The DOI matches its Crossref record; 42 of the 45 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Automation, APIs and the distributed labour of platform pedagogies in Google Classroom
Published version of a preprint
Abstract
Digital platforms have become central to interaction and participation in contemporary societies. New forms of ‘platformized education’ are rapidly proliferating across education systems, bringing logics of datafication, automation, surveillance, and interoperability into digitally mediated pedagogies. This article presents a conceptual framework and an original analysis of Google Classroom as an infrastructure for pedagogy. Its aim is to establish how Google configures new forms of pedagogic participation according to platform logics, concentrating on the cross-platform interoperability made possible by application programming interfaces (APIs). The analysis focuses on three components of the Google Classroom infrastructure and its configuration of pedagogic dynamics: Google as platform proprietor, setting the ‘rules’ of participation; the API which permits third-party integrations and data interoperability, thereby introducing automation and surveillance into pedagogic practices; and the emergence of new ‘divisions of labour’, as the working practices of school system administrators, teachers and guardians are shaped by the integrated infrastructure, while automated AI processes undertake the ‘reverse pedagogy’ of learning insights from the extraction of digital data. The article concludes with critical legal and practical ramifications of platform operators such as Google participating in education.
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“Students from disadvantaged backgrounds frequently face obstacles like poor internet and limited device access, significantly hindering their interaction with AI (Vogels, 2021; Perrotta et al., 2021; Selwyn, 2019).”
From From avoidance to adoption: strategies for integrating AI in higher education contexts (2026) · cites this paper as Perrotta et al., 2021
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“AI literacy in higher education (HE) is unevenly shaped by socioeconomic, disciplinary, and institutional factors.”
From From avoidance to adoption: strategies for integrating AI in higher education contexts (2026) · cites this paper as Perrotta et al., 2021
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Metadata
- Authors
- Perrotta, C., Gulson, K. N., Williamson, B., & Witzenberger, K.
- Affiliations
- Monash University (AU)
- School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Perrotta, Carlo
- Venue
- Critical Studies in Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-12-09
- Volume
- 62
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 97-113
- ISSN
- 0076-6275 (ISSN-L)
- 1750-8487
- 1750-8495
- OpenAlex
- W3112490946
- Cited by
- 208
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 22
- FWCI
- 25.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Critical Studies in Education (publishedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Digital Education and Society
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Global Educational Policies and Reforms
- Social Sciences › Education › Technology-Enhanced Education Studies
- Keywords
- Google Classroom, application programming interfaces, educational automation, school surveillance, datafication, interoperability, platformization of education, artificial intelligence in education, school administrators, guardians, digital infrastructure
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