LRNT523: Assignment 1
Decoding Audrey Watters role in Ed Tech
Audrey Watters is a renowned writer, educator and speaker, known for her biting critiques of Ed Tech. Being considered one of the OGs wasn’t what drew me to her for this assignment. It was instead her reputation as a troublemaker and rabble rouser, dubbing herself “Ed Tech’s Cassandra” (Watters, 2023). Anyone comparing herself to a mythological prophet was someone I wanted to know more about.
Fascinated by the woman, I dug into her legendary critiques. It felt like my first rocky attempts at watching Game of Thrones: hard to get through but oddly compelling. As a card-carrying technology enthusiast, hearing Watters lambaste my beloved tech was tough. Watters had raised alarm bells, but I couldn’t help thinking, was she more Chicken Little than Cassandra?
Cassandra, cursed to utter true prophecies that no one believed, foresaw Troy’s fall but couldn’t sway her people, leading to their ruin. Chicken Little, on the other hand, freaked out over an acorn thinking the sky was falling, sparking unfounded and unnecessary panic.
Truth: I was hoping for a Chicken Little win to let my tech community off the hook.
But I’ve struggled to feather Watters. I couldn’t dismiss her as merely an alarmist. Watters backs her critiques with robust research and many of her warnings, like the exaggerated hype of MOOCs replacing traditional education, have proven prescient (McMillan Cottom, 2017; Selwyn 2021). And rather than an acorn-hazed forecaster of doom, her insights offer a thoughtful guide on how tech can integrate with education without ethical compromise.
Watters shouldn’t be portrayed as the fated Cassandra either, dismissed by overly optimistic tech evangelists. Watters is neither a prophet of tragedy nor a misguided alarmist. She has emerged as a vital voice – a grounded skeptic, ensuring Ed Tech doesn’t lose its way in the dazzle of innovation.
References
Audrey Watters. (2023). Audrey Watters. https://audreywatters.com/
McMillan Cottom, T. (2017). Lower ed: The troubling rise of for-profit colleges in the new economy. The New Press.
Selwyn, N. (2021). Education and technology: Key issues and debates (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
Links
Hack Education – Audrey Watters Ed Tech blog with the best list of definitions for the word “hack”
Future Trends Forum 1: Audrey Watters (youtube.com) – Conversation with Bryan Alexander on all things Watters (while demonstrating Shindig conference software)
Teaching Machines with Audrey Watters (youtube.com) – Watters reading an excerpt from her book “Teaching Machines” for UTS Learner’s Experience Lab
Just for fun
Chicken Little (2005) Trailer – YouTube – would you tell anyone?