Selected Writing

Learning Under Algorithmic Conditions

Elizabeth de Freitas, Matthew X. Curinga, Ezekiel J. Dixon-Román, & P. Taylor Webb (Eds.). (2026). Learning Under Algorithmic Conditions. University of Minnesota Press. https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517920050/learning-under-algorithmic-conditions/

Abstract. Exploring the influence of AI technologies on theories of reason, cognition, learning, and education

Learning Under Algorithmic Conditions presents twenty-seven concise essays that collectively chart the shifting terrain of learning in the age of artificial intelligence. Providing historical and philosophical context, this innovative volume features prominent scholars from the fields of media studies, philosophy, and education research, who shed light on how learning has become newly envisioned, machinic, and more-than-human. The contributors unravel various histories of machine intelligence and elucidate the current impact of machine learning technologies on practices of knowledge production. Teeming with theoretical and practical insights, Learning Under Algorithmic Conditions is an interdisciplinary guide for those working across the humanities and social sciences as well as anyone interested in understanding our changing social, political, and technical infrastructures.

Contributors: Craig Carson, Adelphi U; Felicity Coleman, U of the Arts London; Ed Dieterle; Shayan Doroudi, U of California, Irvine; David Gauthier, Utrecht U; Cathrine Hasse, Aarhus U; Talha Can İşsevenler, CUNY; Goda Klumbytė; Robb Lindgren, U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Michael Madiao; Henry Neim Osman; Luciana Parisi, Duke U; Carolyn Pedwell, Lancaster U; Arkady Plotnitsky, Purdue U; Julian Quiros, U of Pennsylvania; Sina Rismanchian; Warren Sack, U of California, Santa Cruz; R. Joshua Scannell, The New School; Gregory J. Seigworth, Millersville U; Rebecca Uliasz, U of Michigan; David Wagner, U of New Brunswick; Ben Williamson, U of Edinburgh.

Exposing cybernetic assumptions in urban demographic models: How racial entropy came to shape school segregation and spatial justice

De Freitas, E., & Curinga, M. (2025). Exposing cybernetic assumptions in urban demographic models: How racial entropy came to shape school segregation and spatial justice. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2025.2599737 request on research gate

Abstract. This paper is focused on the impact of cybernetics on social theories of segregation. We historically trace cybernetic models as they moved from information theory into sociology, where they were used to justify de facto segregation as part of ‘self-organizing’ emergent tendencies in urban environments. Our work is intended to support the fields of spatial justice, Black geographies, and critical quantitative methodologies, by exposing how cybernetic ideas shaped sociological demographic models that racialized urban space. We discuss how the concept of ‘racial entropy’ and other spatial concepts (evenness, isolation, exposure) emerged as part of a stochastic image of racialized population dynamics. Our objective is to expose how cybernetic ideas came to problematically influence our current discourse about school segregation. These cybernetic ideas were part of a paradigm shift in sociological theories of race relations in the 1970s, when information theory generated a new image of urban space, race, and community.

Keywords: Cybernetics; Black geographies; school segregation; QuantCrit; spatial justice; population models

Simulating the Software Development Lifecycle: The Waterfall Model

Saravanos, A., & Curinga, M. X. (2023). Simulating the Software Development Lifecycle: The Waterfall Model. Applied System Innovation, 6(6), 108. https://doi.org/10.3390/asi6060108

Abstract. This study employs a simulation-based approach, adapting the waterfall model, to provide estimates for software project and individual phase completion times. Additionally, it pinpoints potential efficiency issues stemming from suboptimal resource levels. We implement our software development lifecycle simulation using SimPy, a Python discrete-event simulation framework. Our model is executed within the context of a software house on 100 projects of varying sizes examining two scenarios. The first provides insight based on an initial set of resources, which reveals the presence of resource bottlenecks, particularly a shortage of programmers for the implementation phase. The second scenario uses a level of resources that would achieve zero-wait time, identified using a stepwise algorithm. The findings illustrate the advantage of using simulations as a safe and effective way to experiment and plan for software development projects. Such simulations allow those managing software development projects to make accurate, evidence-based projections as to phase and project completion times as well as explore the interplay with resources.

Keywords: software development lifecycle; systems development lifecycle; SDLC; waterfall model; software process simulation modeling; discrete-event simulation; SimPy framework

The MOOC and the Multitude

Curinga, M. (2016). The MOOC and the Multitude. Educational Theory, 66(3), 369–387. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/edth.12171

Abstract: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) take university lectures and other educational materials and make them available for free as online “courses.” Liberal and neoliberal MOOC supporters laud them for opening up education to the world, while incorporating market dynamics to improve quality and drive down costs. Skeptics claim MOOCs are a bald attempt to privatize higher learning, while creating an apartheid educational system with traditional universities for the wealthy and cut-rate online learning for everyone else. This paper draws on the political theory of autonomist marxism, arguing that MOOCs are Capital’s defensive reaction to the threats of resistant universities on one side and unmanageable internet-based learning on the other. It then looks at what MOOC design would support education for the multitude; the diverse, networked political body of autonomist marxism.

Keywords: moocs; open education; software studies; autonomist marxism; higher education; cognitive capitalism; online education

Mobile First Instructional Design

Curinga, M., & Saravanos, A. (2016). Mobile First Instructional Design. In D. Mentor (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Mobile Learning in Contemporary Classrooms. IGI Global.

Abstract: The rapid rise in mobile computing—primarily smartphones and tablets—has led software and interface designers to adopt a “mobile first” strategy, where they develop applications with mobile users in mind as the primary audience. More than just bringing desktop computing to smaller devices, this turn has opened up qualitatively different computing experience, refocusing interaction design on high quality user experiences. This chapter explores the ways that mobile first can help instructional designers realize a more contextual learning experience embedded in the world. We look at the primary approaches of mobile first design and then explore some cases of mobile design for learning that foster authentic and deep learning.

Keywords: instructional design; mobile learning; mobile first; educational technology; situated cognition dbook of Research on Mobile Learning in Contemporary Classrooms_

Critical analysis of interactive media with software affordances

Curinga, M. (2014). Critical analysis of interactive media with software affordances. First Monday, 19(9). http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i9.4757

Abstract: There is a long standing, and unsettled debate surrounding the ways that technology influences society. There is strong scholarship supporting the Social Construction perspective, arguing that the effects of technology are wholly socially and politically determined. This paper argues that the social constructivist position needs to be expanded if it can be useful for more than observing the ways technologies are designed and used. We need to develop better ways to talk about software, computer hardware, and networks, so that we can describe the social interpretations of these systems while accounting for their unique characteristics. We suggest using software affordances as a way to understand the semantics of software as interactive systems. Using Facebook privacy concerns as a case study, we argue that software affordances offer a useful lens for considering the social and political implications of interactive software systems, providing us more analytical tools to interpret, and not just describe, new technologies.

Keywords: social media, software affordances, social constructivism, software studies, Facebook, human computer interaction

New materialist approaches to the study of teacher identity

de Freitas, E. & Curinga, M. (2015). New materialist approaches to the study of language and identity: Assembling the posthuman subject. Curriculum Inquiry. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2015.1031059

Abstract: Academic learning and social identity are intertwined, making identity an enduring concept in the study of education. Two methodologies commonly inform research on identity: critical discourse analysis and conversation analysis. This paper argues that these approaches fail to fully account for the complexity of teacher identity. We outline a possible framework for combining these poststructuralist tools of analysing language as meaning with new materialist tools for studying language as material. The material approach moves language beyond a reciprocal means of information-communication, considering its capacity to create new orders and structures. This view is fruitful in studying identity, offering a path around the agency-structure binary where language either serves the subject in self-determination or the institution in furthering normative control. Identity can be studied as an assemblage that does not begin or end in the individual, where language is one of several forces that dynamically constitute identities in a given context.

Keywords: identity, conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, new materialism, assemblage

Curinga, M. and Auchter, K. (2015). Designing PyTutor: A Social Tutor to Support Computer Science Education Through Collaborative Study. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning.

Abstract: This paper reports on the design of PyTutor, a social tutor and study platform that offers computer supported collaborative learning of computer science, relying on peer instruction rather than artificial intelligence to provide just in time learning. The software provides a test-driven approach to authoring questions through a wiki-like interface allowing for the rapid, collaborative authoring of high quality questions, while replacing the expert domain modeling prevalent in cognitive tutors with a crowdsourced approach. A social networking model allows learners to reach out to their peers and mentors for help while studying.

Keywords: computer science education, social tutor, peer instruction, computational thinking

From laptop to tablet: faculty use of iPads for instruction to prepare education professionals

Battaglia, D., Curinga, M., Minicozzi, L., McCarthy, M.J., Vaughn-Shavou, F., & Zarco, E. (2015). From laptop to tablet: a study of university faculty use of iPads to support instruction. Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning.

Abstract: This paper reports on a university iPad pilot project where a cohort of university faculty were given iPads for the purpose of improving instruction for their graduate and undergraduate school of education students in teacher preparation, health education, and speech pathology programs. The researchers studied implementation details to gather insight into instances where iPads were perceived to have a positive impact on learning, and where they failed to meet expectations. Findings indicate that, in the absence of extended professional development over time, faculty with prior experience using tablet computers and in fields that are already clinically saturated with iPad use had the best chances of success in transition from desktop to mobile computing.

Keywords: iPad, educational technology, mobile computing, teacher education, higher education, mobile learning, mlearning

Wikiotics: The Interactive Language Instruction Wiki

Sullivan, I., Garrison, J. R., & Curinga, M. (2011). Wikiotics: the interactive language instruction Wiki. Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (pp. 223–224).

Abstract: While most existing wiki systems are geared toward editing text documents, we have built Wikiotics to enable the collaborative creation of interactive multimedia materials most needed in language instruction. In our demonstration, we will show several types of interactive lessons that can be created from simple multimedia elements. We will also show the lesson creation/editing interfaces and how our smart phone app can simplify the process of capturing local media and integrating that new media into existing lessons.

Keywords: Wiki, Language education, Structured wiki, Collaborative authorship, Interactive media, Wikiotics, Ductus