#edcmooc first week

Just reading Daniel Chandler's Technological and Media Determinism.
Very recognizabe; it seems to parallel that other discussion that we've been having about different kinds of research (where classical experimental research is based on a deterministic world view)

I'm not sure yet what to do or how to tackle this MOOC. I keep on finding fantastic quotes that I probably shoud Twitter, except that I don't do Twitter. And what does that say about my view on technology? Well, certainly that I don't believe (certain) tecnological developments are unavoidable..... or that we should always follow them. In that sense Bendito's machine tells the story of my (working) life as an e-learning advisor/researcher: everybody all in awe for the latest craze (educational videos a long time ago, the flipped classroom or mobile learning these days) and it is my job to explain that as long you keep on doing the same activities the technology is not going to solve any problems. If you don't take enough time for your students, if you organize boring learning activities (lectures), if you don't give students feedback, if...

In Dahlberg terms I must be leaning towards the uses determination, inevitable given my background as an instructional designer. Of course, what technology is and does depends on what you do with it. Of course, I have also seen and experienced how technology changed our lives in unexpected ways... Some of those changes are temporary, though: in the beginning people did react different by e-mail (shorter, quicker, less formal and more explicit). Social relations changed, hierarchy was less visible in e-mail. That is no longer trough, I think. By now we are perfectly aware of hierarchy and formal relations when we e-mail...To some extent, I think, that is true for social aspects too. So OK, I am willing to let go of part of the designer in me and admit to the fact that how we use technology is not always designed or even expected. Change, however, cannot be the effect of technology itself but of the way we use it.

I'm slightly suspicious this is what I want to believe... not because I need to always be in control, but I sure like the idea that I could be if I wanted to :-)

Danielle