Autoroll: scripting the emergence of classroom facial recognition technology. Issue 1 (2nd January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Selwyn, Neil; Campbell, Liz; Andrejevic, Mark
• Is Part Of: Learning, media & technology. Volume 48:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 166
• Page End: 179
• Publication Date: 2023-01-02
• Subjects: Facial recognition -- schools -- surveillance -- biometrics -- start-up -- sociotechnical; Educational technology -- Periodicals; Internet in education -- Periodicals; Television in education -- Periodicals; Distance education -- Periodicals; Teaching -- Aids and devices -- Periodicals; 371.33
• DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2022.2039938
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1743-9884

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper considers how facial recognition technology is coming to find a place in contemporary schooling. Drawing on the 'script analysis' approach from the field of Science and Technology Studies, the paper examines the development of a facial recognition-based classroom recognition system by an Australian start-up company – 'AutoRoll'. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary data, the paper details the ongoing negotiations and mechanisms of adjustment between start-up founders, developers, marketers, policy and education actors as this socio-technical object progresses through successive phases of scripting, deinscripting and rescripting. These accounts illustrate how an initially contested technology enters a local educational system and begins to be sold to schools. In particular, the paper considers the ways in which a spirit of tech industry 'solutionism' is used to manufacture trust and legitimacy in the face of the disjointed governance and limited oversight of ed-tech by government and other public agencies.