Technology Assessment in Techno-Anthropological Perspective

Article out: The Digital Potential: A Monstrous Composite? – with Søren Riis (p. 128).

For 30 years or more, national governments worldwide have invested substantial funds in digital, educational technology. The result? Apart from meeting tautological digitisation goals, it is debatable whether evidential proof exists of substantial improvements, at least on explicit intentions of improving learning outcomes, increasing social mobility, or differentiating education – at the national level. In some cases, the investments have had a direct detrimental effect, by introducing distracting elements into the classroom that perform substantially worse as learning aids than well-known technologies like blackboards, books, pen, and paper (Butler, 2015). In some cases, the political response to this stark reality has been to raise the stakes by accelerating investments in digital technology for education.

Something has gone wrong. Technology assessment (TA) is needed.

Jesper balslev & Søren Riis

Botin, L., & Børsen, T. H. (Eds.) (2021). Technology Assessment in Techno-Anthropological Perspective. (OA ed.) Aalborg Universitetsforlag. Serie om lærings-, forandrings- og organisationsudviklingsprocesser Vol. 10