(Dis)Empowering technologies: ICT for education (ICT4E) in China, past and present

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are often presented as the cure-all for various problems: ICTs for education (ICT4E) are considered promising tools for promoting self-directed, creative learning and bridging various divides, such as those between developed and developing countries, urban and rural regions, and so on. While the lofty goals of ICT4E are continuously being highlighted, surprisingly little attention has been paid to how these technologies are embedded in sociocultural and political environments.China is no exception to this narrative of techno-determinism. In China, new technologies are being widely propagated as effective instruments for erasing differences between learners and learning communities, particularly with regard to transplanting "modern" education into rural communities. The novelty of 21st century ICT, however, tends to obscure the fact that these techno-optimist beliefs date back to attempts in the early 20th century to uplift rural China through the implementation of modern technologies. The article will scrutinize this history of techno-optimism and will relate it to recent attempts at "transformation by technology." Finally, I will discuss how the new keyword in both educational modernization and the knowledge economy-"creativity"-functions as the conceptual ideological heir to "production capacity," the core ingredient of the industrializing societies of the 19th and 20th centuries.Keywords: ICT4E; techno-determinism; techno-optimism; creativity; rural China IntroductionIn the field of education, information and communication technologies (ICT) are often presented as the cure-all for a variety of problems: on the one hand, ICTs for education (ICT4E) are considered appropriate and promising tools for promoting self-directed and creative learning, which are deemed crucial for education in the 21st century. On the other hand, these new technologies are expected to bridge various divides, such as those between developed and developing countries, urban and rural regions, affluent and poor neighborhoods, and so on, by spreading the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to every classroom on the globe. While the merits and lofty goals of ICT4E are continuously highlighted in the research on ICT4E, surprisingly little attention has been paid to how these technologies are embedded in sociocultural and political environments after they are designed in national contexts and implemented in local schools. In a manner that can be best described as both ahistorical and apolitical, both ICT4E practitioners and policy makers assume that the newly promoted technologies, by virtue of their novelty, will automatically transform and improve learning both in and outside the classroom.China is no exception to this narrative of techno-determinism. New technologies are being widely propagated as effective instruments to both erase differences between learners and learning communities and raise learning behaviors and outcomes to a new level of quality. This has been true particularly with r...

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