ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, researchers have paid attention to significant changes to the economy, social life and culture as related to the growth of the ICT and cultural industries, as well as to the “platformization” of capitalism, sociality and cultural production, especially by the “big five” tech titans (Apple, Alphabet-Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook). Chapter 3—“Profiting on Higher Education: Platform Capitalism Is the Classroom”—contextualizes the “creative destruction” of higher education by capitalism, conceptualizes EdTech as a sub-sector of the ICT and cultural industries, presents an overview of the operations of EdTech’s “big five” (Apple, Alphabet-Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook), scrutinizes online program management corporations and unpacks the financialization, commodity circuit and business models of the MOOCC. Chapter 3 shows how EdTech corporations turn classrooms into platforms for capital accumulation while blurring the boundaries between education and exploitation, learning and labor, students and workers.
