Technology as a Signifier and Creator of Culture

The following was shared with NJCU's Ed.D. in Educational Technology Leadership students at their 2022 hooding ceremony:

It is very easy to start off saying what we’ve all heard several times before about how Covid showed us the importance of technology. Right? But that is a narrow view of technology within education, and as newly minted doctors of educational technology leadership, I would hope that you would call me out on that. Call me out, and then engage in an animated discussion about the role technology is playing and should play in education.

Technology is more than a tool. It is simultaneously a signifier and a creator of culture. As Brey (2018) notes,

.  .  .  technology, which is itself shaped by society, actively shapes society by influencing the way in which people behave, the way in which social roles, relations and institutions are constructed, and the manner in which culture manifests itself. It does not do so in a deterministic fashion; its influence is co-determined by social and material contexts and interpretive frameworks that govern the use of the technology.

As I prepared to speak today, I thought about this, and it made me think about the work of an influential educator, Paulo Freire. Freire was a Brazilian educator and activist who work rose to prominence in the 1980s and beyond. He argued against what he characterized as a banking metaphor of education – where students are mere receptacles within which teachers make deposits. Instead, Freire saw education as a means to empowerment.

He worked with illiterate villagers in rural areas of Brazil. When he worked with the adults, he taught them to read the world and read the word. He helped them to understand that the things they encountered in their lives were either “of nature” or “of culture.” As a devout Christian socialist, Freire would frame the world of nature as that which was created by God – streams, trees, etc. He contrasted that with things made by people – roads, buildings, water systems, etc. – and characterized these things as “of culture.”

Freire taught the villagers that their lives where more challenging because of their lack of access to many things “of culture.” They did not have the same water systems that people in the cities had. Therefore, they had to travel to wells to get their water each day. As he taught them to read, he showed them that their lack of access to things as vital as water itself oppressed them. If they had to focus that much time and energy on getting their basic needs met, then they would not have time to challenge those in power.

Freire helped the villagers see themselves as subjects, - not objects without agency. He was so successful, that he was imprisoned and later exiled. Why do I share this biographical snapshot of a Brazilian educator with you?

Because, as leaders in educational technology, you must help others read both the word and the world. Technology is so much more than a mere tool to accomplish this. Technology involves a way of being. How we encounter the world – and how we help others encounter the world. While it is important for you to help students learn how to use technology in learning environments, it is also essential that you help them to see how technology is shaping their world in real-time. Students are not mere objects hitting buttons and controlling joysticks. They are subjects shaping their futures and the futures of others through technology.

This is why access is so important. This is why advocacy is so important within our educational realms of influence. All students should have access to the means through which their world is changing. All students need to be agents within those changes. Freire notes the following:

Education either functions as an instrument that is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes “the practice of freedom,” the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.

As leaders in educational technology, you have the knowledge, skills, and now the credentials to help others use technology to transform the world. I’m excited to see your future impact in this vital work.