Pinned to Education and Digital Cultures: A petition to stop US President Donald Trump’s making an official state visit to Britain had gained more than a million signatures by Monday, an an apparent backlash to Trump’s controversial travel ban. http://ift.tt/2jLXmPx

This topical issue reminds me of a particular perspective and affordance of the internet described by Hand (2008) as a “tool for democratisation”:

The temporality of the Net allows for instantaneous relations. That is, the Net provides the architecture for a continuous feedback loop between citizen and state

Is the ability to sign this petition beneficial to UK citizens or not? Does it give us only the illusion that we have a say, or is it democracy in dynamic digital action? Threat, or promise? Ineffectual?

How audible and valued is the voice of the student? After the annual student surveys many universities run advertising campaigns to prove they are listening to their students, “You said, we did …” This is the voice of capitalism and commerce as institutions have to compete for student numbers. Audrey Watters regards the voice of the student as muted and controlled.