IT makes waves in education - #edcmooc

A washing machine and vacuum cleaner as educational technology is a stretch, but the way  anything can be a useful technology is brought out in the following short film. In it, two shoppers find their "networked" shopping bags link them in a special way and they jump at the opportunity to convert the nature of the process to further their relationship.

Where the reference to the household appliances providing support for personal education arises is in a 2002 speech by Unesco's then assistant director-general, who recalled comments made to him by a researcher who had said that Tanzanian women who wanted to further their education needed most of all aids that helped them escape the demands of housework.

The decision on which technology should be used in education is given guidelines by Unesco's John Daniel (1). First, focus on the needs of the learner; then on the practicality of the technology; next on its cost; and fourth is the "quality of the teaching that can be delivered". He poses as the "central challenge" for education this century that of "how to increase access, raise quality and cut costs".

More antagonistic towards technology in higher education is Noble (2), who had a bitter experience of an effort at the top-down imposition of IT against staff and student wishes. He sees the issue leading to "the commercial development and exploitation of online education". This criticism is from a 1998 article, 'Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education', which is insightful but and true still in many ways, but now lacking the picture of how many universities, and lower-level institutions are tentatively absorbing IT into their learning-teaching processes. Often it is left to teachers to make the running, with the institution giving technical support and encouragement.  The prodding of staff to employ IT comes about because at stake is the institution's image, its effectiveness in teaching and, for sure, its cost structure.

Below is a video promoting the image of one Australian university that is working its way through this hazardous new territory according to the theme: Online learning will change universities by degrees (3).      

From the likes of such informative-while-promotional efforts at communication with staff and prospective students and their parents, it is clear that Dahlberg's paper (4) on the need to take a wide view of the cause and effect aspects of the internet is more accurate than those which are narrow in their "deterministic" interpretation of the sources of the changes that lead to or result from the introduction of 21st Century forms of informational technology (Chandler 5). In the rapidly changing education sector particularly, there is a fundamental interplay apparent between people and technology, with time needed before the jury can decide on the success of the experimentation being undertaken by the public, educational administrators and practitioners, commercial interests and the political wing of society.
  
1. Daniel J, 2202, 'Technology is the Answer: What was the Question?' Speech at Institut du Monde Arabe Paris, May 27-29. Text updated October 17, 2002.
2. Noble DF, 1998 'Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education', First Monday, January 5, Vol 3, No 1
3. Gardner M 2012 'Online learning will change universities by degree', The conversation.edu.au, viewed February 3, 2012 at
4. Dahlberg L 2004 'Internet Research Tracings: Towards Non-Reductionist Methodology', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 9/3
5. Chandler D, 2002, Technological determinism. web essay, Media and Communication Studies, University of Aberystwyth. Pdf.