On Our Terms

Rethinking Alternatives to Big Tech in Education

Big Tech has become a major force in education. Education is an attractive “market” for several reasons. Vendors who become embedded in everyday educational practice are not simply selling software or hardware; their products and services become part of the infrastructure itself: from communication and collaboration to file storage, assessment and AI. This is exactly how long-term dependencies are created, how the space to make our own choices begins to shrink, and how public values such as autonomy, privacy academic freedom and agency come under pressure. Whoever bends education to their will, leaves their mark on tomorrow’s society.  

But what are the alternatives? And what exactly are “our terms”?  

In the second session of our On Our Terms meetings, we will dive into these questions. We start from the idea that a critical understanding of “alternatives” requires us to look beyond the mere availability of non-Big Tech products and services. If we dig deeper, choosing alternatives forces us to re-imagine what kind of education we aspire to and what kinds of technologies and organizations align with it.  

What to expect

We will explore these themes in an interactive session with drinks afterwards. The programme includes introductory presentations by three inspiring speakers and concludes with a plenary discussion.

Speakers

Seda Gürses is Associate Professor at TU Delft. Her research focuses on privacy engineering, protective optimization technologies, software engineering, and the political economy of computational infrastructures—examining how technical systems intersect with social justice and governance.  

Niels Kerssens is Assistant Professor at Utrecht University. His research focuses on digital autonomy in European public education, with particular attention to how schools, teachers, and public-sector organizations can (re)claim agency in an era of Big Tech and AI.  

Geert-Jan Meewisse works as a freelance network designer, mainly for large enterprises and telecom companies. He devotes his spare time to restoring sovereignty and freedom in the digital domain. He is one of the initiators of The Coalition for Fair Digital Education (in Dutch: CEDO).

Autonomy in the Digital Age

A three-part event series organized by The Hague University of Applied Sciences, exploring digital autonomy from three angles: the problem and its urgency (session 1), the concrete alternatives that already exist (session 2), and the laws and politics shaping what's possible (session 3). Each event stands alone, but together they build toward a fuller picture.

Registration

Free entry for students, staff, and anyone interested, as always. Please register in advance:

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Picture:
© Rose Willis & Kathryn Conrad / betterimagesofai.org