This website is an aggregation of selected feeds to represent projects as they are developing. Versioning systems (git) and content feeds (atom / RSS) from other publication spaces are brought together to show different elements of practice.
Colm O'Neill works as designer and researcher in Carlow (IE) and Brussels (BE). His work is concerned with mediations of digital literacy through graphical, user and programmatic interfaces.
His current research foregrounds the ecological impact of the infrastructure of digital technologies. The research and practice that result follow the ideals of free and open source culture models.
currently:
- Lecturer in Design and IT at SETU (Carlow campus)
- Doctoral Researcher — Education and Social Justice, Lancaster University
previously:
- Member of Open Source Publishing
- MA Networked Media from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam
- Graphic Design BA from ENSAV La Cambre Brussels.
Abstract:
This study asks why and how the transition to online education during the global pandemic almost exclusively meant the adoption of commercial platforms. It also asks what harms the use of so-called tools for education can cause when imposed on learners. I argue that accepting Big Tech into our everyday lives has impact on humans digital rights and more broadly on social justice. Ultimately, I propose three criteria for better software choices: decentralisation, space for individuation and sustainability.
Abstract:
This study was undertaken to highlight the ecological implications of EdTEch, the excessive nature of modern digital technology, to examine the need for sustainable practices in the ICT sector and education's involvement therein. The environmental impact of EdTech remains an underexamined consequence of the use of digital technology in education contexts, one that is not often considered among known issues of digital education. This impact is growing exponentially with the presence of AI in the sector. The selection and adoption of EdTech tools is deeply influenced by institutional policies and governance, which have remits to reduce ecological impact and carbon footprint, but rarely consider digital technology and EdTech as part of the harmful contributors.
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Abstract:
This study aims to assess the potential of permacomputing projects as case studies for cultivating oppositional knowledge for digital justice issues in Ireland. It focuses on both social and ecological concerns related to digital technologies. The study will propose that by highlighting the ecological impact of computing, awareness of related social and digital justice issues will increase. Ireland, with its significant presence of global technology corporations, faces unique digital justice challenges that put strain on national infrastructures and natural ecosystems.
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