Moving beyond the predictable failure of Ed-Tech initiatives

ABSTRACT

The development of Information and Communication Technology has created waves of excitement about its power to fix educational problems and improve learning results, prompting a succession of policy efforts to integrate digital technology into education. Educators, schools and corporations are increasingly driving these initiatives. This article makes the argument that a narrow vision of digital technology, which both ignores the complexity of education and wastes valuable public resources, is becoming an obstacle to significant improvement and transformation in education. Utilising our research and experience in the field of educational technology, this paper problematises the common elision of ‘technology’ and ‘digital technology’. From this basis, we then critically reflect on various common approaches to introducing digital technology in education under the guise of promoting equality and digital inclusion. These include national government-led programmes, more recent trends for local school-led initiatives, and the role of non-formal education initiatives led by corporations/foundations. Amidst the varying surface-level ‘failure’ and/or ‘success’ of these approaches, we point to limited underpinning ‘information and knowledge society’ logics in framing the application of digital technology to education. As such we conclude by considering the educational challenges for future Ed-Tech initiatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational change
• school improvement
• educational challenges
• digital technology corporations
• educational policies

Acknowledgments

ESBRINA – Contemporary Subjectivities, Visualities and Educational Environments (2014SGR 0632) http://esbrina.eu REUNI+D – University Network for Educational Research and Innovation. Social Changes and Challenges to Education the Digital Age (MINECO. EDU2015-68718-REDT): http://reunid.eu.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Juana M. Sancho-Gil. Full professor of Educational Technologies in the Faculty of Education of the University of Barcelona. Coordinator of the research group ESBRINA – http://esbrina.eu, and REUNI+D – University Network for Educational Research and Innovation. Social Change and Challenges for Education in the Digital – http://reunid.es. Extensive experience in research projects.

Pablo Rivera-Vargas. PhD in Education and Society, University of Barcelona (UB). Master Degree in Political Science (UB). Sociologist, University of Concepción (Chile). Member of the consolidated research group ESBRINA – Subjectivities, visualisations and current educational environments-(2017SGR 1248). Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Didactics and Educational Organisation (UB). Interested in public policies on digital inclusion.

Raquel Miño Puigcercós. PhD in Education and Society, University of Barcelona (UB). Master Degree on Research in Didactics, Instruction and Evaluation (UB). Member of the consolidated research group ESBRINA – Subjectivities, visualisations and current educational environments (2017SGR 1248). Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Didactics and Educational Organization (UB). Interested in sociocultural approaches to learning.

ORCID

Juana M. Sancho-Gil http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2941-5619

Pablo Rivera-Vargas http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9564-2596

Raquel Miño-Puigcercós http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5391-4637