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Beschreibung

Digital technologies are a key feature of contemporary education. Schools, colleges and universities operate along high-tech lines, while alternate forms of online education have emerged to challenge the dominance of traditional institutions. According to many experts, the rapid digitization of education over the past ten years has undoubtedly been a 'good thing'. Is Technology Good for Education?? offers a critical counterpoint to this received wisdom, challenging some of the central ways in which digital technology is presumed to be positively affecting education. Instead Neil Selwyn considers what is being lost as digital technologies become ever more integral to education provision and engagement. Crucially, he questions the values, agendas and interests that stand to gain most from the rise of digital education. This concise, up-to-the-minute analysis concludes by considering alternate approaches that might be capable of rescuing and perhaps revitalizing the ideals of public education, while not denying the possibilities of digital technology altogether.

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Preface

1 Digital Technology and Educational Change

Introduction

Digital technology and education change

A digital ‘fix’ for a ‘broken’ system?

‘Disruptive innovation’ and the digital fixing ofeducation

The appeal of the digital fix

The inevitable digital change of education – reasons to be cautious

Conclusions

Notes

2 Making Education More Democratic?

Introduction

Claims for the digital democratization of education

From ‘Open Courseware’ to ‘Holes-in-the-Wall’ – examples of democratic digital education

Making a significant difference? Evidence for the democratizing impact of technology

Reasons for these ‘failures’ of digital democracy

Conclusions

Notes

3 Making Education More Personalized?

Introduction

The digital personalization of education

Perceived benefits of the digital personalization ofeducation

Thinking against the digital personalization ofeducation

Conclusions

Notes

4 Making Education More Calculable?

Introduction

Examples of the data turn in education

The benefits of data-based education

The case against calculation

Conclusions

Notes

5 Making Education More Commercial?

Introduction

The benefits of commercial involvement in digitaleducation

Digital education and the rise of ‘Californian capitalism’

Thinking big, spending bigger – recognizing the extent of commercial influence on digital education

Challenging the benefits of commercial involvement

Conclusions

Notes

6 ‘Good’ Education and the Digital – So What Needs to Change?

Introduction

What is ‘good’ anyway?

Technology and education – a digital diminishment?

Doing things differently?

Conclusions

Notes

Index

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

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Is Technology Good for Education?

NEIL SELWYN

polity

Copyright © Neil Selwyn 2016

The right of Neil Selwyn to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2016 by Polity Press

Polity Press65 Bridge StreetCambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press350 Main StreetMalden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9650-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Selwyn, Neil, author.Title: Is technology good for education? / Neil Selwyn.Description: Cambridge, UK : Malden, MA : Polity Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references.Identifiers: LCCN 2015034951| ISBN 9780745696461 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780745696478 (pbk. : alk. paper)Subjects: LCSH: Education--Effect of technological innovations on. | Educational technology--Evaluation. | Computer-assisted instruction--Evaluation. | Education--Aims and objectives.Classification: LCC LB1028.3 .S388857 2016 | DDC 371.33--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015034951

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

PREFACE

As many readers will have guessed already, the answer to this book’s title is ‘yes/no/all points in between’. The confluence of technology and education is complicated, contradictory and messy. There are no easy answers and no clear solutions. On one hand, titles that start from the premise of ‘Is Technology Good For . . . ?’ can be criticized justifiably as ‘stupefyingly dualistic’ and indicative of the ‘simplification’ that has eroded recent public discussion over digital futures.i On the other hand, these continue to be the types of question that many people find themselves asking on a daily basis. This book therefore adopts what might be seen as a rather crude premise as the starting point from which to explore a range of difficult issues and debates that are not usually part of the ‘ed-tech’ debate. This is a book intended to make you think otherwise about technology and education.

‘This is a book intended to make you think otherwise about technology and education.’

A main ambition for writers working in the social sciences and humanities is to produce ‘apt characterizations’ of important topics that otherwise tend to be described inadequately in popular and political circles.ii In this spirit, the underlying intention of this book is to develop an apt characterization of technology and education: that is, to present the key issues and debates relating to ‘ed-tech’ in appropriately nuanced and aware ways. This book therefore seeks to shift the nature of the conversation about technology and education. It does not set out to make spectacular predictions or present hitherto unseen evidence. Instead it offers an opportunity to pause for thought and to take stock. In an area of digital society that is infused with hyperbole and exaggeration, such an interruption is surely a ‘good’ thing.

That said, this is a book that takes the ‘hype’ of education and technology seriously. In the spirit of Polity’s ‘Digital Futures’ series, the following six chapters focus deliberately on the ‘freshest contemporary aspects of the current literature’ and ‘ideas that are shaking up the field at the moment’. So veteran observers of education and/or technology should be warned from the outset that this book does contain prolonged discussions of topics such as the ‘disruption’ of education, digital ‘personalization’ and other such buzzwords. There may well be some readers who feel immediately contemptuous of such debates. Indeed, much of the talk that surrounds technology and education certainly mimics the generally vacuous and enthusiastic excesses of ‘tech-talk’. For some critics, then, it is tempting to see these ideas and agendas as simply not worthy of serious attention.

Yet while reacting to these current ideas and debates as little more than nonsense, noise and hype is understandable (especially from an academic perspective), these are arguments that should not be simply ignored and dismissed out of hand. Whether we like it or not, these are all arguments that are being taken very seriously by policy-makers, industrialists and many other powerful groups outside of education. These are ideas about educational futures that currently are directing billions of dollars of investment. Conversely, these are also arguments that many people inside education are not fully engaged with, yet are already beginning to feel the effects of. As such, this book aims to give these ideas and assumptions a fair hearing while also looking to develop more credible alternatives. Whatever your position on the past, present and future of education, these are arguments that require attention.

So, before we get started, I would like to thank Andrea Drugan at Polity for pitching this as one of the initial titles in the ‘Digital Futures’ series, and Elen Griffiths for her subsequent work in getting the book published. Thanks to Justin Dyer for copyediting the final draft. I would also like to thank Scott Bulfin, Luci Pangrazio and Selena Nemorin for their ongoing conversations about technology, education and society throughout the writing of this book. My writing on the topic has definitely been much improved by their support.

Neil SelwynMelbourneOctober 2015

i

Astra Taylor and Joanne McNeil (2014) ‘The dads of tech’,

The Baffler

, 26 (

www.thebaffler.com/salvos/dads-tech

).

ii

Stefan Collini (2013)

What are universities for?

London: Penguin.

ONEDigital Technology and Educational Change

Introduction

Digital technology is now an integral part of education. The past forty years have seen exponential increases in computer processing power accompanied by major technological developments such as the internet and mobile telephony. Smartphones, tablets and other computerized devices are now common means of interacting with people, consuming media, engaging with the core institutions in our societies and generally living out many aspects of everyday life. Google and Wikipedia are the first places that millions of people turn to when wanting to access information and find things out. These technologies alone have transformed the generation and communication of knowledge and, it follows, the ways in which learning and understanding take place. In all these ways, many important elements of education are now profoundly digital.

Of course, ‘education’ extends far beyond matters of learning and engaging with knowledge. In an organizational sense, digital technologies are now central to the ‘formal’ organization and governance of compulsory and post-compulsory education. Schools, colleges and universities operate along increasingly digital lines, while alternate forms of online education have emerged to complement and/ or compete with traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ institutions. Hundreds of millions of people are enrolled in online courses and other forms of virtual study. Billions of dollars are spent every year by state and federal governments on digital educational resources. National educational technology policies and initiatives are launched regularly by governments around the world, all striving to keep up with the demands of the digital age. What shall be referred to throughout this book as ‘digital education’ is entwined with matters of global economics and politics, as well as ongoing changes in what ‘counts’ as knowledge, skills and learning. All told, digital technology is an increasingly integral element of ‘education’ in the broadest sense.

On a day-to-day basis, however, the digital tends to be experienced as routine and unremarkable. Digital technologies are simply part of the way that we now ‘do’ education, as well as how education is ‘done’ to us. For many people, digital technologies have become a background feature of everyday education. Yet it is unwise to be blasé about the presence of digital technology in education settings. Beyond the immediate ‘education community’ of teachers, students, technology developers and other involved professionals, it is telling that policy-makers, industrialists and other influential actors usually frame digital technologies in education in dramatic terms of wide-scale change and reform. So rather than getting bogged down in prosaic discussions of how specific digital devices or applications might be used more effectively by teachers or schools, many people outside of education are keen to speculate in more ambitious terms. For instance, might digital technology do away with the need for teachers and schools altogether? Why should thousands of universities be funded to deliver different versions of what are essentially the same courses when the best professors can be beamed repeatedly to anywhere in the world? From this perspective, digital technology presents a fundamental challenge to everything that we have come to know as ‘education’ over the past hundred years or so. This book focuses on the ways in which this potential for radical change might actually be realized. To what extent is digital technology really changing education – and is this always in our best interests?’

‘To what extent is digital technology really changing education – and is this always in our best interests?’

Digital technology and education change

Most discussions about the uses of digital technologies in education are concerned with educational change. This is to be expected, as digital technologies tend to be associated with change across all areas of society. Very few people set out to use digital technology in order to do things in exactly the same ways as before. Instead, digital technologies are usually associated with doing things in cheaper, faster, more convenient, more exciting or more efficient ways. If not leading to changes for the better, then digital technologies tend to be implicated with detrimental change along the lines of ‘Google making us stupid’ or ‘text messaging making kids less literate’. Either way, it is common sense to align digital technologies with change and things being different. Indeed, digital technologies are perhaps best understood as ‘mediating’ non-digital processes and practices: making some new things possible while at the same time introducing new limitations and unintended consequences.

The potential of digital technologies to change education tends to be imagined along a spectrum ranging from modest improvement to wholesale revolution. At one level, digital technologies are celebrated as leading to distinct improvements in education. Often this relates to improving learning (e.g. making learning more social, ‘situated’ or ‘authentic’) or improving learners (e.g. getting them engaged, motivated or able to learn). Descriptions recur of technology ‘enhancing’, ‘enabling’, ‘assisting’, ‘supporting’ and ‘scaffolding’ learning. In a similar vein, digital technologies are also welcomed as expanding the capacity of teachers to teach, heightening the efficiency of educational institutions and increasing the relevance of education systems to the needs of society and economy. All told, a sense emerges of education being improved and upgraded while remaining essentially the same in terms of its institutions, organization and general ways of doing things.

Another heightened level of change, however, sees digital technologies associated with the transformation of educational processes and practices. This refers to a marked renewal and ‘shaking up’ of the nature and form of ‘education’. This shift in language implies a set of fundamental changes, such as courses being delivered online rather than face-to-face, people learning through playing games rather than being taught directly, and so on. Tellingly, these changes are sometimes described in language borrowed from the worlds of computer engineering and the IT industry. For example, the vernacular of software development is often used to indicate significant improvements in functionality. Thus we hear talk of ‘School 2.0’ and ‘Education 3.0’. Continuing this theme, some commentators talk of ‘upgrading’, ‘hacking’ or ‘rebooting’ education. All of these descriptions imply a recoding and re-scripting of the rules of education. The purposes of education are being renewed, with digital technology acting as a catalyst and a facilitator of these changes.

More extreme still is the idea that digital technologies are leading to wholesale revolution in education – suggesting an overthrowing of the established order and vested interests. This severity of change is more pronounced than the straightforward idea of ‘transformation’, implying a contentious, violent and bloody form of change. Indeed, ‘revolution’ conveys a sense of conflict, clashes of interests and ideologies, the overthrowing of established elites, the challenging of the status quo and the redistribution of power and control. Some of the main targets of this upheaval are dominant institutions such as ‘the school’ and ‘the university’, formal examination and qualification systems, national curricula and suchlike. Digital technology is also seen to destabilize the ‘education establishment’ of teachers, unions and academics, as well as government agencies and state institutions. In contrast, digital technology is framed as empowering previously marginalized groups: in particular, advancing the interests of individuals over institutions, parents over professionals, private markets over public sector monopolies and outsiders over insiders. With these kinds of technology-driven radical change, very little in education is expected ever to be the same again.

A digital ‘fix’ for a ‘broken’ system?

These changes tend to be discussed in confident and compelling ways. Thinking carefully about the language that is used to describe education and digital technology is a theme that recurs throughout this book. One of the most significant aspects of ‘digital education’ is its discursive nature. In other words, the values and meanings that are attached to the idea of digital education could be seen as just as significant as any actual use of digital technology. This certainly chimes with the ways in which digital education often is experienced ‘on the ground’. There has been, for example, little rigorous evidence produced over the past forty years of technology leading to the sustained improvement of teaching and learning. Similarly, most education institutions and systems certainly do not appear to be in the throes of full-scale revolt or even partial transformation. Much of the rhetoric of digital education has proven frustratingly difficult to substantiate.

We are perhaps better off treating these descriptions of digital ‘revolution’, ‘transformation’ and ‘improvement’ as evocative and aspirational stories, rather than sober, objective and accurate descriptions of actual ongoing changes in education. The primary significance of these stories is what they tell us about wider hopes, fears, desires and expectations surrounding contemporary education – particularly in fast-changing technological, economic, political and demographic times. ‘Digital education’ is a potent space for voicing hopes and fears of what education might become in the near future. We would do well, therefore, to treat any overly confident assertions of digital change in a circumspect and sceptical manner.

In this spirit, it is worth paying attention to the prominent argument that digital technology is a ready ‘fix’ for education systems that are outmoded, no longer fit for purpose and generally ‘broken’. Over the past decade or so, the idea of technological ‘disruption’ of outmoded industries and business models has become one of the most familiar – and overused – ways to describe digital innovation. The internet, for example, is now presumed to be having a farreaching disruptive effect on many areas of society, from the newspaper industry to high street retailing. It certainly seems reasonable to question how much longer people will be prepared to pay for daily newspapers that are printed on paper and sold from news-stands. It is also reasonable to question people’s continued willingness to traipse to stores in the hope of purchasing goods that they then are expected to transport home. These are generally accepted to be ‘traditional’ industries and markets in the midst of substantial upheaval.

For many people, the idea of digital renewal is equally applicable to education. The Economist magazine recently turned its attention towards the ‘reinvention of the university’ and concluded bluntly: ‘The internet, which has turned businesses from newspapers through music to book retailing upside down, will upend higher education.’1 Similarly, as media commentator Jeff Jarvis has proclaimed, ‘[E]ducation is one of the institutions most deserving of disruption – and with the greatest opportunities to come of it.’2 To the unfamiliar eye these can come across as highly provocative propositions. These statements constitute a direct challenge to the institutionalization of education – most notably in the form of universities and schools, as well as state-run education systems and the bureaucratic agencies and organizations that surround them.

The Economist