The Victorian Internet and Consequences of Technology

I really enjoyed reading The Victorian Internet this past week.  The author’s format of telling the history of the telegraph and its eerie similarities to the advent of the internet in the form of a story rather than a text-book was very refreshing.  I also enjoyed watching The Day the Universe Changed and seeing the connections in the consequences of technology of the printing press and the telegraph.  I found it very helpful to write down the consequences of the technologies as I read too (a good reminder for me as a teacher to provide a guiding question for my students as they read or watch videos and to give them opportunities to get ideas on paper). 

 In class we took those consequences and made generalizations. It further solidified my understanding of just how impactful a technology can be not only in a community but also in our global society.  I gained a lot from the discussion we had about these generalizations and the ideas that other groups had which I had not thought of previously. The list our class created can be found here.

One of my favorite passages from the book is on page 104:

“The potential for new technologies to change things for the better is invariably overstated, while the ways in which they will make things worse are usually unforeseen.”

This passage stuck out to me because of our conversations in class about one-to-one technology and the use of technology in schools and using it to increase engagement and efficacy in education.  My thoughts go to the notion that just because a technology is available, it doesn’t mean that it will be used properly or always for “good” or useful intentions.  I certainly don’t mean technology in schools is used to engage in criminal behavior as was discussed in the book, I simply mean that the passage jolted my thinking about just how we view technology as teachers and the idea that if not used correctly or with the right activity, it can create more of a headache than the educational outcome we were hoping for (affordance analysis is key!).

We grow and we adapt as a species.  We are intelligent beings who are always looking for better and more innovative approaches to everything.  We yearn to make life increasingly efficient, easy, and more enjoyable.  Teachers have these same yearnings too.  Technology can help achieve all of these things when we use it for the right purpose.   One of the best parts of this graduate program has been being exposed to educational technologies which really have the potential to transform education and to make our students future ready.  I look forward to our in-class discussion next week when we share our favorite technologies and I learn about new tools to use in my lesson designs.