From Frankenstein to IoToys: educating between control and autonomy in the age of datafication

Silvestro Malara, Fabiana Milardi

Abstract


The tension between control and autonomy encourages educational models oriented toward constructing the “perfect child,” evoking the figure of the teacher as creator and the risk of a pedagogy of fabrication (Shelley, 1818; Meirieu, 1996; Biesta, 2009). Therefore, IoToys emerge as devices that, through processes of datafication, enable personalization and care  in learning, while sustaining a fantasy of control grounded in monitoring and optimization of behaviour (Holloway & Mascheroni, 2019; Floridi, 2022). Embedded in datafied educational environments - interconnected “non-places” - they reshape play and expose it to dynamics  of surveillance and normalization (Bonaiuti et al., 2017; Lancini & Cirillo, 2022). The paper examines technophobic resistance and proposes teacher training models promoting technology domestication, prioritizing pedagogical intentionality over technical functionality (Tisseron, 2016; Marangi, 2023; Rivoltella & Rossi, 2019), ultimately arguing for a pedagogy that, in governing the Technium,  fosters agency, ethical awareness, and educational freedom (Cambi & Pinto Minerva, 2023).

Keywords


IoToys; datafication; Frankenstein complex

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.32043/gsd.v10i4.1882

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