Intimate analytics: data-intensive postgenomics, neurotechnology and bioinformatic education

Biodata related to education is increasingly available, as huge biobanks of genomic data and new neurotechnologies have developed, leading to a raft of multidisciplinary initiatives focused on the ideal of ‘precision learning’. While education is already subject to many ‘big data’ programs - such as learning analytics - precision learning represents a shift to ‘intimate data’ and the mining and analysis of biodata from the human body. This presentation will open up precision learning to social scientific examination. Drawing on recent science studies of data-centred postgenomics and neuroscience, as well as on critical data studies and biosocial conceptualisations, precision education initiatives will be approached as the hybrid product of three interpenetrating ‘codes’: biological codes pertaining to fleshy bodies, computer codes that instruct bioinformatic technologies, and social codes related to governing the expected or desired conduct of students.