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Critically Evaluating Digital Tools
#CritPrax 2022, Wednesday
Instructions
First, to acknowledge credit: Jesse Stommel created this activity many years ago, and
it is remixed here with his permission.
This project is best completed in small groups. Work with other people and take a
“divide and conquer” approach. An easy way to do this involves partnering with folks
interested in the same set of tools. Each person selects one tool from the set,
researches it, and reports fi ndings back to the group. The group then collaboratively
creates an overall assessment of the set of tools. This evaluation may take the form of
a ranking system, or it may simply be a review of the collection.
This activity is designed to encourage a deep dive into the kinds of analysis we could
(should?) do with any tool before using it in our classes. Immediately below, I list
suggested tools/topics to investigate. Below that list, you’ll fi nd the questions to
consider when performing your investigation.
As with everything this week, do only what makes sense for you, given your available
energy level and the value you expect to get from the activity. While we present a list of
questions below, we do so in the spirit of a menu of options, rather than a full set to be
completed in its entirety.
Tools/Topics
Sign up for a specifi c tool to investigate by typing your name beside it, preferably
in a
bright color
. This activity works best when folks team up to examine multiple options
within a category, facilitating comparisons.
1.
Annotation Tools
•
Geni.us
•
Hypothes.is
•
Perusall
2.
Publication Platforms
•
Medium
•
WordPress (.com)
-
Nanditha Krishna
•
Ghost
3.
Learning Management Systems
•
Instructure’s Canvas
•
Blackboard
•
D2L’s Brightspace
•
Moodle
4.
Hosting Providers
•
Reclaim Hosting
•
GoDaddy
•
Squarespace
5.
Productivity Suites
•
Google Workspace (Docs, Drive, etc.)
- Daria Hafner
•
Microsoft Offi ce (Word, PowerPoint, etc.)
•
Apple iWork (Pages, Keynote, etc.)
— Jennifer Dellner
•
OpenOffi ce
•
CryptPad/CryptDrive
- Giorgia
•
Zoho Workplac
e
6.
Search Engines
•
Google
•
DuckDuckGo
•
Yahoo!
7.
Web Browsers
•
Mozilla Firefox
•
Tor Browser
•
Google Chrome
•
Apple Safari
•
Microsoft Edge
8.
Messaging Platforms
•
Facebook/Meta WhatsApp
•
Facebook/Meta Messenger
•
Apple iMessage
•
Signal
9.
Payment Processing Platforms
•
PayPal
•
Venmo
•
Zelle
•
Cash App
Questions to Consider
The questions below are designed to help you uncover aspects of ed-tech platforms
that might not be immediately obvious. See where these investigations take you. Drop
your responses/fi ndings at the bottom of this document so others can see what you
fi nd.
Technological
1.
What functions does the tool reportedly perform?
What does it actually do?
2.
What personal data is required to use the tool (login, email address, birthdate,
etc.), where is it housed, and who owns it? How anonymous can someone be
while using it?
3.
How accessible is the tool? For a blind person? For a hearing-impaired user? For
a person with a learning disability? For introverts? For extroverts? Etc. What
statements does the company make about accessibility?
4.
What are the costs involved in the use of this tool? Who pays those costs? Do
they recur, scale with the institution size, etc? What costs are saved or incurred
beyond the price tag — for instance, does the use of this tool replace a person’s
job?
Political
1.
What company owns the tool, and what are its politics (perceived or stated)? Who
is the company’s CEO, and how are they perceived?
2.
How can this tool be used to demonstrate care of, and compassion for, other
people?
3.
What assumptions does the tool make about its users? What kind of relationships
does it set up between teachers / students? School / the world? Humans /
technology?
Pedagogical
1.
How does the tool constrain or reinforce our pedagogies?
2.
What assumptions does the tool make about learning and education? Does the
tool attempt to dictate how our learning and teaching happen? How is this
reflected in specifi c design and/or marketing choices?
3.
How could the tool be used in a way that puts the learning into student’s hands?
Does the tool leave students agency or choice in how they use it?
Responses/Findings
Productivity Suites
CryptPad
Tech
"end-to-end encrypted and open-source
collaboration
suite". Licensed
software, open code; the team of developers is a company;
public funding (+
donations and subscriptions)
. No personal data required but it's impossible
to retrieve username/password. Privacy policy seems clear! "
what we do
with your data
" etc.
Can't fi nd accessibility statements. I think it's good that the website has a
gray background though, should be good for readability.
Not sure alt-text is
provided.
Subscriptions
: paid (more storage), registered - free, unregistered - free
Political
Company: XWiki SAS. CEO: Ludovic Dubost
(mentioned) Values: collaborative culture, open knowledge, open source. "We
don't report to external investors driven only by fi nancial goals" - but they do
partner with more controversial companies such as Amazon. The company
has a mainstream social media presence but CryptPad does not. I appreciate
that they use more ethical/independent alternatives: Mastodon, Peertube, etc.
Google Workplace
Pedagogical
The tool itself replicates what is typically offered by other productivity suites.
On the design side, they look more basic and less appealing. I haven't tested
the collaboration features but for individual use they "do the job".
Technological
So many things: email, calendar, address book, messaging, whiteboards,
websites, LMS, phone, storage, spreadsheets, documents, photos. The apps
included in Google Workplace are: Gmail, Chat, Meet, Calendar, Drive, Docs,
Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, Amin, and Vault. But there are various add-ons. My
institution has Jamboard, for example (which I use all the time, and is not
compatible with screen readers)
Some versions are free, but if you want more storage, a customized domain
name, more support, and other features
costs are added
.
Google's FAQs talk a lot about protecting data from outside, but not a lot about
data ownership or resale. It has contractual clauses to align with EU data
protection requirements.
Google states
that in workspace, "The customer - not
Google - owns their data" and that it does not sell data to third parties or have
advertising. Conversely, they admit that "
We use your data to provide Google
Workspace services, and for system support, such as spam fi ltering, virus
detection, spell-checking, capacity planning, traffi c routing, and the ability to
search for emails and fi les within an individual account".
This seems a bit like
splitting hairs. Google might not sell it or own it, but they clearly still
use
and
store
the data for all of these other purposes under "system support". What
happens when Google accounts are linked to a student's id? Do they have access
to fi nancial aid and personal information? (Some publishing companies, like
LexisNexis and Westlaw, do depending on the product).
Political
Google Inc., which is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. CEO is Sundar Pichai. I think
Google makes the assumption that its users want effi ciency and ease of use, so
all of the apps are connected and work together.
Pedagogical
Several of the aspects of this tool allow for collaborative work, which I think gives
students more control over when they work together - they can work
asynchronously. Depending on the tool, edits can be made anonymously,
although this is disappearing (for example, Jamboard now has a version history,
so you can see when changes were made, if not who made them).
Apple iWork
Technological
Apple presents iWork as an offi ce suite consisting of Pages (documents),
Keynote (slide presentations), and Numbers (Spreadsheets) vs. the panoply
that is Google workspace, though it is clear that iWork’s capacities only fully
work when iWork is used with iCloud. Apple touts what it often refers to as
the “handoff” that iCloud enables between and among all a user’s devices:
“
iCloud is built into every Apple device. That means all your stuff — photos,
fi les, notes, and more — is safe, up to date, and available wherever you are.
Everyone gets 5GB of free iCloud storage to start.
”
Though not a technological feature per se, a major feature of the iWorks
suite is that it is free (since 2013) to all users of Apple devices, along with
the 5GB of storage advertised. This 5GB of storage is usually quickly
extended by users via paid plans, thus putting the user’s “
lifetime of
photos
” and docs into the cloud on a kind of lifetime payment plan.
To use it, a person needs an Apple device (it now powerfully integrates
across mobile, iOS and the standard OS platforms),and an Apple account.
Recent reviews
support Apple’s own claims that iCloud is more secure than
Google Drive and other g-spaces, if the user enables the security features
that Apple offers. Several key features, such as two factor authentication
and “hide my email” are opt-in security features. Apple writes, “
iCloud
secures your information by encrypting it when it’s in transit, storing it in an
encrypted format, and securing your encryption keys in Apple data
centers.
”
Apple lays out the level of security for each kind of data type
, and
their transparency in this regard is well known.
Disadvantageously, PCs and Windows remain the bog standard issue
laptop and OS in most industry and academic settings, though this is where
the “collaboration” feature of the suite (we are using it in this doc) really
shines, as it enables non-Apple users to open and edit documents shared
with then, and to download these in PC-friendly formats. MS Word in
particular is preferred by the publishing industry, and matching fonts and
layouts for print can be trialsome, especially since one will usually be asked
to convert a Pages document to a Word doc ultimately.
Apple has upped its game with iWorks in recent years: Pages, for example,
has Excel style charts built into it, and offers translation to and from a
growing number of languages (this writer would say it is not fantastic, but
will do if needed); Keynote now uses a front facing camera to become a
kind of live-presentation platform with
Keynote Live
, eliminating the need
for Zoom, Webex, FaceTime, etc in some instances, and especially
once
Apple rolls out Freeform
, which is not part of iWork, but will operate as a
collaboration space in FaceTime and iMessage (so far).
Wordpress.com
(free version)
Political
Though Apple has a strong
ethics and compliance statement
, the conditions in
some of their factories in China are now well known for their brutal working
conditions. As far as I could determine through a quick look around, conditions
have not changed, though Apple claims it stands committed to human rights and
the integrity of its supply chain.
Politically and pedagogically, Apple has had the reputation of being the company
and the products that draw creatives, though the shift, post-Steve Jobs, to what
critics have termed “consumption rather than creation” is also a political rebuke
against Apple’s vaunted priorities of putting creative agency in the hands ands
pockets of all. Its products cost more and do not play well within the larger
corporate eco-system (i.e. the elimination of standard USB ports in many on its
products) and this is both praised and damned as a political stance. Noted: the
standard headphone jack will be returned to some products (June 2022) and this
has been read as both a marketing and political move. The EU recently (also June
2022) made it law that
all devices have a USB-C charging port by 2026
a rule many
hopeful Apple users [raises hand] are watching from both a technical and political
standpoint.
Pedagogicial
Pedagogically, unless a campus is an all- or mostly Apple campus, it is hard to
explore and exploit the full potential of its products and the iWork suite. In summary
fashion, it does all of the things Google Suite can do, though it is less popular
because of its closed eco-system. This system is becoming more inter-operable
with its use of iCloud (and now FaceTime) to build out its collaborative functions,
though in practical ways, it does not integrate with certain LMSes and this fact
keeps campuses from using it. For example, a Pages document will not render in
the Speedgrader function in Canvas: the student must either convert the doc to a
pdf to upload it or the prof must download it and read it outside of the speedgrader
interface. A very particular problem, but it speaks to the fact that many purveyors
of ed tech do not fi nd it necessary to incorporate easy use of Apple products into
their systems.
iWork offers, in fact, a better working environment in Numbers for stats and other
data displays, but the fact of Excel as “the industry standard” often limits its use.
Similarly, Pages offers what is often termed a cleaner writing environment than
Word. Apple shines, and always has, particularly in software that is not free and not
included in the iWork package, and that is in graphics and visual design, such as
Final Cut Pro. On our campus, were graphics processing and creation is needed,
we have Apple hardware and software, as does the Computer Science department,
as the easy access to terminal and the Python shell make it a natural choice for
learning both Python and other programming languages. In sum, iWork is a
powerful suite of tools, simply more rarely used than the Dell+MS standard offered
to students on most college/university campuses.
Technological
What functions does the tool reportedly perform?
What does it actually do?
What personal data is required to use the tool
(login, email address, birthdate, etc.), where is it
housed, and who owns it? How anonymous can
someone be while using it?
How accessible is the tool? For a blind person?
For a hearing-impaired user? For a person with a
learning disability? For introverts? For extroverts?
Etc. What statements does the company make
about accessibility?
What are the costs involved in the use of this tool?
Who pays those costs? Do they recur, scale with
the institution size, etc? What costs are saved or
incurred beyond the price tag — for instance,
does the use of this tool replace a person’s job?
Free version : Create/Build websites/webpages,
choose select and limited domain names, create
blogs
P
aid version : website hosting, choose domain of
choice
Login details : email and password
or google login
Not really anonymous because Gravatar profi les
are created, and login details collected
Accessibility statement:
https://wordpress.com/support/accessibility/
Table of Contents
1. Mobile Accessibility
2. Improve Accessibility on your Site
0. Write Descriptive Image Captions
1. Use Alt Text on Images
2. Clearly Describe Links
3. Display Your Site Title and Tagline
4. Use Appropriate Headings
3. Choose Fonts and Colors Wisely
4. Accessible Themes
5. Accessibility Guidelines
Accessible themes, however nothing mentioned
about accessibility for personality traits-introvert/
extrovert etc
Nothing also mentioned about learning disabilities
Free-version allows free website creations.
Paid versions- allow extra features/plugins/tools.
Unsure about costs
Political
What company owns the tool, and what are its
politics (perceived or stated)? Who is the
company’s CEO, and how are they perceived?
How can this tool be used to demonstrate care of,
and compassion for, other people?
What assumptions does the tool make about its
users? What kind of relationships does it set up
between teachers / students? School / the world?
Humans / technology
We’re a hosted version of the open source
software, WordPress.
AUTOMATTIC
Matt Mullenweg-CEO of Automattic
Storytelling, expression of thoughts and opinions
can help in community building.
For example : a website like The Loneliness
Project can help ring about an entire community
of people battling mental health issues, chronic
loneliness together
Wordpress.com
free versions tools are mostly
self-explanatory, especially with the new block
type features
Assumptions : basic knowledge of HTML
(however it is very minimal and google can help)
A great tool for teachers and students
Pedagogical
How does the tool constrain or reinforce our
pedagogies?
What assumptions does the tool make about
learning and education? Does the tool attempt to
dictate how our learning and teaching happen?
How is this reflected in specifi c design and/or
marketing choices?
How could the tool be used in a way that puts the
learning into student’s hands? Does the tool leave
students agency or choice in how they use it?
Assumption that people are aware of web-site
building process from scratch (terminology
explained not properly enough)
Cookies and ads appear on free version
The tool- can be made more interactive
Wordpress can be a wonderful teaching aid to
express our thoughts, stories, experiences,
written long-forms and through blogs- which can
give students agency to write their heart out when
and if they want to
Wordpress can be also be used to post
curicullums, teaching instructions, through
quizzes/options/interactive links- it can be made
more interesting
