Mobile Technologies and an Ethical Digital Literacy in the Face of Empire

Abstract

Mobile and wireless technologies are often described in terms of the efficiency and productivity they enable both inside and outside of formal educational settings, through their provision of “flexible and timely access to learning resources, instantaneous communication, portability, active learning experiences and the empowerment and engagement of learners, particularly those in dispersed communities” (JISC, 2012, n.p.). Given the increasingly proscribed research and funding agenda within contemporary tertiary and higher education, pedagogic case studies for the learning that is enabled through personal, mobile tools increasingly focus upon value-formoney and cost reductions in educational institutions, or on the impact of personalized outcomes for learners and teachers. Such cases rarely critique mobile technologies beyond the pedagogies deployed, any limiting technical issues, and the spaces and places in which they are deployed.