Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
When considering important figures in ed tech, my thought process began with familiar concepts that I continue to revisit and re-interpret. Marshall McLuhan famously wrote “The Medium is the Message,” which suggests that media are “extensions of man” and as such, they shape (and are shaped by) how humans think. This powerful idea still has relevance today as new forms of digital media continue to evolve the way we think and interact with them in various contexts, including learning.
Prompted by the brief for this assignment, I broadened my thinking to examine how the media we use (and how we use them) have been shaped and informed by the dominant voices of our culture. The process of re-examining these relationships and chipping away the bias of white Western European colonization is ongoing in many fields, including design and edtech.
Kevin Gannon’s post “Decolonization and Education” acknowledges that while he occupies a position of privilege as a white cis-het male, he also considers the role he (and others like him) might play in amplifying the voices of others. Cameron White’s “Decolonizing Edtech” presents the complex issues of decolonization through an authentic voice.
Taskeen Adam
A name that is widely cited in work around the subject of diversity, equity, inclusion, and decolonization is Taskeen Adam. Dr. Adam’s research examines the role edtech (primarily Open Education Resources and MOOCs) can play in marginalized communities. As Associate Manager of Open Development & Education based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and partnered with the EdTech Hub at University of Cambridge, her projects seek to improve education in low- and middle-income countries, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. A co-authored guest blog post at the OER19 conference confronts the issue of decolonization in OER (Adam et al., 2019).
Her body of work offers a wealth of knowledge around social justice, decolonization, and open educational resources, and I look forward to exploring her research in greater depth, as I begin to examine how both educators and learners can shape (and be shaped by) the digital media we use in our learning environments.
References
Gannon, K. (2020). Decolonization and education. Digital Pedagogy Lab. Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/decolonization-and-education-2020/
Adam, T., Bali, M., Hodgkinson-Williams, C., & Morgan, T. (2019). Can we decolonize OER/Open? OER19: Recentering Open. https://oer19.oerconf.org/news/blog-can-we-decolonize-oer-open-decolonizeopen/
McLuhan, M., & Lapham, L. H. (1994). Understanding media : the extensions of man (First MIT Press edition, 1994). MIT Press.
White, C. (2016). Decolonizing edtech: hunger, fear, and liberation. http://decolonizingedtech.xyz/
Thanks for sharing Darren, sounds like very interesting work by Taskeen Adam, what caught my attention was her work around social justice and decolonization. I am so grateful that more and more voices are being amplified in the tech and especially ed-tech space and I love seeing the narrative flip to allow for human-centred ways of learning, teaching and thinking. Your image choice with the text “Strength in Truth” really highlights the essence behind equity and gives voices to those less heard. I look forward to diving deeper into this space throughout the MALAT.
Best,
I agree, Nicole! For those of us who have grown up inside the system of colonization, it all seemed so “normal,” but that’s a bias brought about by our privilege. Recognizing that systemic discrimination was an intrinsic part of many parts of society (including government and education) is the first step in re-making those institutions to be more equitable.
Equity and representation are issues that are very important to me, as I have seen first-hand systemic discrimination built into systems (both human and technological) where I teach, and efforts to get those inequities addressed has been a long and slow process.
It is not hard to imagine that if learners do not see their reality reflected in the curriculum and in the systems of learning, their trust and engagement in the institutions of learning will be diminished. We need to work harder to build and maintain that trust through actions and accountability.