Colm O'Neill

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.

In the frame of an ongoing, part-time, structured PhD program in Education and Social Justice, I highlight below a few recent texts that detail some recent research outputs. For a more complete view of the PhD outputs so far, please see this website on the Permacomputing PhD
Jan 2023 → March 2026

EdTech as climate criminal

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 selection 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.
...

This body of work started in late 2022 as a 7000 word paper, in response to a module titled "Understanding Social Justice Internationally" (ED.S851) in the first part of my PhD program. Click here to download that long form version.

I presented this first longform at ILTA's Winter Conf in 2023. Access the presentation slides here.

After a period, an updated version was accepted for presentation at the first European Conference on Critical Edtech Studies (ECCES) in June 2025 | Access the presentation slides here.

In the interim, given how wild and uncritical the adoption of GenAI in my HE instutution had become, and after the points I was trying to make to my colleagues fell on deaf ears, I submitted an altered version of the paper, with a very specific focus on Ireland to EdTech25 (Wateford) which was well received. Access the presentation slides here.

Following many fabulous encounters at ECCES, I was invited to give a guest Seminar at the Centre for Research in Digital Education in the University of Edinburgh. The seminar took place in December 2025, many thanks to Sian Bayne and David Overend. Access the recording of the event here.

I was subsequently interviewed by Neil Selwyn for his podcast 'Education Technology Society'. Access the podcast here.

Download the published paper → O’Neill, C. (2026). EdTech as climate criminal: Considering the excesses of the ITC sector, and Higher Education’s complicity. Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning.
May 2022

Decolonising Digital Learning Technology

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.

→ download article
November 2023

PhD research proposal

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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PhD research dissertation ongoing, working title: "Permacomputing for Wilderland, reversing the ecological strain of information technology."

→ link to document



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