Ben Williamson

Edinburgh

Freelance Contributor and Editor at Freelance

Digital tech & education | Projects on digital learning futures & data-driven biology in education | Editor @LMT_Journal | Same handle on bsky and masto too

Articles

Code Acts in Education: Great Edtech Exhibitions as Futuring Events

1 week ago | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Ben Williamson

Share Share on Bluesky Why is Facebook not here? Why is Twitter not here? Share on LinkedIn Permalink Email May 6, 2025 Educational innovations have been presented at large shows since the Great Exhibitions of the nineteenth century. At the Great Expos, national system leaders would display the latest reformatory ideas and statistics of their performance to other government figures and the general public.
Code Acts in Education: Training and Valuing the Brain Through Neurotechnology

1 month ago | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Ben Williamson

A neurotechnology company has just released a new headset device that claims to improve “cognitive fitness” by scanning and training users’ brains. The device, called Athena, is being marketed by Muse as enabling customers to “Future-Proof Your Brain”, enhance their “mental fitness”, and is accompanied by an app described as “Your handheld neuroscience lab”.
What It Takes To Operate 5,500 Megawatts of Renewable

2 months ago | 3blmedia.com | Ben Williamson

By Ben WilliamsonWhen heavy rain threatens to swell the Catawba-Wateree River, Duke Energy must act quickly to help protect nearby communities. At the center of those decisions is a nondescript office in northeast Charlotte, N.C., where a small but vital team oversees a diverse portfolio of renewable energy. Equipped with hundreds of cameras and hundreds of thousands of alarms, the Regulated Renewable Operations Center (RROC) serves as the central hub for this work.
Code Acts in Education: Piloting Turbocharged Fast AI Policy Experiments in Education

2 months ago | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Ben Williamson

Share Share on Bluesky Why is Facebook not here? Why is Twitter not here? Share on LinkedIn Permalink Email February 18, 2025 The UK Labour government has announced plans to “turbocharge” the deployment of artificial intelligence in public services.
Code Acts in Education: Critical Edtech Gets a Conference

Nov 11, 2024 | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Ben Williamson

Critical perspectives on educational technology (edtech) are more important than ever. Just in recent days, I’ve seen a lengthy post about the “buttonification” of AI in education, as new interfaces make it possible for educators to design and create lessons “at the push of a button”. And I’ve heard of wealthy parents getting litigious with a school that gave their son a bad grade for using AI in his assignment, with the parents concerned it would prevent him getting into a prestigious university.
Code Acts in Education: Automated Austerity Schooling

Sep 26, 2024 | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Ben Williamson

The Department for Education for England has announced a £4 million plan to create a “content store” for education companies to train generative AI models. The project is intended to help reduce teacher workload by enabling edtech companies to build applications for marking, planning, preparing materials, and routine admin.
Code Act in Education: Automated Austerity Schooling

Sep 26, 2024 | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Ben Williamson

The Department for Education for England has announced a £4 million plan to create a “content store” for education companies to train generative AI models. The project is intended to help reduce teacher workload by enabling edtech companies to build applications for marking, planning, preparing materials, and routine admin.
Code Acts in Education: Genetic IQ Tests Are Bad Science and Big Business

Sep 6, 2024 | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Ben Williamson

A personal genomics startup company has announced plans to launch a genetic intelligence testing service. Backed by technology investors, Nucleus Genomics released a disease screening product in March 2024, followed by a beta version of the “Nucleus IQ” test in late June – a product it eventually aims to roll our for all customers. News of the test is resurfacing controversies over the accuracy and ethics of using genetic data to identify and rate “innate” human abilities.
Automated austerity schooling

Aug 29, 2024 | codeactsineducation.wordpress.com | Ben Williamson

The Department for Education for England has announced a £4 million plan to create a “content store” for education companies to train generative AI models. The project is intended to help reduce teacher workload by enabling edtech companies to build applications for marking, planning, preparing materials, and routine admin.
Code Acts in Education: Polygenic Scores as Political Technologies in Educational Genomics

Aug 8, 2024 | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Ben Williamson

Share Why is Facebook not here? Why is Twitter not here? Share on LinkedIn Share on Google Plus Permalink Email August 8, 2024 Polygenic scores are summary statistics invented in biomedical genetics research to estimate a person’s risk of developing a disease or medical condition, and are often envisaged as the basis for “personalized” or “stratified medicine”.