Podcast pondering
Dear Tabitha,
You asked us to listen to a library podcast and report back...
In Broad Strokes:
I listened to a podcast titled “Personal Information in the name of ‘User Experience’ with Donna Lanclos” (episode 61 of the podcast series Metric: The User Experience Design Podcast).This podcast was focused on the topic of libraries and schools being marketed to buy learning analytic technology and the implications of using such things in library and integrated school systems. The indented audience for this podcast is library staff and decision/policy makers in academia, library science students, and anyone interested in a critique of learning analytics in schools. The Wikipedia definition of “learning analytics” is “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs.”
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| The podcast reminds me of George Orwell's 1984. |
Summary:
The interviewee of the podcast, Donna Lanclos, talks about how UI has become a buzzword in libraries and how some post-secondary academic libraries and integrated school systems have purchased such systems—pushed by library vendors using the “you should collect data on patrons so you can personalize their user experience” argument. Lanclos is very critical of this because she says, they essentially function as surveillance. She goes on to argue that education and library values—such as caring relationships, education as a journey of exposure to new things, and patron privacy—become muddled because the public-private sector separation is now blurred.
My Response:
The conclusion wasn’t mind-blowing, but I was impressed at how well it was articulated. I also enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm both podcasters had during their conversation.
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