I’ve increasingly come to believe that studying educational technology without experiencing its constraints, workarounds and breakdowns is like trying to learn to swim by reading books about water. The lived reality of platforms is filled with minor breakdowns, awkward compromises and institutional constraints which shape how they’re used in practice. Pretending otherwise just perpetuates the fantasy of seamless platformisation which tech firms cynically sell to educational leaders who ought to know better.
Rather than hide these challenges, we should embrace them as learning opportunities which illuminate how technology actually gets used in educational institutions. This means being open with students about our rationales and constraints, explaining why things don’t work as planned and helping them understand the complex reality of implementing digital education. Otherwise we risk producing graduates who understand the theory but lack the practical wisdom needed to navigate the messy reality of educational technology. The alternative is to perpetuate unrealistic expectations which set people up to fail when they encounter the reality of working with technology in educational institutions.
Mark Carrigan 