Parts of the Digital Literacy and Open Education are based on the structure of Martin Weller’s 2011 book The Digital Scholar: How Technology is Transforming Scholarly Practice. Over the years I have read, watched and listened to Weller’s output regularly, and his ideas have helped to inform and shape my practice. I am looking forward to engaging with these ideas in a structured format on this module.
The first chapter of The Digital Scholar is one of the recommended source for the first week of this module, and while lots of it was interesting there was one particular section that stood out to me while reading it in 2019.
The section on Brian Lamb’s idea about the technology he feels is useful in education did not seem to age well. Lamb discussed the concept of “Fast, cheap and out of control” in 2010 and Weller included it in his publication in 2011. The concept seems to be a very utopian idea of fleet footed scholars picking up and dropping technology as they pleased in a risk free environment. In another time that might have seemed liberating, but reading it in 2019 it sounds reckless to me.
When I think of open education, I also think of those who engage in critical pedagogy. I think of people who raise concerns about the moral issues that surround EdTech and digital platforms. I think of the importance of digital and information literacies that examine how we do things, what the implications are, and how those actions re-enforce inequalities.
If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.
Many social media platforms could be described as fast, cheap and out of control. Some of these platforms have become embroiled in scandals related to the unethical use of personal data and how that can be manipulated for political reasons. Where is the data being stored? Who has access to it? How can these companies use our data? What rights do your students have on a platform that is fast, cheap and out of control?
In our personal lives we all to make choices about how we engage online, what we share and where we share. I am very critical of the way misinformation is perpetually shared on Twitter and Facebook. I am worried about how patterns and information are shared and abused by companies online. I am not pleased about the way that YouTube treats the content creators who built that platform.
All of these factors feed into and inform the way I engage in online platforms. I hope that my choices are based on sound digital and information literacy. These are not choices that students have when they join a course and the tutor has decided to utilise a fast, cheap and out of control platform. These students would be forced to uncritically use online platforms, sharing their data with companies who they should not trust.
Fast and cheap can be great. Out of control can work when the implications are examined and students are able to make an informed choice on what they share and where it happens. I think “Fast, cheap and ethical” would be a more appropriate way of looking at this concept in 2019. That would also force those of us working on institutional technology to ask some important questions about the platforms we use, the role they play in pedagogy, and how they treat our data.