Encountering impassive edtech: The affects of using a non-commercial assessment platform

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the use of an assessment platform, Valssi, in Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Valssi has been developed by the Finnish Agency for Educational Evaluation (FINEEC) to provide an assessment tool for teachers and ECEC directors. The platform is a response to increasing variation of educational assessment platforms, and we approach it from a post-platform perspective to investigate how it reconfigures typical elements of platformisation. The paper focuses both on the features of the platform and user experiences from its first year of operation. From a post-platform perspective, the central features of Valssi are that it is publicly funded, developed in close collaboration with ECEC staff, administration and researchers; connected with existing pedagogical practices; designed to minimise data collection; uses a simple interface; and can partly be printed out and used on paper. Together, these features result in a relative impassivity that contrasts with the exhaustion teachers otherwise connect with assessment. We read this as a conscious attempt at redefining the affective bond between a platform and its users. Based on these findings, we introduce the concept of impassive edtech and analyse Valssi as an example of emerging post-platform practices.