What is Technology?

Oliver, Martin

doi:10.1002/9781118736494.ch3

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…While theories of the postdigital have tended to surface in the humanities, for example in music composition (see Cascone 2000) and contemporary art (see Berry and Dieter 2015), they have had relatively little impact in education research. One of the more obvious reasons for this may be the general lack of rigorous engagement with the very idea of technology in educational research (see Oliver 2011Oliver , 2016, which one might assume is required in order to begin to consider the relevance of a term such as the postdigital. In other words, mainstream education would have to see itself firstly as 'digital', as fundamentally involved with technology, in order to subsequently view the postdigital as a meaningful condition, to which it needed to pay attention.…”

Section: (Post)digital Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Does the ‘Postdigital’ Mean for Education? Three Critical Perspectives on the Digital, with Implications for Educational Research and Practice

Knox

2019

Postdigit Sci Educ

204

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This paper examines what the term 'postdigital' might mean for education through the discussion of human-technology relationships. It begins with a summary of two general interpretations of the postdigital: firstly, to understand the 'post' as meaning simply 'posterior to' the digital, suggesting a different stage in the perception and use of technology; and secondly, to consider the 'post' as signalling a critical appraisal of the assumptions embedded in the general understanding of the digital. Subsequently, the paper outlines three critical perspectives on the digital with specific relevance for educational concerns. The first examines the economic rationales underpinning digital technology, focusing on the idea of the platform and the assumed benefits of sharing. The second discusses the role of the digital in educational policy and the compound effects of the metrification of institutional quality. The third section explores the digital as 'material', and the increasing attention paid to issues of labour and the exploitation of natural resources required to produce digital technologies. These perspectives suggest an understanding of the postdigital in terms of profound and far-reaching socio-technical relations, which have significant consequences for thinking about the purpose, focus, and governance of education in contemporary times.

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Section: (Post)digital Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Does the ‘Postdigital’ Mean for Education? Three Critical Perspectives on the Digital, with Implications for Educational Research and Practice

Knox

2019

Postdigit Sci Educ

204

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“…This work provides important evidence of the effectiveness of using specific technologies to support specific learning processes and outcomes. However, what is missing is a broader understanding of technology practice in education (Bennett and Oliver 2011;Oliver 2016). Research that conceptualises digital technologies as social tools, encompassing the artefact, its use and its context, will help provide an understanding of the interrelations between technology practice, students, their relationships, histories and surroundings.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A growing body of research proposes that a theoretically grounded definition of technology and technology practice may offer a means to extend research agendas beyond effects of technology and the immediate practical implications (Oliver 2016;Selwyn 2010). Moving toward an understanding of technology practice in and across contexts may uncover digital inequalities and how they may be reproduced or transformed.…”

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confidence: 99%

Conceptualising technology practice in education using Bourdieu's sociology

Beckman

Apps

Bennett

et al. 2018

Learning, Media and Technology

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Evidence from large-scale studies of primary and secondary students' technology practices at school over the last decade show disparities in student practices and suggest that schools need to do more to cater for all students. Research that explores the influence of social and cultural factors may be useful for understanding such inequality in student practice. Bourdieu's theory of practice [(1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. London: Cambridge University Press] is proposed as an example of a sociological theory that can be adopted in educational technology research to move towards understanding the wider complexities of technology practice. To encourage discourse and application of Bourdieu's sociology in the field of educational technology research, this paper provides an introduction to the theory, a review of its application in research of primary and secondary students' technology practice and relevant conceptual work. The paper presents a conceptual framework based on Bourdieu's theory that has been developed through two recent studies, and review of empirical and conceptual works and invites its application in future research so that it can be critiqued and further developed.

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“…For example, through an analysis of the epistemological dimensions of the field of education technology, Czerniewicz (2010) exposes the lack of theoretical coherence. Oliver similarly finds ‘a poorly conceptualized field’ (Oliver, 2016: 36) that, somewhat ironically, rarely engages with questions about technology itself, despite often being concerned with its advocacy. Yet, technological determinism still dominates today’s educational policy, politics and practice.…”

Section: Technological Determinism and Instrumentalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The postdigital turn: Philosophy, education, research

Jandrić

Knox

2021

Policy Futures in Education

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This article develops a post-determinist and a post-instrumentalist understanding of education and educational research through the lens of postdigital theory. We begin with historicizing current postdigital research by showing its intellectual ancestry and recognizing its rapidly changing nature. We move on to current state of the art, which we present in three wide themes. The first theme is the great convergence of various lower-level techno-scientific convergences, such as analogue–digital, physics–biology, and biology–information, which results in new epistemologies, ontologies and practices. The second theme is some consequences of the great convergence for education and pedagogy, which result in new postdigital ecopedagogies. The third theme is postdigital research, which is reconfigured by the great convergence towards a closer collaboration between traditional scientific fields and disciplines. We briefly outline four such reconfigurations (multidisciplinary, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, and antidisciplinarity) and their implications. The article concludes with a brief list of directions for future work in the field.

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What is Technology?

Cited by 18 publications

References 46 publications

What Does the ‘Postdigital’ Mean for Education? Three Critical Perspectives on the Digital, with Implications for Educational Research and Practice

What Does the ‘Postdigital’ Mean for Education? Three Critical Perspectives on the Digital, with Implications for Educational Research and Practice

Conceptualising technology practice in education using Bourdieu's sociology

The postdigital turn: Philosophy, education, research

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