The answer is 'yes', at least in Europe, but there's much more to the story. 'Behavioral advertising' basically targets people based on their behaviour, and is used not only for personalization but also to learn how design choices can influence behaviour through methods called 'dark patterns'. The focus on advertising means that marketers need to find both new ways to collect data and also new ways to influence behaviour. I don't want to draw too dark a line connecting A and B here, but it's hard not to see a renewed focus on 'personalized' learning by industry as an effort to address that problem. I'm not saying industry should not be involved in education, but my preference would be to see industry paying for it (preferably through taxation) rather than controlling and using it for their own purposes, and I would in general urge that learning software and resources be open and community based.
Today: 2 Total: 22 [Direct link] [Share]
