Data entry: towards the critical study of digital data and education Neil Selwyn * Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia (Received 13 March 2014; accepted 28 April 2014) The generation and processing of data through digital technologies is an integral element of contemporary society, as reflected in recent debates over online data privacy, ‘Big Data’ and the rise of data mining and ana- lytics in business, science and government. This paper outlines the signifi- cance of digital data within education, arguing for increased interest in the topic from educational researchers. Building on themes from the emerging sub-field of ‘digital sociology’, the paper outlines a number of ways in which digital data in education could be questioned along social lines. These include issues of data inequalities, the role of data in managerialist modes of organisation and control, the rise of so-called ‘dataveillance’ and the reductionist nature of data-based representation. The paper con- cludes with a set of suggestions for future research and discussion, thus out- lining the beginnings of a framework for the future critical study of digital data and education. Keywords: digital data; education; analytics; measurement Introduction The prominence of data as a social, political and cultural form has risen signifi- cantly in recent years. Of course, the process of collecting measurements, obser- vations and statistics together for reference and/or analysis has taken place for centuries. Yet the past 20 years or so have seen the increased recording, storage, manipulation and distribution of data in digital form (usually through compu- ters). In this sense, digital forms of data are now being generated and processed on an unprecedented scale. This shift is often described in terms of ‘three Vs’ of volume, velocity and variety – i.e., increases in the amount of data that is now being produced; the speed in which this data can be produced and processed and the range of data types and sources that now exist (Laney 2001). Yet digital data are also distinct from pre-digital forms by being exhaustive in scope, highly detailed and flexible in the ways that it can be combined (Kitchin 2014). Indeed, the constant circulation and reconstitution of digital data that now takes place has prompted talk of a ‘data deluge’ (The Economist 2010) and # 2014 Taylor & Francis * Email: neil.selwyn@monash.edu Learning, Media and Technology, 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2014.921628 Downloaded by [Monash University Library] at 16:28 28 May 2014