The ‘Tweeting Book’ and the question of ‘non-human data’

Abstract

This short article describes an experimental radio-frequency identification (RFID) system designed to playfully explore the possibilities of object agency, in the form of ‘tweeting books’. The use of web-enabled sensors is discussed in the context of the emerging field of Learning Analytics. The analysis of the ‘tweeting books’ prototype challenges the idea of straightforward ‘non-human’ data and the isolation of specific and localised agency. I will draw upon sociomaterial theory, which encompasses a broad reconsideration of the divisions between culture and nature, the human and the non-human. As such, the production of data can be thought of as the entanglement of human user and non-human technology, rather than the privileging of human intention as the exclusive source of agency. This will be suggested to have important implications for Learning Analytics, which is often premised on a commitment to the idea that data directly represents human behaviour.