Does the internet enhance education or erode standards? Does it empower kids or endanger them? Does it mean more freedom or more surveillance? The short answer is: all or the above.
Digital technologies – including computing and mobile technologies – are among the most widely discussed subjects of our time, yet the way they affect young people, education and society as a whole is poorly understood. Swamped by competing arguments, many of us have difficulty deciding which experts to listen to or which claims to believe.
This book weaves together the many discussions now taking place. Burying some common fallacies, it sketches out the big picture – we cannot hope to understand the implications of digital technologies unless we acknowledge their technological, pedagogical, social, sociopolitical and even ecological effects. Only then can we make informed decisions about future developments in education and beyond.
Acknowledgements ix
Key abbreviations xi
1 Many lenses: An introduction 1
Five lenses 4
From blogs to bombs 9
Telling stories 10
2 Many clouds: A technological lens 14
Cloud nine 14
Stormclouds 19
Getting real 21
What's normal? 23
3 Many literacies: A pedagogical lens 25
Web 2.0 in education 26
Many literacies 36
What could go wrong? 46
Living in educational beta 54
4 Many selves: A social lens 55
Writing your/self into being 57
A unitary self 64
Dangerous or endangered? 67
Switching off 71
5 Many stories: A sociopolitical lens 76
Old divisions, new divisions 77
Beyond states and markets 83
Patrolling every/body 90
Future stories 99
6 Many baas & ˆˆˆˆˆ: An ecological lens 103
Biology 103
Ecology 106
God as a wiki 107
A world of diversity 109
Notes 110
Select Bibliography 134
Index 137
Overview
Does the internet enhance education or erode standards? Does it empower kids or endanger them? Does it mean more freedom or more surveillance? The short answer is: all or the above.
Digital technologies – including computing and mobile technologies – are among the most widely discussed subjects of our time, yet the way they affect young people, education and society as a whole is poorly understood. Swamped by competing arguments, many of us ...