The educational robotics imaginary. EdTech industry, educational timescapes and the tyranny of connectivity

EdTech industry is creating nowadays a multiform and yet powerful imaginary that makes educational robotics a ‘desirable necessity’. This article problematizes how this imaginary envisions a reconfiguration of the temporalities of education. Theoretically, we draw on the notions of imaginary and timescape to explore emerging robotically mediated educational temporalities and their rhythms, forms of time calculation, temporal relations and modalities. We analyze EdTech’s work of envisioning through a quantitative (Network Text Analysis) and qualitative methodology. We argue that it is possible to identify an envisioned robotically mediated educational temporality which is organized around four temporal logics: tech-driven instruction, connectivity, skill development, and educating to and for the future. Moreover, we critically discuss how through this temporal envisioning a particular kind of subject is positioned at the center of learning. This subject is enmeshed into paradoxes which we capture as the tyranny of connectivity. To conclude, we suggest possibilities to think differently a robotically mediated educational temporality.