Without a doubt, new digital technologies are affording us with important possibilities for transforming the ways we interact and communicate (Dickel & Schrape, 2017, p. 52). However, the field of educational technology, argues Selwyn (2011), is marked by technological utopianism which at times has exaggerated that potential (p. 713). As such, the responsibility of the educational technologist has come to seen to be to “harness the power of technology” (Selwyn, 2011, p. 713). Proponents see digital technologies as means for bringing about a “new social order,” pursuing the improvement of education according to social constructivism, by supporting various forms of informal student-centered learning (Selwyn, 2011, p. 713). This positivist idealism is of course driven by a noble desire to improve education. However, argues Selwyn, this positivism has become “hegemonic”, leading scholars to become evangelical about the prospects of the technology, and ultimately unwilling to consider more critical perspectives, and thus finally bringing into question credibility of the field as an area of serious academic study (p. 713).
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