Educational Technology: An Ecumenical Stance

"Get up, stand up" - Bob Marley

Here is the paper Educational Technology: An Ecumenical Stance, which I wrote with Sue Greener and Asher Rospigliosi for ICICTE 2008. (The picture is of Urulua LeGuin, who wrote The Ecumen books).

We examine media & technological determinism in the context of educational technology. We argue that educational technologists cannot take a ‘deterministic stance’ & should practice ethics founded on an ecumenical view of theory & technology. Taking a cue from social cognitive theory, senior educational technologists should also visibly engage in reflective practice leading to ethical outcomes to motivate less senior members of the profession to do likewise. We note the problem that many senior educational technologists are aligned with a particular theory and/or technology, which has helped them to secure their position. They will need to change their outlook in order to address these goals & this is very hard for senior practioners to do. We suggest that action learning might offer a supportive route to personal transformation.

Shurville, S., Greener, S. and Rospiglosi, A. (2008). Educational Technology: An Ecumenical Stance. In the proceedings of the 8th International Conference of Information and Communications Technologies in Education, Corfu, Greece.