The following video is one of Ken Robinson’s lectures. I really appreciate this video and think educators need to keep in mind that they are working in a system that doesn’t support all students. Some students are marginalized because they don’t fit into the environment we create or achieve in the subjects we deem important. I think it’s really sad that these students can be made to feel unworthy because we give them a letter or a number that rates them compared to others. We have the power to hurt or build up our students.
Here is a slideshow I created for our DLG9 project with images from Creative Commons.
“Some theorists have advocated for a pedagogy that challenges inequality, oppression and fundamentalism in education. Can technology be deployed to create a more equitable system, or does technology enhance these qualities in an education system hence deepening the divide? Do support your posts with stories, anecdotes or experience.” … posed by DLG 7 – The Politics of Ed. Tech.
My Response:
I think it depends on how and what technologies are implemented. For example, I don’t think putting a smartboard in a classroom will create a more equitable system because there are so many other factors involved that influence learning. For example, family background and support, motivation to learn, behaviour/social/physical needs and culture. I don’t think a smartboard is going to change much for a student who comes to school hungry and has no family support.
However, being a student in Microsoft’s School of the Future, might give that same student hope.
I don’t know what the balance would need to be to make a system more equitable.
I thought this list from DLG 6’s project is a great organizer of integration of tech in education for the past, present and future:
The Past
- Blackboards
- Stereo Scope
- Film Projectors
- Radio
- Television
- Slides
- Computers
Today
- Assessment
- Chalkboards to Smartboards
- eBooks
- Typewriter & printing press to text messages
- iPods
- Distance Learning
- Social Networking
Future
- Virtual life: Second life
- Augmented reality
- Holographic
- Artificial Intelligence
- Robots
- The Future?
DLG 6 Project – The History of Ed. Tech.
DAFT PUNK – “Technologic”
…
Surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it,
Cross it, crack it, twitch – update it,
Name it, rate it, tune it, print it,
Scan it, send it, fax – rename it,
Touch it, bring it, obey it, watch it,
Turn it, leave it, stop – format it.
Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
Trash it, change it, melt – upgrade it,
Charge it, pawn it, zoom it, press it,
Snap it, work it, quick – erase it,
Write it, cut it, paste it, save it,
Load it, check it, quick – rewrite it,
Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
Drag and drop it, zip – unzip it,
Surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it,
Cross it, crack it, twitch – update it,
Name it, rate it, tune it, print it,
Scan it, send it, fax – rename it,
Touch it, bring it, obey it, watch it,
Turn it, leave it, stop – format it.”
Daft Punk – Technologic
VIRGIN
2005 Daft Life under exclusive license to Virgin Records ltd / Virgin Music une division de EMI Music France
How would you characterize the dangers of modern technology? How do your concerns compare with Heidegger’s?
Technology provides immediate access to knowledge about everyone and everything. There are some groups who resent this accessibility and protect themselves from the influence of others. Because some of their group members do access knowledge with technology, these groups feel they need to retaliate to protect their ways of life. Conflict is created between different collectivities. Heidegger says , “It is also impossible to ignore these difficulties simply by ‘opting out’ of technology.” (Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology | Overview) Opting out or censoring technology is a bandaid solution for dealing with disputes between people. If some members of a group decide to embrace technology and others do not, it becomes more difficult to find cohesiveness in the lifestyle of that group.
Technologies like social media have changed the way we interact in community. For every positive there’s a negative. What will the negative effects be? I wonder if relationships will become more superficial with everyone spending more and more time being plugged into their vast networks. Are we sacrificing quality for quantity? Even though some people may reveal themselves more rapidly and intimately using technologies, online relationships lack a spirit that is shared through spending time face to face. Will the positives of social media outweigh the negatives in the long run?
I think we were created to spend time in relationship with God, each other, and nature. One danger of modern technology is the possibility of never being separate from it. As humans, we need time to just “be”. I think the integration of technology in our lives encourages us to “do” and not “be”.
We create new technologies to help us solve problems and be more efficient. However, those new technologies just create new problems. Heidegger says that we “tend to think that by making the technology better–better able to ‘get things done’–we will master technology and solve the problems that accompany it.” (Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology | Overview)
I think technology can be highly addictive and can control an individual’s life. We need to remember to use everything in moderation. As our society becomes more addicted to technology, we increase our chances of hurting ourselves if glitch in the system occurs. I think of the year 2000 and the millenium bug, when everyone thought our computer systems would break down. What kind of chaos would’ve resulted from that?
It is human nature to pursue immediate satisfaction. Using technology without conscious thought to the long term effects on the environment, community or individual is dangerous. “Modern technology which exploits and exhausts–in Heidegger’s terms, ‘challenges’–our planet’s resources.” (Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology | Overview) As humans, we have insatiable appetites. I feel like we’re running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to stay on top of the newest gadget, to keep up with the Jones’ or not be left behind. However, there will always be new technologies because we will never be satisfied with what we have. As Heidegger observes, “The will to mastery becomes all the more urgent the more technology threatens to slip from human control”. (Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology | Overview) In the name of progress, we will always try to get more and be better. In the meantime, life just passes us by.
Humanity’s overinflated sense of its power over the natural world will result in humanity’s coming to believe that humanity has control over all existence. (Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology | Overview) I think Heidegger is saying that the creation of technology is feeding our ego as humans. We think we are unstoppable. Once in a while nature intervenes to humble us. I like how Heidegger shows the interrelationship we have with nature. We have the capability to control each other. It is dangerous to provoke nature with our technologies because we don’t know what the reaction will be. “If we reflect upon the enframing as the essence of technology, we will find not only that we are a part of the world, but that the world ‘needs’ us to care for it.” (Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology | Overview)
Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology | Overview Retrieved from: http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/heidegger/guide9.html
The Economics of Educational Technology
We decided to create a wiki to embed our project consisting of the following pages:
1. Introduction and Navigation Description (Steph)
2. Survey put together by Stephanie. We each need to send her one question about our articles that could be answered by agree or disagree.
3. Puryear article summary and Economics of Scale video with one question (Stephanie)
4. Prezi, Linux and NConnections videos. (Helen) The prezi would summarize all three articles about Open Source. Helen is summarizing one article, Brian and Kyle are asked to do the other two. Each summary should include one question.
5. Aurini article and privatization video (Steph)
6. Culminating activity explanation – ask our peers to respond to this question, “The Economics of Ed. Tech. is…..because…” in their blogs but post their links under one db thread entitled “Culminating Activity”.
7. Resource page (?)
All of the above pages will link back to the discussion boards for people to answer our questions.
“A power shift is underway, and a tough new business rule is emerging: Harness the new collaboration or perish. Those who fail to grasp this will find themselves ever more isolated—cut off from the networks that are sharing, adapting, and updating knowledge to create value.” Don Tapscott
As much as the above statement is true, it saddens me in a way. We are becoming more dependent on each other for knowledge and innovation. Does that mean we always have to be taped into technology to gain that knowledge? Are we becoming more and more like the cyborgs as we become more dependent on technology? It’s like an addiction. This past week we studied the anthropology and sociology of educational technology. I wonder what will influence our dependence on technology will change how we interact with each other in real life. Will those who refuse to succumb to the machine be at a disadvantage? Imagine a world where one wanders the streets alone even though he/she is surrounded by others, they are connected to their ipads, phones, laptops etc. I think technology may act upon us like the influences of race, gender, age, class etc. That is, even though we live in the same neighbourhood, we see it completely differently due to who we are. Technology is starting to define who some of us are and distinguishing us from the rest. I don’t think this is in necessarily for the better, just different from others int he same way being a man is not better than being a woman and as I would argue, being upper class is not better than being lower class.
Retrieved from: http://mrlevine.wikispaces.com/
