Educational Technology

For the life of him, FLG doesn't understand the seemingly ubiquitous administrative infatuation with educational technology. Socrates taught Plato who, in turn, taught Aristotle and the closest thing to a computer involved was probably an abacus. Yet, they all turned out okay.

FLG isn't saying that technology has no role in education. Powerpoint is better than an overhead with transparencies or a slide projector, which means it is often useful in large classrooms and for presenting photos and graphs. Blackboard or other web-based class tools, when properly understood and used, can be very helpful. Despite serious concerns about online education, FLG thinks that can even be useful in some circumstances. One of the areas in which it has been underutilized, at least in FLG's opinion, is in internal corporate education and training, but that's probably a topic best left to another post.

There are several theories FLG has for why this adoration for educational technology exists among administrative types. First, and probably least important on this issue, the relative decline of the humanities in academia. Even English professors feel the need to be tech savvy for fear of being deemed Luddites. Humanities departments should stand up to this nonsense. Second, technology purchases, like buildings, are a concrete, tangible feathers in the cap. It's much easier for schools to tout how they rolled out 20 new smart-classrooms or a new course registration system than demonstrate how they improved their students' abilities to perceive and interpret the world around them. Put simply -- new technology sounds good on recruitment brochures. Third, technology is a revenue generation tool and cost savings device. Cheaper to have one professor teach 150 students using Powerpoint than to have five professors teach 30 students in a classroom. Likewise, there are greater profits in online courses than traditional ones.

Technology has its place, and FLG can understand why schools, especially state schools confronted with budget cuts in the current economic environment, want it to provide more students education at lower cost. Nevertheless, the best educational environment is still a group of twenty or so students in the same room with a engaging teacher. Perhaps video conferencing will one day be able to trick our minds into thinking different rooms are the same room, but the fundamentally human aspects of education will never change.

Many of educational technology's proponents talk of the democratization of education through technology, but FLG fears that technology democratizes education only through commoditization. Is it beneficial to society to expand the educational opportunities while diminishing the quality of them?

PS. No offense to Withywindle, whom FLG is sure delivered a fantastic lecture.