Philosophy of Technology Assumptions in Educational Technology Leadership

Philosophy of Technology Assumptions in Educational Technology Leadership

Kelly Parsons

ETEC 562

Spring 2017

Article Review Activity #1

In this article, Philosophy of Technology Assumptions in Educational Technology Leadership, Webster details his study of thirty-one educational technology leaders in the Virginia area. He interviewed campus and district leaders about their technology assumptions. His underlying question was, “Does philosophy of technology matter for educational technology leadership?” (Webster, 2017) Webster focused his study on technology determinism on seeing if it affects the decisions that leaders make about technology for their districts and campuses. Webster states that “Technological determinism typically considers technology as a dominant force for social change, although there are different accounts of technological determinism.”

When asked about their technology philosophies most of the leaders responded that they believed that technology is a tool. They also noted that technological change is inevitable and most of them had a significant degree of technological optimism as a part of their philosophy. Also noted was that many leaders made statements about how Technology raises questions of human values.

Webster then goes into detail about how these philosophies relate to each other.  He found cognitive dissonance within several of the thoughts presented by the educational technology leaders. For example, many believe that technology is value neutral, but also that technology raises questions of human value.  These ideas seem to oppose each other.

Webster also spends a great deal of time discussing how the leaders seemed caught between two philosophies when it came to decision making. They believe that curriculum should drive instruction, but also that you must also “keep up with technology or get left behind”.  These ideas seem to contradict each other. If one implements a new technology just to stay ahead of the curve, then they must figure out how to make it work with the curriculum and instruction. The opposite is also true, if you find technology that works with the curriculum it is often out of date and obsolete by the time it is fully implemented.

I found this study to be very interesting. I’m part of the technology committee at my school and a member of a faculty team who has been tasked with finding new technology for our campus. I identified with most of the philosophies outlined in this article. When you must make real decisions about technology for your campus there are many factors to consider and many times they are at odds with each other. It will be interesting to see if the speed of technology growth slows or continues at lightning speed. I wonder if education will ever be able to keep up.

Reference

Webster, M. D. (2017). Philosophy of Technology Assumptions in Educational Technology Leadership. Educational Technology & Society, 20 (1), 25–36.