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So Where Now? 151

sovereignty per se. Instead, national governments can be said to still play major roles
in shaping educational technology agendas and aspirations within their borders.
That said, it is clear that educational technology agendas and the changes associated
with them are not driven wholly by nation states and national governments. In this
sense, the growing importance of private sector and commercial interests has also
been notable across many of the different forms of educational technology con-
sidered in this book. In contrast to the libertarian discourses of individualisation that
pervade most discussions of educational technology, many of the examples high-
lighted in this book point to the continued corporate institutionalisation of educa-
tional technology and educational technology users. This perhaps reflects a wider
paradox of contemporary society observed by Colin Crouch (2011, p.viii) that
“actually existing neoliberalism, as opposed to the ideologically pure, is nothing like
as devoted to free markets as is claimed. It is, rather, devoted to the dominance of
public life by the giant corporation”.
The diversification and multiplicity of corporate involvement in the various
forms of educational technology discussed throughout this book has been striking.
Aside from the supplying and selling of technology products and services, we have
seen many instances of IT companies assuming roles that go well beyond their remit
as technology producers and suppliers. Most notable, perhaps, are the efforts of large
IT firms to position themselves as alternative authorities in the governance of edu-
cational technology systems. For example, Chapters 3 and 6 both described how
multinational corporations such as Cisco and Microsoft are operating in many
developing and developed countries as national educational technology authorities –
providing curriculum models, teacher training resources and advice across national
educational systems. We also saw how multinational firms from outside the IT sector
are using educational technology as a means of increasing their involvement in
public affairs. From the example of consultancy firms such as Ernst & Young writing
educational policy blueprints for African nations to restaurant chains such as
McDonald’s supporting online maths tuition for Australian high school students, the
past twenty years have indeed been subject to what Jane Kenway and colleagues
(1994) foresaw as a coming together of markets, education and technology. As
Kenway argued even before the mainstream emergence of the internet, digital
technology acts as a catalyst for the increased involvement of private interests in the
formulations and implementations of education policy ideas and imperatives.
Looking back at Kenway’s observations twenty years on, the use of digital tech-
nology in education around the world is now informed inexorably by market values
(see also Spring 2012).
Of course, private interests are involved deeply in most sectors of public policy-
making – not just educational technology. Yet there has been a sense throughout
our preceding discussions that digital technology offers a platform from which pri-
vate interests have been able to develop extensive roles in education affairs and
arrangements. One key development in this respect has been the diversification of
private sector actors and activities involved in educational technology – not least the