policy in digitalised settings. Drawing upon Ball et al.’s Typology of Policy Positions, and utilising Australian teachers’ interviews, we illust…
‘Whack the prompt in there and see what it says’
Using a communication lens, this article shows how interactions with a persuasive, but not entirely trustworthy, artificial partner (ChatGPT) are explained and ‘made sense of’ in an educational setting. The argument draws on a year-long qualitative study in a language school for international students. The findings draw attention to communicative negotiations about contextual criteria of authority, pedagogical meaning, and trust. In particular, t…
Atmospheric Analytics
This article challenges the view of technologies, and more particularly generative artificial intelligence (AI), as augmenting experience through binary human–computer interactions and offloading tasks. Instead, it argues that such technologies exhibit atmospheric qualities, shaping situated encounters through an interplay of infrastructure and affect. The article proposes atmospheric analytics as a heuristic framework for investigating these enc…
Sociology (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Political science (8 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Engineering (6 works) · Engineering ethics (5 works) · Digital Education and Society (4 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (4 works) · Online Learning and Analytics (4 works) · Automation (3 works)