The title of this blog post is a bit misleading- it almost sounds like there will be an affordance analysis of emerging technologies on the spot. Instead, I want to briefly consider the impact of emerging technologies on education, whether positive or negative. I mentioned in a previous post that Brett King’s Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane is an extremely optimistic book. While I want technology to solve all of the problems that King identifies, I find that many of King’s predictions don’t consider all sides. As it pertains to education, King automatically believes that technology will make formal education less necessary. King notes that, “In markets like the United States or Australia where the cost of college education is becoming either unattainable or a poor investment for large swathes of the population, many of this generation are choosing instead to be educated by online platforms, hackathons, internships, start-ups and experimentation rather than through traditional college approaches.” (King, Page 1067) While the idea that education is becoming less dependent on the traditional model is true, are these forms of education the best way to receive an education? While King places his faith in the new technologies, I would say that the answer to this question is largely situational. A hackathon or a MOOC might be the best option in some cases, but not in other cases. This is where the idea of affordances comes into play. What is the best tool for the job? In fact, this could be asked of any emerging technology that can be used in the classroom. Cloud technologies (like Google Apps for Education and Microsoft Office 365) have changed the way that schools view technology. A single IT staff member can make an entire productivity suite and device management platform available for a school in under one hour. These technologies are amazing, but the negative affordances were overlooked- most people did not like that Google now had access to personal student data. We should evaluate and test emerging technologies first to determine whether or not they will have a positive impact on the classroom. King’s predictions are awe-inspiring, and we should want them to come true. We should not, however, embrace something without considering how it will work out.
I completely agree with your post but to play devil's advocate for a second I want to discuss the evaluation and testing you mention of emerging technologies to first determine whether or not they have a positive impact on the classroom. I agree that we need to be cautious, especially when it comes to the impacts on young, impressionable students but I can't help to wonder about what is being lost by the abundance of caution. If we wait to implement after thorough testing, this could take years in the scientific community and compared with the rapid growth of technology - things change monthly, daily and at times hourly,isn't there harm also being done but denying students access to the technology that the need to understand and manipulate to be success in the future? Can a case be made to use the technology and provide the cautionary tail at the same time so while the students are learning to use it they are also aware of how to be mindful of their use of it and keep their own usage in check?
ReplyDeleteYou do make some valid points- technology certainly does change rapidly and we need to prepare learners for this reality. It's also not our job to shield students from the realities of the world. I think that, for me, it all comes back to the class during our first semester where we examined Osmos and Ozobots. Having technology for technology's sake isn't worth it if the technology doesn't help the teacher implement a good design. Along the way, however, it is definitely useful to teach this to students. I generally agree with the vision of Brett King, but I feel that our path to that vision will be more rocky and laden with tough ethical questions than the grandeur that he originally describes in his work.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that "King automatically believes that technology will make formal education less necessary." I always tell people college didn't prepare me for teaching. Teaching taught me everything I needed to know. I wonder since the shift of our educational system is less on results and more on experience. I can't help to wonder if college needs to be reassessed as well. We spend a short amount of time observing and do a semester of practicum. I learn more doing that then in the college classroom running through scenarios and learning the what feels like 100 part lesson plan.
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