This is our Digital Practice round-up for February 2026 of the things we’ve been reading, watching and discovering this month. This edition has been edited by Cat Bailey with contributions from Chris Thomson (CT), Scott Hibberson (SH) and Kathryn Woodhead (KW).
Digital tools and spaces
Are you a sponge or a stone?
Being open and honest about our relationship with digital and the impacts it has on us and those we work with can present many challenges. The ‘sponge or stone’ metaphor is a reminder that we should always be prepared to challenge our own assumptions and beliefs and not get distracted by the noise technological change often brings. (SH)
‘Liberté’ in action against digital imperialism
France is promoting an open source set of tools meant to challenge the dominance of US platforms. Open source tools that are alternatives for the likes of MS Office and Google’s suite have been around for a while but this feels different in that it is explicit about the politics behind the move. See the About page. How successful is this likely to be and where else might follow this model? (And another hat tip after last week’s to Doug Belshaw for drawing this to our attention.) (CT)
The VLE is still going strong
Cat was interested in the latest update by Neil Mosley on the UK HE VLE market. According to this latest report by Neil, not much is changing in the HE market at the moment with slight growth for Canvas and Brightspace. I wonder how different a review of the FE market would be? (CB)
Is there a future for smart glasses in teaching, learning and assessment?
We’re currently producing a series of blog posts on smart glasses. The first looks at the current market and functionality, the second takes a look at their potential use in learning, teaching and assessment. What do you think? (CB)
The reincarnation of Einstein: Does E=AI2?
This month’s big controversy came from the release of Einstein, an agentic AI tool that, once logged into a learners VLE account is purportedly capable of reviewing learning materials, submitting assessments etc on behalf of the learner. Unsurprisingly this has caused a major backlash from educators and it appears that the text of the tool’s website was changed mid-week to sound less “disruptive”. We’ve not investigated further as yet but as you can see, much of the debate goes between the ethics of releasing a tool like this and the nature of some teaching that makes it susceptible to automation. (CT)
Skills and capabilities
It’s all about community
You may be interested in this new guide published by our colleagues in the Community Engagement team and Chris Melia of the University of Lancashire, about taking a community-led approach to developing digital skills. Digital skills is a big part of the recent DfE white paper on post16 education and there are enduring challenges with building the capabilities of staff to cope with this complex and fast changing area. Taking a community-led approach is something we’re very interested in at Jisc. (CT)
Welcome to the ‘tech town’
Interesting developments particularly around the use of AI and Edtech in schools and Further Ed as Barnsley to become AI ‘trailblazer’ as UK’s first Tech Town https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j3dvjld94o
However, Chris picked up on an unease about this added pressure on already stretched staff As we embrace ‘efficient’ AI we risk adding more work on top (CT)
Wellbeing and online safety
Screen time and mental wellbeing
Scott read this article which explores the correlation between screen time and mental wellbeing with evidence to suggest that screen use is higher in children in lower socioeconomic groups.
Sustainability
Sustainability
Book review: Neil Selwyn’s Digital Degrowth
Chris read this insightful review by Kate Molloy of Neil Selwyn’s book on Digital Degrowth that a few of us in the team have been reading. (CT)
Expanding our horizons
The tech behind the Winter Olympics visuals
Chris loved this behind the scenes video about the team behind the BBC’s Winter Olympics visuals. There’s something really inspiring about mixing the precision of modern media technology with something uncontrollable and natural. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere! (CT)
How Kant can make sense of misinformation – LSE Impact
This reminded Chris about the idea that it’s almost impossible to rationalise someone out of a position they didn’t rationalise themselves into. This article questions the effectiveness of fact-checking and verification alone when trying to counter misinformation where the problem is much more fundamental. “We are trying to repair a broken digital public sphere at the informational level, when the deeper fracture lies at the metaphysical level: in the loss of shared structures through which reality appears.” What we do about this is less clear. (CT)