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Feenberg and other critical theorists such as Ellul, Ihde and Irrgang maintain that technology is neither neutral nor autonomous but ambivalent. Ambivalent technology is distinguished from neutrality by the role it attributes to social values in the use and the development of technical systems.

technology is not a thing in itself but is inherently a process of social, historical and political cultures.

technology mediates experience, and through this mediation, it alters the experience of the phenomena.

not assume the future to be any less problematic than the present).

Instead, take this as a challenge to talk through some alternate ways of approaching our field and our work … these are discussions that certainly need to ‘cont’.

For instance, technology and education remains an area of academic study, policymaking, commercial activity and   popular debate where promises of what might/could/should happen far outstrip the realities of what actually happens.

The limitation of physical classrooms and existing information structures in education play a similar role in delaying innovation as the centralized power source in multi-story buildings did during the adoption of electrical engines.

long timeline of slow change

almost all technological advancements related to information and communication have influenced three dimensions: 1.      Our ability to create and share information and content 2.      Our ability to connect and dialogue with others, a progressive minimization of the tyranny of space and time 3.      Our ability to experience a simulated reality

One recurring strategy to invalidate a technology critic’s observations is to frame an issue in terms of overly simplistic comparisons. Then, all you need to do is allege the critic is blind to obvious advantages and makes a mountain out of a molehill by dramatizing small problems.

If you’re not taking deep pause to consider what’s lost if drones create material conditions that lead to moral hazards, whether sufficient oversight will ensure robotic cars can make appropriate moral decisions, and if banging the security drum too loudly unfairly stacks the deck against privacy, then you’re looking past significant issues.

This paper raises questions on levels of learner autonomy, presence, and critical literacies required in active connectivist learning.

In e-learning, two major traditions have been prevalent: one where connections are made with people and the other where they are made with resources (Weller, 2007)

since the emergence and proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their increasing encroachment on everyday life, boundaries between settings in which people learn and in which they use technology for other activities have blurred, and perspectives such as connectivism have emerged

To what extent do existing learning theories meet the needs of today’s learners, and anticipate the needs of learners of the future?

If older theories are to be replaced by connectivism, then what are the grounds for this measure?

If connectivism is to build on older theories, how is the integration of the old and new theories to be conducted?

To help teachers develop TPACK, Learning by Design (LBD) is one promising instructional model for creating such a learning environment, addressing the situated nature and complex interplay of technology, pedagogy and content.

The three generations of technology enhanced teaching are cognitive/behaviourist, social constructivist and connectivist.

tools can be used and optimized to enhance the different types of learning that are the focus of distance education theory and practice.

pedagogy and the technology must create an engaging and compelling dance

how much training should be required prior to taking a job, and whether the investment of time and money spent on training should be optimized around the company or the employee, knowing there will always be some in-house training required.

When we look at the bigger picture of retraining for this and many other professions, knowing that people will be rebooting their careers far more often in the future, with time being such a precious commodity, how do we create the leanest possible educational model for jobs in the future?

Micro-Colleges are any form of concentrated post-secondary education oriented around the minimum entry point into a particular profession. With literally millions of people needing to shift careers every year, and the long drawn out cycles of traditional colleges being a poor solution for time-crunched rank-and-file displaced workers, we are seeing a massive new opportunity arising for short-term, pre-apprenticeship training.  Many Micro-Colleges will fall into the category we often refer to as vocational training, a term poorly suited for the professional craftsmen, artisans, and technicians they will be producing. Since status and credentialing are critical elements of every career choice, any training producing specialized experts will need to come with industry-recognized certifications and titles.

And one thing I’ve learned is that everything is interesting if looked at at the appropriate level of detail. Now, it used to be that you’d have to seek out places to plunge in over your head. But now, in the age of the Internets, all we have to do is stand still and the flood waters rise over our heads. We usually call this “information overload,” and we’re told to fear it. But I think that’s based on an old idea we need to get rid of. Here’s what I mean. So, you know Flickr, the photo sharing site? If you go there and search for photos tagged “vista,” you’ll get two million photos, more vistas than you could look at if you made it your full time job. If you go to Google and search for apple pie recipes, you’ll get over 1.3 million of them. Want to try them all out to find the best one. Not gonna happen. If you go to Google Images and search for “cute cats,” you’ll get over seven million photos of the most adorable kittens ever, as well as some ads and porn, of course, because Internet. So that’s two million vista photos. 1.3 million apple pie recipes. 7.6 million cute cat photos. We’re constantly warned about information overload, yet we never hear one word single word about the dangers of Vista Overload, Apple Pie Overload, or Cute Kitten overload. How have the media missed these overloads! It’s a scandal!

For example, in the old days if you watched the daily half hour broadcast news or spent twenty minutes with a newspaper, you had done your civic duty: you had kept up with The News. Now we can see before our eyes what an illusion that sense of mastery was. There’s too much happening on our diverse and too-interesting planet to master it, and we can see it all happening within our browsers

t Wikipedia, the articles are often relatively short, but they typically have dozens or even hundreds of links. So rather than trying to get everything about, say, Shakespeare into a couple of thousand words, Wikipedia lets you click on links to other articles about what it mention — to Stratford-on-Avon, or iambic pentameter, or about the history of women in the theater.