Education in a Digital World

Global Perspectives on Technology and Education

Neil Selwyn

• Verlag: Routledge
• Jahr: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136264771
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Didattica
• Thema: Didattica inclusiva

Drawing on a wealth of theoretical and empirical work, Education in a Digital World tackles a number of pressing questions, such as, how are 'global' trends in educational technology refracted through national policies and processes? How exactly are educational technologies linked to issues of global economics and the fortunes of national and international economies? To what extent are digital technologies implicated in the commercialisation, marketization and commodification of education?

These questions, and others, are addressed throughout eight wide-ranging chapters, which consider topics such as the national policy strategies of countries across North and South America, Europe and East Asia, the educational technology portfolios of international organizations such as the United Nations and Microsoft, as well as the role of education and technology in international development and the on-going efforts to provide 'one laptop per child' across low-income regions and countries. Through these examples Selwyn develops a detailed analysis of education, technology and globalisation, drawing together arguments and debates from various academic perspectives. Written in a detailed but accessible manner, this is an essential book for anyone wishing to gain a better understanding of the role of education and technology in contemporary globalised society.

1

EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Developing a Global Perspective

Introduction

The on-going development of ever more powerful digital technologies is undoubtedly one of the defining features of the past thirty years. The pace and scale of recent digital innovation – in particular the growth of computing, the internet and mobile telephony – has prompted many commentators to describe digital technology as a key driver of societal development around the world. As Manuel Castells (2006, p.3) put it, “we know that technology does not determine society: it is society”. For many people, then, digital technologies have led to a greatly improved era of living – the so-called ‘digital age’. One of the many perceived improvements of this digital age is a reduction in the physical restrictions and ‘frictions’ of the ‘real’ world. Indeed, in the latter years of the twentieth century, there was much talk of a technology-led ‘time-space compression’, ‘death of distance’, ‘end of geography’ and privileging of ‘virtual’ arrangements over material arrangements. Digital technologies were seen to be supporting a redefinition of what it was to live and work around the world, echoing enthusiasms from the late nineteenth century for the ‘new’ technologies of the telegram, telephone and steamship. Indeed, the 1990s was a time of similarly breathless descriptions of a ‘shrinking world’ that was more connected and less divided than ever before. At the heart of all these recent changes was reckoned to be digital technology.

One prominent aspect of these claims was how change and remediation was supposedly taking place on a global basis. Indeed, twenty years on from the initial ‘dot.com’ boom of the 1990s, digital technologies still tend to be framed in terms that transcend local, national and regional boundaries. It has become commonsensical to imagine digital technologies as unfettered by the traditional limitations of countries and continents. This thinking has been evident in the metaphors used to describe digital technologies over the past thirty years, many of which imply an overcoming of global distance and space (e.g. the ‘information superhighway’, the ‘worldwide web’ and even the international network). Other descriptions suggest a transcendence of the material world altogether (e.g. ‘virtual reality’ and ‘cyberspace’). Recent discussions of the computing ‘cloud’ extend this logic further – evoking otherworldly visions of a ubiquitous source of computer power that exists around us regardless of our geographical location.

Of course, the on-going development of digital technology is associated with a number of more specific societal, economic and cultural changes. For example, the supposed ability of digital technologies to ‘flatten out’ hierarchies and introduce a ‘hyper-connected’ logic to the organisation of social relations has been welcomed by some commentators as supporting the (re)configuration of society along more dispersed and individualised lines (e.g. Friedman 2007). Even if we discount the more fanciful and idealistic aspects of some of these accounts, a large number of popular and academic commentators agree that the ever expanding ‘connectivity’ of digital technology is recasting social arrangements and relations in a more open, democratic and ultimately empowering manner. As Charles Leadbeater (2008, p.3) concluded:

the web's extreme openness, its capacity to allow anyone to connect to virtually anyone else, generates untold possibilities for collaboration … the more connected we are, the richer we should be, because we should be able to connect with other people far and wide, to combine their ideas, talents and resources in ways that should expand everyone's property.

Claims such as these lie at the heart of how many people perceive the ‘digital world’ alluded to in the title of this book. This is the prevailing sense that we are now living in a technologically re-ordered world – a world that is structured and arranged along significantly different lines than was the case even a few years before. There are clear articulations here with concepts such as the ‘information age’, the ‘information society’ and the ‘post-industrial’ era – ideas that all point towards the growing importance of the production and consumption of information and knowledge as key sources of power and competitiveness in the ‘global economy’. Indeed, all of these concepts convey the common view that recent economic, social and cultural changes have been driven by – or at least shaped around – the on-going development of new computerised and telecommunications technologies (see Webster 2006). As Daniel Bell (1980) outlined in his description of postindustrial society, digital technologies are now “decisive for the way economic and social exchanges are conducted, the way knowledge is created and retrieved, and the character of work and organisations in which men [sic] are engaged”. The focus of the present book, then, on Education in a Digital World corresponds clearly with these wider accounts of societal (re)organisation over the past fifty years – in particular the idea of there now being an intensified universal connectivity of information, as well as an apparently increased significance of knowledge.

Both these issues perhaps merit further attention before we progress further into more specific discussions of education and technology. With regards to the first issue of universal connectedness, it is worthwhile reconsidering Manuel Castells’ description of the ‘information society’ and what he sees as the “networking logic of its basic structure” (Castells 1996, p.21). Although much criticised, Castells’ description of the ‘network society’ rightly highlights the ways in which ‘connective’ features of technological developments during the 1980s and 1990s were paralleled by the corrective restructurings of capitalism and statism throughout this time, as well as by the rise of networked social movements such as ecologism. In all these ways, Castells draws attention to the increasing tendency of dominant functions and processes within contemporary societies to be organised around networks rather than physical boundaries. As he argued:

Networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies and the diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in the processes of production, experience, power and culture. While the networking form of social organisation has existed in other times and spaces, the new information technology paradigm provides the basis for its pervasive expansion throughout the entire social structure.

(Castells 1996, p.469)

Crucially, Castells saw the growing organisation of society around dynamic networks as having led to a changed sense of space and time within many aspects of contemporary life. Castells described how societal arrangements were influenced more by the ‘space of flows’ (i.e. the movement of information, resources, objects or funding) rather than by the ‘space of places’ (i.e. their original location). This idea of a deterritorialised ‘network society’ has been illustrated ably of late by patterns of economic activity which appear to depend ultimately on global dynamics rather then any national influence (as was evident, for example, in the ‘meltdown’ at the end of the 2000s of global financial markets). Conversely, a deterritorialised networking logic can also be seen in ‘global’ social movements such as the ‘smart mob’ protests against various world economic summits throughout the 2000s, the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ popular revolts at the beginning of the 2010s, or even the persistence of decentralised terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda. All these examples illustrate the growing societal significance of the global transmission of information – for better and for worse. Thus while appearing to be concentrated at regional or local levels, most economic and political activity could be said to be determined ultimately at a global rather than local level of aggregation. As Castells (2006, p.4) reasoned, what may appear to be local activity must be understood instead as “diffused by the power embedded in global networks of capital, goods, services, labour, communication, information, science and technology”.

In the eyes of many commentators, therefore, the primary significance of the information age and network society is one of globally networked power – in particular, globally networked economic power. This is certainly reflected in the ‘network enterprise’ of modern multinational corporations, based as they are on the networking of labour in the form of ‘flexi-workers’ and ‘self-programmable labour’ alongside the distribution of what Hardt and Negri (2005) term ‘immaterial goods’. Indeed, economic commentators over the past thirty years have charted the rise of so-called ‘immaterial’ economies, built around global flows of ‘weightless’ products and services such as accounting, legal services, insurance, management consulting, training, marketing and software development (see Miller 2011). This new world economic order is seen to be founded upon globally networked processes that are fast-changing, flexible and based around ephemeral rather than material ‘content’.

This, then, brings us to the second point of wider significance for this book – i.e. the ever-increasing influence of information and knowledge in contemporary society. Indeed, the spectre of the ‘knowledge economy’ could be said to underpin everything that has been discussed so far in this chapter (and indeed everything that will be discussed throughout the rest of the book). In simple terms, the ‘knowledge economy’ refers to the increasing significance of the production and manipulation of information and knowledge at the expense of the production of physical goods and services. As Chakravartty and Sarikakis (2006, p.22) argue, the ‘knowledge economy’ “symbolises a transition from the manual/machine-assisted production line of material things to an abstract, placeless interaction between human and electronic brains for the production of services”. Following this logic, the production and distribution of knowledge and information is now a core component of contemporary economic growth and, therefore, changes in employment. As a consequence, the capacity of organisations and individuals to engage successfully in learning, training and ‘reskilling’ processes becomes an important determinant of economic performance (Pantzar 2001).

Indeed, the knowledge economy thesis implies that individuals and organisations face major educational challenges in adjusting to these new circumstances. Thus it is recognised by policymakers and employers alike that the nature of access to educational opportunities has implications not only for general economic competitiveness, but also for the employability of individuals and the consequent impacts on their standard of living. A dominant view has emerged in many countries and regions that the effective organisation of learning opportunities is a crucial driver of economic growth and – it follows – social cohesion. The emphasis on individuals within the knowledge economy model reflects a ‘human capital’ model where individuals participate in learning according to their calculation of the net economic benefits to be derived from education and training (Becker 1975). As Brown et al. (2008, p.132) reason, the essence of this human capital approach is that “income reflects the level of skill”. Given the prevailing view of contemporary economic change as predicated upon knowledge-based forms of production, human capital theory sees individual workers seeking to participate in education throughout their lifetimes in order to capitalise upon the labour-market benefits that should result from skills renewal and development. In this sense, the main issue that individual citizens are required to address throughout their working lives is their ability to accrue the skills (and perhaps as importantly the associated certification and accreditation) required for success in the labour market. The main issue that governments are therefore required to address is the removal of the impediments or ‘barriers’ that prevent individuals from participating in education and training. As Andy Green (2003, p.87) reflects, “the impact of globalisation on the demand for skills and qualifications” over the past thirty years or so has been substantial.

The Significance of Education, Technology and Global Societal Change

As these latter points suggest, education is an integral component of the changing contemporary world. Whether described in terms of the information age, network society or knowledge economy, it is difficult to overlook the links between education, economy and society. The beliefs and values underlying most forms of recent education change and reform have therefore been simple ones – first, that a knowledge economy requires an information-skilled workforce in order to succeed, and second that the key to an information-skilled workforce is education and learning. As Roger Dale (2005, p.118) notes, the knowledge economy is therefore “intrinsically related to education”. In these terms, education is positioned as a continuous concern – reflecting the ethos of ‘lifelong learning’ that embraces not only compulsory phases of schooling but also education and training throughout the life-course.

This, then, brings us to the core concern of the book – the significance of the use of digital technologies in these forms of education that underpin the digital age, information society and knowledge economy. From even our brief discussion so far, it should be of no surprise that digital technology is seen by most commentators as being an essential element of contemporary educational arrangements. Indeed, the educational controversies that raged throughout the 1980s and 1990s over whether or not learning about digital technology should be a core component of education (the so-called issue of ‘computer literacy’) have long since been resolved. Now there is widespread acceptance that digital technologies must play an integral role in the provision of all aspects of lifelong learning – from the integration of computers in school, college and university classrooms, to the virtual delivery of online courses and training. Digital technologies and media are also recognised as implicit elements of the ‘informal’ modes of learning that are stimulated by general interests, pursuits and hobbies outside the formal curriculum. In short, digital technology is now an utterly integral but wholly unremarkable component of educational conditions and arrangements around the world.

At this point, it is important to note that what is often referred to as ‘educational technology’ is not a single entity, but a diverse array of technological devices and technology-based activities and practices. In fact, many discussions of educational technology are focused only on a small number of the various forms of digital technology that are used around the world. Instead, educational uses of digital technology encompass the use of internet-connected computing devices such as laptop and tablet computers and ‘smart phones’, as well as the institutional uses of these technologies in the form of virtual learning environments, electronic smartboards and so on. These technological devices are used throughout educational systems to support a diversity of forms of educational provision from kindergartens to work-based training. Within the institutional contexts of school, college and university – for example – much effort is put into the use of classroom and campus-based technologies alongside the increasing use of ‘blended’ forms of online and offline provision of teaching as well as fully ‘virtual’ provision. Indeed, ‘virtual schooling’ is now a growing feature of school systems in North America and Europe. Virtual education is also a key element of the diversified provision of transnational ‘offshore’ higher education, where higher education institutions are providing international online education, partner-supported transnational programmes and even international branch campuses (see McBurnie and Ziguras 2010).

In all these forms, digital technologies are associated with potentially far-reaching shifts in the organisation and governance of educational provision. Commentators now talk about ‘school 2.0’ and the ‘edgeless university’ – reflecting the increasing fluidity and fragmentation of educational places and spaces. Conversely, in many regions of the world, digital technologies are being used to support large-scale forms of ‘mega schooling’ (Daniel 2010) – massively expanding access to education to populations who would otherwise be denied. There are, for example, a growing number of ‘open’ schools and universities where teachers and students are separated physically but educated collectively – from the Indonesia Open Junior Secondary School to the Open University of Japan. Latchem and Jung (2010) list thirty-three such ‘mega-universities’ in Asia alone, spanning from Israel to Macau. The scale of these reconfigurations of educational provision is considerable. The Turkish Anadolu University, for example, doubled in size between 1996 to 2006 and now caters for over 1 million students. Digital technology also lies at the heart of virtual consortia of traditional universities (such as the Korean Open Cyber University) and online brokers of courses from other institutions (such as the Syrian Virtual University). Also of significance here, is the technology-supported growth of private provision of education. Indeed, many of the initiatives described above include – at least in part – the involvement of an array of commercial interests. From the 1990s onwards, there has been notable growth in multi-billion dollar global educational media providers such as Pearson, Thomson, McGraw-Hill and the Apollo Group. Digital technology is therefore being used to support a diverse array of educational forms that are associated in turn with a diverse array of educational outcomes.

Of course, technology can be used to pursue forms of educational provision other than these centrally driven or commercially provided forms. For some groups of educators, digital technology is welcomed as a means of offering opportunities to move beyond the institutionalised provision of education altogether – allowing groups and communities of individuals to learn amongst themselves. This is reflected in the growing trend towards globalised forms of collaborative and self-organised learning – such as the online collaborations between educators and institutions to form ‘globally networked learning environments’ (see Starke-Meyerring and Wilson 2008). There is now increasing enthusiasm for the use of ‘open courseware’ and ‘open educational resources’ which are concerned with making educational materials available and reconfigurable online for no cost. There are now many examples of these open educational arrangements (see Conole 2012) – from large professional repositories such as the UK Open University's ‘Open Learn’ programme to volunteers from China and Taiwan translating open source materials from North American and European universities into Mandarin Chinese. In all these instances, high quality teaching and learning is no longer seen to be the domain of closed educational institutions and professional communities.

As all these examples suggest, education and technology is a broad topic that encompasses a wide range of forms and involve a wide range of interests. Yet despite its diversity, popular discussions of educational technology are disappointingly uniform. Indeed, the field of educational technology appears to generate a constant level of heightened expectation about the general ability of the latest ‘new’ technology to change education for the better, regardless of context or circumstance. Typical of this thinking, for example, is John Willinsky's (2009, p.xi) assertion that current forms of digital technology offer “the potential, on a global scale … towards changing how and what the world learns”. As the CEO of News Corporation (and investor in a number of educational technology companies) similarly reasoned: “In putting this creative force into schools we can ensure the poor child in Manila has the same chance as the rich child in Manhattan … the key to our future is to unlock this potential” (Rupert Murdoch, cited in Willsher 2011).

Public proclamations of this sort exemplify the general belief amongst many powerful interests that digital technologies lie at the heart of fundamental educational change and renewal. One prominent discourse here is the notion of technology sustaining a genuinely worldwide rearrangement of educational access – in John Daniel's (2009, p.62) words, heralding “a tectonic shift that will bring the benefits of learning and knowledge to millions”. The notion of educational technology as a global phenomenon is evident in the numerous celebrations of the ability of digital technology to allow educators and educational institutions to operate in ‘borderless’ and ‘edgeless’ ways, and for individuals to enjoy unprecedented levels of meritocratic educational opportunity. In an epistemological sense, digital technologies have been long associated with the ‘de-territorialisation’ and ‘de-referentialisation’ of knowledge, where knowledge has no boundaries and is free to travel around the world (see Readings 1996). For some critical educators, digital technologies are described ...