Does your Technology outweigh your Pedagogy?

To define the relationship between society and techology in a word would be challenging. So far the best I can come up with seems to be almost a cop out. When I was asked this question, I replied with the word "complex."

Technology has always had a highly influential relationship on society. Historically, technology has allowed humanity to evolve to conquer the natural environment and develop civilizations with highly dynamic societies. Now, with the rise of Information Technology (IT) we are able to use computing and telecommunications to store, retrieve, send, and receive media and manipulate data instantly and over long distances. Such an innovation has not been seen since the advent of writing.

That being said, it’s not hard to see why as a society we are so celebrative and exited about IT in our “digital age.” Technology now plays an integral role in our society, as it is imbued in nearly all threads of our culture, from social media and smartphones to engineering, and now, the classroom.

When considering IT in an educational setting, there is an essential question to be considered.

Does your technology outweigh your pedagogy?

While the current enthusiasm for technology in the classroom is understandable, with the development of so many educational apps and devices and the media hype around the new best thing. It’s important as an educatory not to be too caught up in pop culture around these technologies and to be able to justify their use in the classroom from an educational perspective. The technology you are choosing to use has to enhance your students learning experience somehow, not just be “cool” or “fun” to use.

Additionally, there are the moral considerations to bringing technology into the classroom. Exposing students to the online world leads to a whole other world of opportunities and challenges, especially when it comes to media and society and the impacts these aspects of human culture have on the social development of young people. Sometimes when observing the media world, it seems as though we have created a monster. It now seems that in a sense, our technological innovations are now shaping our development, instead of the other way around. Are we opening the floodgates to a world of unrealistic, highly sexualized body images, violent video games, the terror of the world that Nikki Minage represents? As teachers, it is our role to not only educate and train students in certain skills and knowledges, but also to socialize and nurture positive values and behaviors.

This is all the more reason to consider the implications that the use of technology in education holds. Peter Parker’s dear old Uncle Ben once said “with great power, comes great responsibility.” This is especially true in the position of a teacher wielding technology in a classroom setting.