Moral Imagination for Educational Technology: Weaving Ethical Considerations Into Design Specifications

• In Event: Frameworks in Ed Tech

Abstract

There are two dominant strands of rhetoric on educational technology: technology is going to change everything for the better, or it is going to change everything for the worse. However, both of these views reflet a deterministic view of technology, emphasizing the technology as the main actor with agency in the stories we tell ourselves about ed tech. However, when we study technologies from historical and socio-cultural perspectives, we see a different story unfolding. Specifically, we see a lot of human agency and shaping of technologies through design, technology selection, and implementation decisions. That human agency, however, is work. It is less attention- and headline-grabbing, but it is the actual work of tackling difficult challenges, recognizing that there are tensions – even between closely-held principles and values – and making hard decision about how to balance or optimize technology-related designs and decisions. Ely (1976) captured this in his research on conditions for change when he observed “Neither stability nor change have any intrinsic value. The worth of stability is in the goodness it preserves, while the worth of change is in the goodness it brings about” (p. 151). In this session, we will apply the concept of “moral imagination” to educational technology and explore how imaginative problem solving and design can inform a vision for educational technology and help professionals reframe ethical considerations as design and decision making parameters.

Author

• Stephanie Moore, University of New Mexico
  Presenting Author