Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Digital technology and the futures of education - towards ‘non-stupid’ optimism

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

My first reaction to the paper was negative - the title seems condescending to me. The authors argue that "if we are concerned to create educational practices that work towards the common good and towards sustainable futures, then our first concern must be to attend to the causes of existing injustices, individualisation and unsustainability and to proceed from there." Indeed, it almost suggests we abandon educational technology altogether; after all, "even the most extensively implemented educational technology innovations have mixed and inconsistent outcomes." To be fair, the different technologies were "not worthless", but "neither were they as effective and transformatory as was widely claimed at the time." The authors make a series of strong claims - that digital technology "does not transform education", "does not improve learning", "does not fix inequalities", etc. But you know this is just a series of straw man arguments against technology. There isn't space in this post to offer a response to this article, but boy, does it need a response! Via David Hopkins.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Dec 23, 2024 08:02 a.m.

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