From+blogs+to+bombs

= = From Blogs to Bombs: The Future of Digital Technologies in Education Dr Mark Pegrum Faculty of Education

Overview - a book which examines digital technologies in education through a series of five lenses – technological, pedagogical, social, sociopolitical and ecological (http://e-language.wikispaces.com/mr2).

Details: It is widely understood that the area of digital technologies in education covers education through digital technologies. However, it must also, crucially, encompass education about digital technologies, and particularly about their social, sociopolitical and ecological consequences.

The key argument of this book is that although digital technologies in education are currently the subject of many discussions, most of these are narrowly focused and simply do not intersect with one other. The main discussions draw on five different sets of lenses: the technological, the pedagogical, the social, the sociopolitical, and the ecological. It is important that we begin to connect up the insights provided by these different discussions. Otherwise, we limit our ability to see the bigger picture and make informed decisions about the future development of e-learning.

Technological discussions focus on the available technologies and how to use them in education. In addition to analysing the ever-expanding range of web 2.0 tools, such discussions deal with broader issues like the convergence of different technologies and the increasingly numerous areas where the virtual and the real overlap. Frequently, there is an exaggerated sense of either awe or fear at the range of developments and the speed of change. Neither of these reactions, though, is very helpful in arriving at a sound evaluation of the technology. The pedagogical discussions which have come to dominate the field in recent years propose, sensibly, that educational rather than technological principles must be our guide. Notwithstanding a widespread espousal of constructivist approaches, there are serious differences of opinion about the educational value of e-learning technologies, which pit politicians against educators, administrators against teachers, and colleagues against each other. There's certainly a need for an examination of this area. Social discussions, largely conducted in the media, raise important issues of a different kind, ranging from the dangers of cyberbullying and loss of privacy to the fragmentation of attention and erosion of social relations. There is an urgent need to cut through the hype and hysteria which often surround these issues and carefully weigh up the social consequences of the new technologies. Sociopolitical discussions focus on questions of discourse and power, asking how our worldviews are mediated by online technology. They situate the struggle over different visions of e-learning with respect to the political, economic and cultural agendas which drive globalisation. We need to consider such issues carefully since, as is gradually becoming apparent, it is not possible to use radically enabling technology to enhance education without having a major impact on the social fabric and, beyond this, on the structures and relations that pertain within and between different societies. Ecological discussions, which are just beginning to figure in the field of e-learning, focus on the biological and medical implications of technological development for human minds and bodies, as well as the ecological implications for the environment and the whole planetary ecosystem.

All the conversations about digital technologies we have had to date are important: the technological, the pedagogical, the social, the sociopolitical, and the ecological. Nevertheless, too many of our discussions have been too narrow, focused through only one lens. Too many have major weaknesses and blind spots, resulting from a failure to look through one or more of the other lenses. We need to use all five lenses in conjunction and join up our discussions of technology, pedagogy, society, sociopolitics and ecology, zeroing in on the points of intersection between the issues they expose. Only in this way can we hope to decide what uses we can and should be making of these technologies, both within educational institutions and outside their walls.

The book is due for publication by UWA Press in late 2009.