Pick a side.

 

Berlin stadium photo by @warwicklanguage CC BY

Time ticks on and increasingly I am reading more about the impact of technical developments. I have written of my reading and thoughts of the endless march of the techbros on my Espace Sisyphe blog. From my sideline position as a retired teacher and educational technologist it is getting harder and harder not to take a stand and refuse to tacitly approve of the many technologies that I have, in the past, used and recommended to others. This is particularly the case as I see the dilemmas faced by current practitioners who are both asked to promote and encourage the use of technology whilst also struggling to balance concerns about wellbeing and educational values for their students. It reminds me of a biblical citation from my distant past where I was expected : "to be in the world but not of the world"

Mozilla recently shared an excellent explainer video about the changed landscape online:

So far I have focussed on expressing my critical appraisal of educational technologies, maintaining that there are certain principles I would  apply when making technological choices:

- is your choice of activity using a digital tool/s going to help your learners without putting them in danger? (privacy,equity, safety)

- how sustainable is this activity? can you export and keep your content in a useable form? does the authoring tool acknowledge your rights and those of other contributors? (creativity,respect, environmental impact)

Now even these critical choices are more difficult to apply due in part to the ubiquity of so called AI which is often built in by default and the lack of transparency of the algorithms it employs. It is also clear that the Enshittification is well underway - the focus of those companies who had claimed to be offering educational value no longer value learners, but rather prioritise the money and power they now wield. Maybe that was always the case. We are increasingly suffering increased costs (including climatic changes and environmental destruction) as a result of their determination to achieve their techbros dreams. 

I recommend taking a listen to the Marsh family song (inserted below) about Silicon Valley and checking out the William Shockley tale on Wikipedia. 

There are still trustworthy networks out there but they need our support more than ever so don't forget to contribute to keep them alive! Think on about the photo I have used in this post too...