What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Technology? In Search of an Illichian Heuristic

• In Event: 66.079 - Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: 66.079-10 - (Re)considering Conviviality

Abstract

In this paper, we channel the work of social theorists like Mumford (1971), Illich (1973), and Postman (1992) to interrogate the commonsense notion that more and better technology is associated with achievement and progress. Illich (1973) termed societies that maintain a healthy relationship with their tools, from blenders to automobiles, as convivial. That is, convivial is “a technical term to designate a modern society of responsibly limited tools” (p. xxiv). Within this framework, we argue that in education in the U.S. we are far from convivial. There is mounting evidence that convinces us to be at minimum skeptical and at most terrified of the dominant role technology is playing in almost every facet of teaching and learning.

Authors

• Scott Morrison, Elon University

• Brandon Lee Sams, Auburn University