TY - JOUR
T1 - Smart campus communication, Internet of Things, and data governance
T2 - Understanding student tensions and imaginaries
AU - Cheong, Pauline Hope
AU - Nyaupane, Pratik
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to express our appreciation to Stephanie Gerhart who helped with the project's data collection. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - In recent years, universities have been urged to restructure and re-evaluate their ability to trace and monitor their students as the “smart campus” is being built upon datafication, while networked apps and sensors serve as the means through which its constituents are connected and governed. This paper advances a dialectical and communication-centered approach to the Internet of Things campus ecosystem and provides an empirical investigation into (a) the tensions experienced by students and (b) the ways that these students envision alternative practices that support their digital engagement. Drawing upon student focus group interviews in a large American research and innovation intensive university, dialectical tensions identified include convenience–annoyance, integration–independence, and safety–insecurity, brought upon by students’ ongoing and prospective negotiations with Internet of Things. Furthermore, in a bid to understand students’ alternative data imaginaries, this project examined students’ preferred Internet of Things-related communication practices with campus digital application platforms, analog and older forms of digital media, as well as in-person interactions with traditional authorities within classroom and group settings. Finally, this contribution presents a discussion of the findings for theory and praxis, particularly for smart campus innovation and social data governance, in terms of potential growing challenges involving complexifying student privacy concerns, data normalization and coercion, and tertiary digital divides and inequalities.
AB - In recent years, universities have been urged to restructure and re-evaluate their ability to trace and monitor their students as the “smart campus” is being built upon datafication, while networked apps and sensors serve as the means through which its constituents are connected and governed. This paper advances a dialectical and communication-centered approach to the Internet of Things campus ecosystem and provides an empirical investigation into (a) the tensions experienced by students and (b) the ways that these students envision alternative practices that support their digital engagement. Drawing upon student focus group interviews in a large American research and innovation intensive university, dialectical tensions identified include convenience–annoyance, integration–independence, and safety–insecurity, brought upon by students’ ongoing and prospective negotiations with Internet of Things. Furthermore, in a bid to understand students’ alternative data imaginaries, this project examined students’ preferred Internet of Things-related communication practices with campus digital application platforms, analog and older forms of digital media, as well as in-person interactions with traditional authorities within classroom and group settings. Finally, this contribution presents a discussion of the findings for theory and praxis, particularly for smart campus innovation and social data governance, in terms of potential growing challenges involving complexifying student privacy concerns, data normalization and coercion, and tertiary digital divides and inequalities.
KW - Smart campus
KW - data governance
KW - datafication
KW - digital divide
KW - human communication
KW - internet of things
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133041316&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85133041316&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/20539517221092656
DO - 10.1177/20539517221092656
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85133041316
SN - 2053-9517
VL - 9
JO - Big Data and Society
JF - Big Data and Society
IS - 1
ER -