Beetham, Cronin & Czerniewicz: Addressing Challenges to Open Education in an Era of Authoritarianism

Note: this keynote's title has been truncated. Its full title is "Addressing Challenges to Open Education in an Era of Authoritarianism and Big Tech." Helen Beetham is a Lecturer in Digital Education and a researcher, writer and consultant with more than 25 years experience in the field. Her digital capabilities framework is widely used in the UK and internationally, and her edited book Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age has been a standard text through three editions. She writes on edtech from a critical, feminist and materialist perspective, and produces a popular blog and podcast, Imperfect Offerings, recommended by the Guardian/Observer as ‘one of the sharpest and most thoughtful’ resources on AI. Dr. Catherine Cronin is an independent scholar focusing on critical and social justice approaches in digital, open, and higher education. She has worked in the higher education sector for many years, most recently as digital/open education lead in Ireland’s National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in HE. Catherine has published widely and openly on topics including open education, digital and open education policy, critical literacies, and feminist and social justice approaches – including, most recently, the book Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures (#HE4Good), co-edited with Laura Czerniewicz. A born New Yorker who has made her home in Ireland, Catherine blogs and shares scholarship at CatherineCronin.net. Laura Czerniewicz was the first director of the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), at the University of Cape Town, (2014 to 2020) having previously led UCT’s Centre for Educational Technology, OpenUCT Initiative and Multimedia Education Group . Her many roles in education over the years include academic, researcher, strategist, advocate, teacher, teacher-trainer and educational publisher. Threaded through all her work has been a focus on equity and digital inequality. These have permeated her research interests which focus on the changing nature of higher education in a post-digital society and new forms of teaching and learning provision. She plays a key strategic and scholarly role in the areas of blended /online learning as well as in open education institutionally, nationally and internationally.