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until these contingencies harden into technological necessities and become nearly unchangeable in future generations. There’s an old story that is basically true: Ordinary Roman carts were constructed to match the width of Imperial Roman war chariots because it was easier to follow the ruts in the road left by the war chariots. The chariots were sized to accommodate the width of two large war horses, which translates into our English measurement as a width of 4′ 8.5″. Roads throughout the vast Roman empire were built to this spec. When the legions of Rome marched into Britain, they constructed long distance imperial roads 4′ 8.5″ wide. When the English started building tramways, they used the same width so the same horse carriages could be used. And when they started building railways with horseless carriages, naturally the rails were 4′ 8.5″ wide. Imported laborers from the British Isles built the first railways in the Americas using the same tools and jigs they were used to. Fast forward to the US Space shuttle, which is built in parts around the country and assembled in Florida. Because the two large solid fuel rocket engines on the side of the launch Shuttle were sent by railroad from Utah, and that line transversed a tunnel not much wider than the standard track, the rockets themselves could not be much wider than 4′ 8.5.”

“So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of two horses’ arse.” More or less, this is how technology constrains itself over time.

In addition to the primary drive of preordained development (force #1), and in addition to the escapable influences of technological history (force #2), there is society’s collective free will in shaping the technium (force #3).

What we saw instead was that DigiTech enabled teachers and students to do the same things faster and more efficiently, albeit after some teachers had invested time and effort in learning how to use different technologies.

We conclude this paper by drawing on Veletsianos (2016 Veletsianos, G. (2016). Emergence and innovation in digital learning: Foundations and applications. Edmonton: AU Press, Athabasca University.) to suggest that a focus on ‘emerging technologies’ and ‘emerging practices’ in digital learning could be a useful way forward. As Veletsianos (2016 Veletsianos, G. (2016). Emergence and innovation in digital learning: Foundations and applications. Edmonton: AU Press, Athabasca University.) argues, ‘emerging technologies’ and ‘emerging practices’ transcend disciplines and, moreover, what makes practice and technology emerging is not the technology, but rather the environments in which technologies and practices operate. Emerging technologies and practices, therefore, are foregrounded in the belief that technologies and practices shape and are shaped by sociocultural environments.

As Veletsianos (2016 Veletsianos, G. (2016). Emergence and innovation in digital learning: Foundations and applications. Edmonton: AU Press, Athabasca University.) argues, DigiTech is not yet established in education.

One would expect that any educational organisation whose primary purpose is the delivery of education, would have learning outcomes at the heart of any planning process considering the distribution of such a large allocation of money.

ICTs are used in education in two general ways: to support existing ‘traditional’ pedagogical practices (teacher-centric, lecture-based, rote learning) as well as to enable more learner-centric, ‘constructivist’ learning models. Research from OECD countries suggests that both are useful, but that ICTs are most effective when they help to enable learner-centric pedagogies.

despite rhetoric that ICTs can enable new types of teaching and learning styles, for the most part they are being used to support traditional learning practices.

The existence of formal and informal communities of practice and peer networks can be important tools to support ICT in education initiatives and activities. Such support mechanisms can be facilitated through the use of ICTs.