"The elusive technological future"

I recommend this nearly hour-long video of John Naughton's keynote speech at the 2011 conference of the Association for Learning Technology to anyone interested or involved in using technology in education. The speech itself is only 30 min; the rest of the video is comments and questions, some of which evoke very interesting answers from Dr. Naughton.


Text from the YouTube page:

Uploaded by ClipsFromALT on Nov 2, 2011

"The elusive technological future" Keynote speech by John Naughton, Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the Open University, at Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate, the 2011 conference of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT). Session given in Leeds, UK, on Thursday 8 September 2011 at 11.40. For information about ALT go tohttp://www.alt.ac.uk/. Made publicly available by ALT under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England and Wales licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/.

"...Whenever something new arrives, you have to ask yourself, 'What do we loose? What do we gain? Who benefits, and who looses?' from the adoption of this stuff..."

Towards the end of the video, Dr. Naughton makes a reference to the work of Michael Wesch. Here is one of his TED talks, TEDxKC - Michael Wesch - From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able:


Text from the YouTube page:

Uploaded by TEDxTalks on Oct 12, 2010

"TEDxKC talk synopsis: Today a new medium of communication emerges every time somebody creates a new web application. Yet these developments are not without disruption and peril. Familiar long-standing institutions, organizations and traditions disappear or transform beyond recognition. And while new media bring with them new possibilities for openness, transparency, engagement and participation, they also bring new possibilities for surveillance, manipulation, distraction and control. Critical thinking, the old mainstay of higher education, is no longer enough to prepare our youth for this world. We must create learning environments that inspire a way of being-in-the-world in which they can harness and leverage this new media environment as well as recognize and actively examine, question and even re-create the (increasingly digital) structures that shape our world..."