(Most) Technology Is Not Neutral

I just saw this post on Risk, Reward, and Digital Writing, today, from the good folks at Hybrid Pedagogy. Among other things, it reminded me of the lack of neutrality in technology.

Technology.  It's hard for me to walk through the world without using it.  Relying on it.  And accepting it almost unquestioningly, most of the time.  Sure, there are design errors, and processes that the technology sometimes insists upon that are clearly not based on a user with my particular experience.  Technology is best when it's invisible.  Or maybe when it wows.  And tech is at its worst when it fails.  (Or we fail to understand the logic of the machine.)

Sometimes software technology or web technologies are agnostic.  Meaning:  They work regardless of the type of hardware being used.

But technology is not neutral.  It's all been developed with assumptions.  Sometimes these assumptions are so in line with norms, that they are not visible.  (That this communication will take place in text, that I will be writing in English.)  When we get to Google Docs from our Antioch account, the assumption is that our first line of sharing will be with others in the Antioch Community.  And Google Docs was built on the assumption that documents are for sharing.  And for co-editing.  And that drastic mistakes as well as tiny edits should be reversible.

One of my concerns about many educational apps is the tacit assumption that Apps Are For Consumption.  Children are natural creators.  Tablets have the ability to allow them to create, connect (with each other and broader audiences, if appropriate), and (appropriately)  share their creations.  But finding apps that are not consumption-centric is difficult.  In TEP-519, we will begin to explore some tools that are designed for creativity.  One great outcome of  TEP 519 would be that teacher candidates begin to  look at the assumptions of technologies they wish to adapt in their classrooms.