Revealing the transformatory moment of learning technology: The place of critical social theory

Abstract

In revealing the transformatory moment of learning technology, a holistic and ongoing critique that is related to a range of socio-cultural factors is required. This critique further uncovers the social relations that frame the place of learning technology in bourgeois capitalist work and the development of the knowledge economy. This article argues that critical social theory, and the social and power relationships that it highlights, is central to the uncovering of this revelation. As a result of a holistic, or totalising, analysis based upon the political economy of technology in education, a framework that enables educators to examine its educational value is uncovered. Iterating and re-producing this framework works as a constant critique of educational practice within capitalism, and critiques deterministic or hegemonic views of technology-as-progress. As a result, this article seeks to demonstrate how critical social theory might enable educators to analyse learning technology as historically situated, and thereby to use critique to reveal and produce practical alternatives to sociocultural problems. © 2011 Association for Learning Technology.