Counting on use of technology to enhance learning

Hayes, S ORCID: 0000-0001-8633-0155 (2015) 'Counting on use of technology to enhance learning.' In: Jandrić, P and Boras, D, eds. Critical learning in digital networks. Springer, Cham, pp. 15-36. ISBN 9783319137513

Abstract

In global policy documents, the language of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) now firmly structures a perception of educational technology which ‘subsumes’ terms like Networked Learning and e-Learning. Embedded in these three words though is a deterministic, economic assumption that technology has now enhanced learning, and will continue to do so. In a market-driven, capitalist society this is a ‘trouble free’, economically focused discourse which suggests there is no need for further debate about what the use of technology achieves in learning. Yet this raises a problem too: if technology achieves goals for human beings, then in education we are now simply counting on ‘use of technology’ to enhance learning. This closes the door on a necessary and ongoing critical pedagogical conversation that reminds us it is people that design learning, not technology. Furthermore, such discourse provides a vehicle for those with either strong hierarchical, or neoliberal agendas to make simplified claims politically, in the name of technology. This chapter is a reflection on our use of language in the educational technology community through a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). In analytical examples that are ‘loaded’ with economic expectation, we can notice how the policy discourse of TEL narrows conversational space for learning so that people may struggle to recognise their own subjective being in this language. Through the lens of Lieras’s externality, desubjectivisation and closure (Lieras, 1996) we might examine possible effects of this discourse and seek a more emancipatory approach. A return to discussing Networked Learning is suggested, as a first step towards a more multi-directional conversation than TEL, that acknowledges the interrelatedness of technology, language and learning in people’s practice. Secondly, a reconsideration of how we write policy for educational technology is recommended, with a critical focus on how people learn, rather than on what technology is assumed to enhance.

Item Type:	Book Chapter or Section
Keywords:	educational technology, policy language, network learning, Critical Discourse Analysis, technology-enhanced learning
Divisions:	School of Education
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13752-0_2
Date Deposited:	24 Jul 2023 12:53
Last Modified:	24 Jul 2023 12:53
URI / Page ID:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/15576

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