Second Thoughts: Understanding the Impact and Appropriate Use and Non-use of Technologies

Abstract

Trends are often narrowly described in educational technology as those that directly affect our domain, such as the use of hardware or software advances or the shift to mobile computing. In a larger sense, trends also describe changes in how we live, how society changes, and the resulting tides of human life. Trends are inclinations or drifts in a particular direction, the winds of change in society. These large, subtle trends are often illustrated or caused by our relationship with technology on a personal or societal level. They can and will have an impact on education, on educational technology, and on media use, and they must be addressed in our educational efforts. Now the question becomes, what are you turning off? What is the value of consciously "unplugging" from technologies? How is learning different away from digital technology? [For the complete volume, "Educational Media and Technology Yearbook, Volume 42," see ED600543.]