Online presentation with Jon Dron

During an online presentation, Jon Dron (2011, May 14) asked participants what should come first – technology or pedagogy? One of the options given was, ‘it’s a dumb question’. This is what Dron wanted to get across. He brought the participants around to see the technology and pedagogy are not two separate things, where one should be considered above or before another. He suggested that pedagogy is a technology. I can see where he is coming from in order to suggest this; however I’m not sure I can agree with him completely.

Dron used an illustration of a stick lying on the ground. Participants were asked if the stick was a technology. Participants were quickly in agreement that it was not a technology until someone actually ‘does something with it’. A similar line of thinking was had with the example of a screwdriver. Although the screwdriver has been designed for a specific purpose, it is not a technology until it is being used. The discussion then went on to explain that we use pedagogy to teach and therefore pedagogy is a technology.

The issue that I have is that this definition of technology is not what is usually being discussed in the debate on pedagogy and technology. In this debate, the focus in on computers, the Internet and the variety of associated devices or ‘tools’ – this is the ‘technology’. It is generally modern technology that teachers are looking to incorporate into their teaching because of the high use outside of schools (Watson, 2001). Discussions around this debate talk about the use of computers in educational settings, and how they fit with pedagogy. Whether we should be teaching around the tool as the focus, or using the tool to teach. Dron did differentiate between ‘tool’ and ‘technology’ - something could be a tool (such as the screwdriver), and it becomes a technology when it is used.

So although, I can see where Dron is coming from, I feel that the term ‘technology’ was being defined in different ways by Dron and the participants when the question was first asked. The definition that he demonstrated of the term, is different to how most educators are currently using the term. What it does show however, is the necessity to define terminology when discussing these ideas so that everyone starts with the same understanding.

References

Dron, J. (2011, May 14). What and why? Questioning some assumptions about technology and education [Online presentation]. Retrieved from http://connect.massey.ac.nz/p36976720/

Watson, D. M. (2001). Pedagogy before technology: Re-thinking the relationship between ICT and teaching. Education and Information technologies, 6(4), 251-266.