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"Many of the prom<strong>is</strong>es of ICT, like those of lifelong learning, come couched in thelanguage of access <strong>and</strong> equity, appealing both <strong>to</strong> social justice <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong> efficiency. On itsown, th<strong>is</strong> gives us no reason for rejecting the prom<strong>is</strong>es as false or m<strong>is</strong>leading. Informationtechnology clearly does have the capacity under appropriate circumstances <strong>to</strong> reach largenumbers of learners through a few well-qualified teachers using materials developed <strong>by</strong>special<strong>is</strong>ts. In places w<strong>here</strong> both books <strong>and</strong> qualified teachers are scarce, ICT may indeedhave the capacity <strong>to</strong> provide learning resources w<strong>here</strong> t<strong>here</strong> are none." (Lelliott,Pendlebury <strong>and</strong> Enslin, 2000 p. 48)Lelliott et. al. (2000) were writing out of the context of facilitating learning on the continent ofAfrica but their insight <strong>is</strong> transferable <strong>to</strong> the UK context. T<strong>here</strong> are <strong>some</strong> important words in th<strong>is</strong>passage: 'access', 'equity', 'justice' as words related <strong>to</strong> liberation or freedom; 'capacity', 'wellqualified','special<strong>is</strong>t' as words related <strong>to</strong> education <strong>and</strong> learning.Resonances with Polsani's notion of technology as the teacher of the future (see above), Law'snotion of liberation technology <strong>and</strong> the general underst<strong>and</strong>ing of education as a means ofachieving freedom, if only from ignorance, make th<strong>is</strong> an important quotation in the context ofth<strong>is</strong> study. Goodson <strong>and</strong> Mangan note however, “that people have different levels of access <strong>to</strong>information, <strong>and</strong> different levels of awareness regarding its formulation <strong>and</strong> d<strong>is</strong>tribution”(Goodson <strong>and</strong> Mangan, 1991 p.13). Th<strong>is</strong> means that control can be exerted over subordinatesbecause they simply ‘do not know’. Liberating the means of ‘knowing’ <strong>and</strong> freeing access <strong>to</strong> thesources of knowledge <strong>is</strong> actually an act, t<strong>here</strong>fore, of moral hero<strong>is</strong>m <strong>and</strong> revolution. As has beenshown, technology can do th<strong>is</strong>. Halpin converts th<strong>is</strong> aspirational underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the power ofICT in educational terms in<strong>to</strong> a more urgent imperative <strong>to</strong> change. Since ICT has been a catalys<strong>to</strong>f social revolution, he argues, curricula need <strong>to</strong> evolve <strong>to</strong> keep pace:"...the nature of modern society, in particular the most significant social revolutionspresently underway within it which are radically reconfiguring how life <strong>is</strong> currentlyexperienced <strong>and</strong> lived, <strong>and</strong> which I now want <strong>to</strong> ins<strong>is</strong>t dem<strong>and</strong> a fresh curricular responsefrom schools. (Halpin 2003 p. 106)116Simon Hughes Ph.D. Thes<strong>is</strong> (Oc<strong>to</strong>ber 2012)

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