Page - 74 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

78 T.Amiel et al. (daCruz,Saraiva,&Amiel, 2019).8Agreementsandby-in fromlocalgovernments have expanded and promoted access toGAFAMby schools. As an example, The São Paulo State Secretariat of Education regularly9 promotes its partnershipwith Microsoft, offeringOffice 365 free of charge to students, teachers, andmanagers, simplybycreatinganemailthroughanofficialchannel(DigitalSchoolOffice,infree translation; SED), accessible only by using an account registeredwithMicrosoft. The State Secretariat also established a partnershipwithGoogle to offer, through SED, access to the Google Education service. The scope of these partnerships is not restricted to theonline space: touse the school’s computer labs (namedAcessa Escola), it is necessary to create an institutional email (aMicrosoft account). This imposition effectively restricts the use of a public space andpublic equipment in a public institution;orat thevery least, the imposition thatonesharespersonaldata to a foreigncompany toenjoyapublicgood. Inhighereducation,similarpartnershipshave takeneffect,offering“freeaccess” toservicesfromcompaniessuchasGoogleandMicrosoft.Accesstotheseplatforms ispromotedasanaddedoptiontoexistingservices,withanemphasisonbeing“free” andpromoted as a clear benefit tohigher education institutions.Theydo, however, ignorethecostsof“free”,itsimpactonthecurrentsoftwareecosystemininstitutions, and the consequences of inducing the use of foreign corporate platforms, often in conflictwith internal institutionalpolicies (Parra,Cruz,Amiel,&Marchado,2018). The services offered go beyond email, and incorporate well-known productivity applications in thecloud(spreadsheets, texteditors,etc.)aswellasspecific tools for education, suchasgradingsheets, sharedcalendars, activities, and tasks. We have at least two potential scenarios. For some institutions, the partnership withcompaniesmightmake“onemoreresource”available, that is,analternativeset oftoolsthatinessencecompeteswithexistingsolutions(suchasaMoodleinstance). In other cases, we begin to see evidence that the communication infrastructure of institutionsisbeingtakenoverbycompaniessuchasGoogleandMicrosoft,accessto institutionalcommunication tools (suchasemail)andfilehosting(with institutional data) is no longer managed by higher education institutions. This stands in stark contrast to existing public or paidmodels that remain under the control of public administration (Parraet al., 2018). Inbothcases,given theeconomicpowerand the “free”provisionofservicesofferedbyGAFAM,there isnoroomforeffectivecom- petitionwithpublicentities, squashing thepossibilityof thecoexistenceofdifferent platformsandservices. Analmost inevitable consequence of this outsourcingof educational services is anatrophyininstitutionsandlocaleducationalbusinesses(unlessalignedwithlarger corporateplatforms),andthecapacitytodevelopandsupporteducationaltechnology solutions that are adapted to local needs.Aspointedout byTaplin (2017), antitrust 8UptodateinformationontheBrazilianlandscapeisavailableintheEducationUnderSurveillance projectwebsite (educacaovigiada.org.br) 9See, for example: https://www.educacao.sp.gov.br/noticias/alunos-e-professores-podem-baixar- o-pacote-office-365-da-microsoft-gratuitamente-2/ (2017); and https://www.educacao.sp.gov.br/ noticias/ferramentas-da-microsoft-facilitam-a-rotina-do-professor/ (2016).