Page 177 - Education in a Digital World

164 So Where Now?

These are certainly wildly ambitious sentiments. What has been suggested over
the past few pages of this chapter would involve a reorientation of the field of
educational technology away from the logics of neoliberalism and the self-interested
actions of dominant actors in the global knowledge economy. This would involve
readjusting dominant understandings of the educational technology ‘market’ and
fostering a shared understanding that “in a democracy, individuals do not only
express personal preferences – they also make public and collective choices related
to the common good” (Carr and Hartnett 1996, p.192). Put simply, then, what we
have suggested in this final chapter would involve a fundamental reorientation of
social relations as well as educational technology arrangements. Even then, it is
highly likely that if all the suggestions in this chapter were followed to the letter,
any resulting change would be slight. Yet the difficulty of addressing the wrongs of
global capitalism is to be expected, and is certainly no reason to give up on attempts
to make educational technology a more democratically empowering process around
the world. As Michael Apple (2010, p.20) concludes, “the on-going relations
between education and dominance/subordination and the struggles against the
relations are exactly that, the subject of struggles”. As such it is worth reminding
ourselves that there are no grand solutions to the issues highlighted throughout this
book, only continued struggles and occasional success.