The Servitization of Australian K-12 Educational Settings

Servitization is a notion borrowed from the manufacturing sector, where a tangible product is replaced or supplemented by an intangible service. Servitization is a global phenomenon and found across multiple sectors and settings including finance, transport, and accommodation. In educational settings, servitization sees commercial apps and platforms supplementing or replacing physical textbooks and other aspects of educational practice. With similarities to the rapid ascension seen with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in higher education, many digital products in K-12 settings are currently ‘morphing’ into service-based platforms, some of which require ongoing subscription fees. Often making claims of democratizing education, the analysis of servitization in K-12 settings is approached from a postdigital perspective to ‘hold to account’ any such claims. This paper explores servitization in Australian K-12 settings and any potential impacts on educational practice concerning deliberative democracy. It draws on data from 16 semi-structured interviews from the Apps in Australian Classrooms Project and uses the historical progression of MOOCs as an example of servitization in an educational setting to explore any impacts related to servitization that may be evident in Australian K-12 educational settings.