Welcome, all, to our first episode of 2026! In these deep winter post-holiday weeks it can be easy to get deep in the winter doldrums! It can be a challenge to see the light at the end of the cold, snowbound, wintery tunnel, so to speak! So we’re taking a look at some of the highlights of 2025 with this episode in the hopes of digging deep and drawing succor and finding solace and other mental and emotional resources to power forward into what has the potential to be a highly lit newish year! Please join us!

This is, unquestionably, our best episode of 2026 so far! #ednontech

You’d have to go back as least as far as 2025 to find audio of this caliber! #ednontech

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Derelict – goods sank to the bottom and abandoned

Lagan – goods sank to the bottom and tethered by a marker to be potentially recovered

Jetsam – goods jettisoned and abandoned

Flotsam – goods floating on the surface and may be reclaimed

… conclude that the human factor is often considered as the most influential factor on the chances of failure or success.

Kirschner, P. A., Hendricks, M., Paas, F., Wopereis, I., & Cordewener, B. (2004). Determinants for Failure and Success of Innovation Projects: The Road to Sustainable Educational Innovation. Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

There are two major issues:

Where are we going?

How are we going to get there? 

Gilbert, W. (1996, September). Supporting 50 classrooms full of whiz-bang technology. In Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM SIGUCCS conference on User services (pp. 65-66). Chicago

Edtech is also an area to which people come from other disciplines, so there is no shared set of concepts or history. This can be liberating but also infuriating. 

Weller, M. (2018). Twenty years of EdTech. Educause Review Online, 53(4), 34-48.

Historically, the research on teacher morale and its affect on student achievement has been positively correlated. 

Willis, M., & Varner, L. (2010). Factors that affect teacher morale. Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012), 8(4), 24.

Music had originally included all the branches of intellectual and moral education – all departments presided over by the Nine Muses.

Laurie, S. S. (1887). The rise and early constitution of universities: with a survey of mediaeval education (No. 91). D. Appleton.

… effective strategies for flourishing while overseas provide preliminary data which suggest that acculturation phenomena provide growth opportunities. …Flourishing can be linked with acculturation. 

Stasel, R. S. (2021). Educator acculturation while living and working overseas: Stories from seventeen sojourning teachers and school leaders at international schools (Doctoral dissertation, Queen’s University (Canada)).

Flotsam

What Derelict, Lagan, Jetsam, & Flotsam would the audience like us to address in more detail in a future podcast?

Additionally I dare to add …

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The human enterprise

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Offloading that cognitive weight

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Doomscrolling of grief

I remember seein’ diamonds
What ever happened to them? #ednontech

Like a comet made of gasses and minerals and lagan and jetsam from origins billions of years out comes hurtling this final episode of the EnT for the year of our (mis)creation 2025! We bring you tidings of sunlessness, funlessness, and likely many grievances in this especially timely EnT Festivus Special! Please join us, if you dare!

Creativity such as this, and grievances such as these, only come around so often even in the era of ubiquitous interwebs! #ednontech

Many an aluminum pole has been sacrificed in the name of educational non-technology, and this here audio is further evidence thereof! #ednontech

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Most teachers tend to regard educational technological devices with deep suspicion. Teachers think of education as a more or less personal relationship between them and their students. Programmed materials, canned electronic “lessons,” learner-operated machines, and even the older audiovisual aids tend to interfere with the generally parental interest teachers have in the success of their pupils. Hence, resistance to these devices among teachers is high.

Selden, D., & Bhaerman, R. D. (1969). Instructional Technology and the Teaching Profession. QuEST Paper Series,# 6.

The majority of participants believe that the use of computer technology in the classroom is distracting, reduces social interaction, is responsible for the development of a loneliness, can be addictive, is expensive, bears a risk, is remarkably easy to copy and reproduce and even undermines the teacher.

Kryeziu, S. A., Avdiu, T. A., & Avdiu, A. (2021). Examining the Teachers, Administrators and Parents’ View on Drawbacks of Technology Use in Education. Ilkogretim Online, 20(2).

Although Educational Technology offers numerous advantages, its use can also lead to various problems, such as: 

Nikolic, M., Paunovic, L., & Gojgic, N. (2024). Educational Technology–Benefits and Drawbacks in Enhancing Knowledge Acquisition Efficiency. In 10th International Scientific Conference Technics, Informatics and Education-TIE 2024. Faculty of Technical Sciences Čačak, University of Kragujevac.

And I believe that technology, if used as proper means to worthy ends, has the potential for increasing the productivity of our enterprise.

The new media will provide a variety of new educational roles for both the teacher and supportive personnel. This, they foresee, will lead to increased specialization within the profession as we know it now and to the appearance of auxiliary positions in the school tables of organization. Some of these projected roles (planner, scriptwriter, etc.) will be ancillary to the more basic job of instruction, while others are likely to become separate jobs in and of themselves. 

Selden, D., & Bhaerman, R. D. (1969). Instructional Technology and the Teaching Profession. QuEST Paper Series,# 6.

The findings indicated that the teachers, administrators and parents had a positive attitude towards the use of technology. 

The vast majority of teachers, administrators and parents indicated that technology affects the enhancement of contemporary teaching and it should be used by teachers in all subjects. 

They also added that the integration of technology into learning processes raises students’ motivation and interest in the subject. Similarly, many researchers expressed that integrating technology into learning process increased motivation and the length of attention.

Kryeziu, S. A., Avdiu, T. A., & Avdiu, A. (2021). Examining the Teachers, Administrators and Parents’ View on Drawbacks of Technology Use in Education. Ilkogretim Online, 20(2).

Students are in the focus of the teaching process (figure 1), and various forms of interactivity are incorporated into teaching: 

Nikolic, M., Paunovic, L., & Gojgic, N. (2024). Educational Technology–Benefits and Drawbacks in Enhancing Knowledge Acquisition Efficiency. In 10th International Scientific Conference Technics, Informatics and Education-TIE 2024. Faculty of Technical Sciences Čačak, University of Kragujevac.

There is no doubt that this technology will have a definite role in future  instructional strategies.

There does not seem to be much agreement concerning the costs of computer assisted instruction. Part of the reason is that some writers look at present technology and others think in terms of what will be possible in the future. Also, there is some disagreement over what the computer would be asked to do. If it were a full-scale tutorial program, it would be much more expensive than a simple drill device.

Kiesling, H. J. (1970). On the Economic Analysis of Educational Technology.

Suppose that you want to increase quality by providing more books and learning materials. The cost of schooling will go up which may mean that it can be offered to fewer people so access goes down. Our general point is that if you try to improve one side of this triangle your action usually changes the other two sides in undesirable ways. For this reason we refer to it as the iron triangle. It has been a straitjacket on the expansion of education throughout history.

The revolutionary feature of educational technology in general – and of open and distance learning and ICTs in particular – is that it can break open the iron triangle. You can increase access, improve quality and cut costs – all at the same time. This is because of the economies of scale and consistency of quality that come with using media. That is the big miracle.

Daniel, J., West, P., & Mackintosh, W. (2007). Exploring the role of ICTs in addressing educational needs: Identifying the myths and the miracles. South African Journal of Higher Education, 21(6), 632-642.

Festivus 

How can we ensure edtech resourcings helps improve education?

Before you roll out…

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AI slop

You know I’ve come to find it hard
To know exactly where you are
You left me folded in the dark
And now I’m seeing stars again #ednontech

Welcome one and all to the second-to-final episode of what has been an eventful, if not significant, 2025!

As befits the holiday onslaught, we’re exploring creativity in ed tech, hopefully demonstrating some of that selfsame quality in format and substance, as well as via the topic! Do check the widgets below, as suits your whims and/or desires!

Creativity via established social software is how we’ve been rolling these past 3.5 years! #ednontech

We’ve scoured the ends of the digital ethersphere to bring you this audio, you bet’cha! #ednontech

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Electric avenue is actually the mailing address for this here #ednontech

For this nothing can take the place of contact with the living spirit of research, original work, creative authorship.

No teaching for a real university can be ranked high which is not vitalized by abundant original creative work.

Halsted, G. B. (1895). Original research and creative authorship the essence of university teaching. Science, 1(8), 203-207.

Creative imagination is worth more than mere book knowledge. Education and intelligence are merely the means by which we facilitate the liberation of this creative energy.

Simpson, R. M. (1922). Creative imagination. The American Journal of Psychology, 234-243.

The location of creativity within the school curriculum remains a contentious area of discussion as there is a tendency to locate creative activity merely within the arts. Most educators would acknowledge that this is a naïve perception yet the pragmatics of education, which often take precedence, mean that although desirable, creativity is often marginalised and remains on the periphery rather than at the centre of the curriculum – even in Design & Technology.

Spendlove, D. (2005). Creativity in education: A review. Design and Technology Education: An International Journal, 10(2), 9-18.

Yet creativity comes in many different forms, shades, and hues. 

Not everyone who is an artist or a scientist is equally creative, nor are all creative people either artists or scientists.

Kaufman, J. C., & Sternberg, R. J. (Eds.). (2010). The Cambridge handbook of creativity. Cambridge University Press. Chicago

Much traditional childhood play is being replaced by time spent on computer play.

Verenikina, I., & Herrington, J. (2017). The affordances of computer play in young children: A preliminary study.

The literature on creativity and technology is fragmented, making it difficult to enact consistent or defined classroom practices. 

… the issue of risk is unavoidable in dealing with creative practices and new technologies. School contexts that amplify the negative implications of creative risk may dampen learning possibilities. 

Henriksen, D., Creely, E., Henderson, M., & Mishra, P. (2021). Creativity and technology in teaching and learning: a literature review of the uneasy space of implementation. Educational Technology Research and Development, 69(4), 2091-2108.

Creativity

How can we ensure edtech improves opportunity for creativity rather than hinders student creativity?

Impossibly blazing intellect

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It is a different snowflake

For a moment we could forget just how cool we are
And pretend we could make it all right #ednontech

Greetings and salutations!

In our first episode of December, we’re exploring personal curricula. I dare say we’re individuating rampantly, if not rambunctiously even as the winter solstice, aka the shortest day of the year draws ever closer! Please join us below, as per your preferences!

We’re rising in the digital East and setting in the digital West! #ednontech

You, us, and this audio in perpetual perpetuity! #ednontech

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And I will go, on ahead free
There’s a light yet to be found
The last pale light in the west #ednontech

The 160 freshmen and sophomores at Goucher College follow no less than 114 different personal curricula.

Staff, M. C. (1939). Maine Campus March 13 1939.

The group considered that perhaps “core” curricula might have different procedures from those of enrichment or personal curricula. As the student achieves maturity in conventional schooling or sets objectives in a program of continuing education, it must.be assumed that a complete range of choice – and responsibility – must be allowed for.

Dubois, S. (1972). Relevance in the Curriculum. Ontario Association for Curriculum Development Annual Conference (21st, Toronto, Ontario, November 9-11, 1972).

Inquiry into technology is integral to personal relevance curricula for the following, and other reasons:

Students are free to develop, or are active in helping define their own curricula based on their personal problems, developmental levels, goals, interests, curiosities, capabilities, and needs.

Petrina, S. (1992). Curriculum change in technology education: A theoretical perspective on personal relevance curriculum designs.

These are also questions that demand that the inquirer seek not a safe and self-serving objectivity, but rather engage in the “ethics of self-accountability” (Miller, 2011). It was this self-accountability that we sought in this article as we examined how our personal curriculum remained in the shadow of the colonial socialization of our lives. 

Sawyer, R. D., & Liggett, T. (2012). Shifting positionalities: A critical discussion of a duoethnographic inquiry of a personal curriculum of post/colonialism. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 11(5), 628-651.

The word ‘curriculum’ originally refers to the course to progress along or the pathway to follow (currere meaning “to run/to proceed”) 

… awkward, unhelpful and erroneous concepts such as ‘informal’, ‘non-formal’ learning have entered and become established within the global educational lexicon.  

Billett, S. (2023). The personal curriculum: conceptions, intentions and enactments of learning across working life. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 42(5), 470-486. Chicago

Curricula 

How can we determine the values of self education, lifelong learning, and personal curricula?

Ruminations on the messaging

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With a screw loose

Well, I ain’t that much worse than the rest
I’m just that much further west #ednontech

Welcome one and all to what surely must be one of the final episodes of this year 2025! Inasmuch as we’re sliding into the holiday times when revels are had it seems a fine time to speak to situational ethics this go-round!

From the digital ends of the digital earth to you! #ednontech

If it is indeed the end of the world, you could do worse than to listen to this audio first! #ednontech

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It’s the end of the world as we know it, and we feel fine! #ednontech

The basic characteristic of the delinquent sub-culture, it is argued, is a system of values that represents an inversion of the values held by respectable, law-abiding society.

These justifications are commonly described as rationalizations. 

The Denial of Responsibility.

The Denial of Injury.

The Denial of the Victim.

The Condemnation of the Condemners.

The Appeal to Higher Loyalties.

Sykes, G. M., & Matza, D. (2017 & 1957). Techniques of neutralization: A theory of delinquency. In Delinquency and Drift Revisited, Volume 21 (pp. 33-41). Routledge.

Situational ethics as one of three primary avenues for making moral decisions. The other two are: 

(a) the legalistic, which contends that moral rules are absolute laws that must always be obeyed; and 

(b) the antinomian, which contends that no guidelines exist, that each situation is unique and requires a new decision. 

Fletcher, J. F. (1966). Situation ethics: The new morality.

Ethical absolutists would hold that every real work situation can be judged in terms of a standard which is both universal and unchanging. 

McNichols, C. W., & Zimmerer, T. W. (1985). Situational ethics: An empirical study of differentiators of student attitudes. Journal of business ethics, 4(3), 175-180.

The concept of situational ethics may be particularly helpful in understanding student rationalizations for cheating.

McCabe, D. L. (1992). The influence of situational ethics on cheating among college students. Sociological inquiry, 62(3), 365-374.

The application of situational ethics proves particularly illuminating in understanding how teachers experienced moral distress when forced to choose between competing ethical imperatives.

… teachers’ experiences during and post-pandemic represent a fundamental encounter with what Fletcher (1966) would recognise as paradigmatic ethical situation: circumstances where conventional ethical frameworks prove inadequate and require contextual wisdom.

Nakar, S. (2025). Navigating ethical landscapes: vocational educators’ adaptations through and beyond COVID-19. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 1-27.

Situational

How do people justify having situational ethics in educational contexts?

The giant head behind the other giant head.

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Airports have their own time zone.

… That’s great, it starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, and aeroplanes
And Lenny Bruce is not afraid #ednontech

Thanks for joining us on this, our 87th venture into this wildness which is the EnT! We’re glad you’re here for this discussion on self-education and other associated and sundry topics!

Reach for the YouTube dial while there’s still a dial left to imagine! #ednontech

You may suspend your disbelief and imagine us on the other side of this audio, if you’re so inclined! #ednontech

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I conclude, from your presence here, that you regard self-education as not only a duty but a privilege.

Whitehurst, Edward C. (1855). Self-Education: a Lecture. London, B. D. Cousins, Helmet Court, Strand.

One can say, generally, that up to the fairly recent wide-spread and readily available schooling for everybody, self-education was the prime way for man to cope with the world around him.

With the introduction of free compulsory education for children, following the industrial revolution, many educators have forgotten the need of the adult to continue on learning, although the working man struggling for his place in the industrial society and the North American self-made man provide us with ample examples of the self-educated adult.

Kulich, J. (1970). An Historical Overview of the Adult Self-Learner.

Self-education must above all consist in this, that where one perceives one’s shortcomings, one strengthens one’s own resources and that one does not relinquish this responsibility to the school, or rely on school grades, or on school reports or on whatever is given a premium by parents.

Gadamer, H. G. (2001). Education is self-education. Journal of philosophy of education, 35(4), 529-538.

So, what is necessary for self-education?

To receive considerable results from the processes of self-education, self-development and self-improvement, strong wish and willpower are necessary.

Kopteva, G. (2020). About self-education. The Scientific Heritage, (53-4), 52-54.

Self-education always takes place outside the educational institutions. 

Also, self-education takes place only when there is no personal obligation to learn and when education is not imposed by any authority, in any formal environment, according to any official curriculum.

Mihai, O. I. (2021). Self-education and lifelong learning. IJASOS-International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences, 7(19), 142-145.

Socrates spoke about the wise as those who have mastered self-control, and declared himself as a selflearner who is not ashamed to learn from everyone around him. 

Plato – the ultimate goal of education is the ability of the adult for self-education. 

Aristotle – the principle of self-realization, a potentiality for wisdom which can be developed both through self-education and through the help of a teacher. 

Seneca – all education through others must ultimately aim at inculcating the ability for self-education, and that this ability needs frequent re-charging and guidance from outside the individual.

 Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi – “I have to raise myself, through my own effort, to the degree of perfection made possible by my own nature”

 Edward Gibbon – “Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.” 

Edmund Coote – Englische Scholemaister (1596) – “it was designed not only for the teacher, but also for ‘the unskillful, which desire to make use of it, for their owne private benefit”

Self-education

How could self education realistically replace institutionalized schooling?

I did not go anywhere with it because I was not motivated.

Don’t you be scared, don’t you be scared
Everybody’s terrified, it don’t seem fair
What are you waiting for?
What do you think you were created for? #ednontech

Greetings, and welcome to our ninth episode of the EnT this season! We’re glad you’re here for this discussion on presenteeism… a word previously unknown to either Doug or myself… which speaks to “the act of staying at work longer than usual, or going to work when you are ill, to show that you work hard and are important to your employer” as per the Cambridge Dictionary! This is, obviously, a widespread phenomenon in educational workplaces everywhere, and it’s about the time, in the northern hemisphere, for seasonal colds and other associated ailments to appear!

We’re committed to this video… in sickness and in health! #ednontech

Here’s hoping this audio finds you as healthy as humanly possible! #ednontech

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Touch us, we’re sick #ednontech

Problems in the school environment, as indicated by poor Indoor Air Quality, as well as pupil school dissatisfaction and bullying, are associated with increased risk of short-term sick leaves among teachers.

Ervasti, J., Kivimäki, M., Puusniekka, R., Luopa, P., Pentti, J., Suominen, S., … & Virtanen, M. (2012). Students’ school satisfaction as predictor of teachers’ sickness absence: A prospective cohort study. The European Journal of Public Health, 22(2), 215-219.

The highest sector presenteeism is largely to be found in the education sectors (46%).

In the group of compulsory school teachers, the risk of sickness presenteeism is also more than quadrupled. Pre-primary educationalists (preschool teachers and recreation organisers) and child minders also have a substantially increased risk of being present at work when sick.

Aronsson, G., Gustafsson, K., & Dallner, M. (2000). Sick but yet at work. An empirical study of sickness presenteeism. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 54(7), 502-509.

Sickness presence (SP) refers to going to work despite illness.

The main findings from the study among students in secondary schools were that some SP during a school year may be more common than no SP, and that one in four students in Lower Secondary School and one in three students in Upper Secondary School reported high SP. 

Johansen, V. (2015). Sick and still at school: an empirical study of sickness presence among students in Norwegian secondary school. BMJ open, 5(9), e008290.

Work from home while being infected with Covid-19; a phenomenon called virtual presenteeism.

Sickness presence is the outcome of the increasing precarity and job insecurity in the sector, as well as the outcome of a presenteeism culture in academia which is being facilitated by technology and the blended learning approach adopted during the pandemic. 

Hadjisolomou, A., Mitsakis, F., & Gary, S. (2022). Too scared to go sick: Precarious academic work and ‘presenteeism culture’in the UK higher education sector during the Covid-19 pandemic. Work, Employment and Society, 36(3), 569-579.

One significant concern related to mental health is that it gives way to presenteeism – the phenomenon of employees being physically present at work but performing below capacity due to illness. 

Izegbu, O. (2022). Going Through the Motions: Policy Considerations for Addressing Mental Health-Related Worker Presenteeism in Canada.

Presenteeism

How can we actually support wellness for educators?

It was seen as being acceptable

Here comes sickness
Moving up my block
When she comes to my house
I hope she don’t knock #ednontech

Hey there, and welcome to our 85th foray with this EnT! We are grateful you’ve chosen to spend some time with us, as we discuss what learning consists of in post-modern, digitally-saturated times such as these… as well as associated and sundry questions, side-trips, and rabbit holes!

Here comes the #ednontech again! On the YouTube and hereabouts!

We have a lust for audio! And lifelong learning! #ednontech

This topic has put me in mind of one of my favorite novels and associated films of all time!

When Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting was unleashed in 1996, I was in grade 12 and deep into my long-running punk and alternative music phase— which is still going, fyi! My pal Mike had a copy of the novel which I borrowed and it hit me like what I assume heroin must feel like from the many descriptions of that drug in the novel, film, and in other places! My friends and I watched the screening that fall at UNB’s Capital Film Society, and I read everything I could by the Irvine Welsh who was then something of a poet laureate for Scottish degenerates. I knew there was something more than pop culture appeal going on with the film and novel in 1997 when Stewart Donovan, one of my favorite profs at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, assigned both as part of his outstanding course Fiction, Drama, and Film: A Study of Narrative. That was the course that cemented my decision to switch from a journalism degree to an Arts degree focusing on English and Philosophy.

Nearly 30 years later, I’m pleased to say Boyle’s film and Welsh’s novel both stand up as timeless versions of the same story. I am transported back effortlessly to downtown Fredericton in the late 90’s, an insecure punk with literary aspirations who somehow ended up in an educational career of sorts, having taught college and university English and educational studies classes at various points since then. As a sober, divorced father of two living through my second significant stretch of unemployment over the past four years, the “choose life” speech resonates now as much as it did when I was 18. Perhaps even more so! As we are all about lifelong learning on this EnT, this kind of connection, calling back across the years aligns with our message and our objective since the fall of 2022!

As we discussed in the recording, it feels like in many ways we’re just getting started!

It must be remembered that the test of real interest can only be revealed by intensiveness and continuity in the pursuit of a subject during a sufficiently long period.

Hanus, P. H. (1899). Educational aims and educational values. Macmillan Company.

Machines would be more useful if they could learn to perform tasks for which they were not given precise methods. … It is proposed that the program of a stored-program computer be gradually improved by a learning procedure which tries men, programs and chooses from the instructions that may occupy a given location, the one most associated with a successful result.

Friedberg, R. M. (1958). A learning machine: Part I. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 2(1), 2-13. Chicago

How voluntary, self-initiated, and proactive is adult learning?

People begin a major learning effort because they anticipate several desired outcomes or benefits that are interrelated.

Tough, A. (1979). Choosing to Learn.

The majority of learners stated they had taken the decision as a result of some particular trigger, or critical incident. 

O’Grady, A., & Atkin, C. (2006). Choosing to learn or chosen to learn: the experience of Skills for Life learners. Research in Post‐Compulsory Education, 11(3), 277-287.Chicago

Unlike Socrates’ prisoners, we are equipped with the ability to choose. We can select what we want to attend to, we can pick our favorite people to emulate, we can decide to play with one toy or another; we can look, we can ask, and we can act. Most importantly, in action we reap the benefits of effects. 

Bonawitz, E., Bass, I., & Lapidow, E. (2018). Choosing to Learn: Evidence evaluation for active learning and teaching in early childhood. In Active Learning from Infancy to Childhood: Social Motivation, Cognition, and Linguistic Mechanisms (pp. 213-231). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Lifelong learning remains a concept suffering from imprecise definitions, yet it is commonly understood as hinging upon the ability to retain previous knowledge while continuously integrating new insights into one’s cognitive framework

It is important to note that lifelong learning as a mindset implies the continued development of learning, for which current learning goals build up in the already mastered previous goals. 

Mendes, A., Greiff, S., & Bobrowicz, K. (2024). Approaching lifelong learning: An integrated framework for explaining decision-making processes in personal and professional development. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 35, 100230.

Choice

How can we support more people to make the decision to choose learning?

You have said a few things that resonate with me.

Digital firewood

Well, I’m just a modern guy
Of course, I’ve had it in the ear before
Well, I’ve a lust for life (lust for life)
‘Cause of a lust for life #ednontech

Welcome one and all to EnT 84! We are glad to have you with us. In this episode we explore resistance to oppressive education. It’s been awhile since we’ve spoken to Paulo Freire and associated thinkers. As we’re still relatively early in the academic year, this seems like a good time to jump in with both feet!

Down by law, but not by YouTube! #ednontech

We snatched this audio like our freedom depends on it! #ednontech

As with my previous episode’s notes, I felt like this topic would be better expressed handwritten!

The secret of liberty is to enlighten men, as that of tyranny is to keep them in ignorance.

Robespierre, M. (1793). Works of Maximilien Robespierre (Vol. 9). E. Leroux.

Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression.

It would be a contradiction in terms if the oppressors not only defended but actually implemented a liberating education.

Freire, P. (1968). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury.

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.

Medvedev, F. E., & Kulikov, G. I. (1981). Human rights and freedoms in the USSR. Progress.

The expression “hedge school” encapsulates the ideas of poverty (an open-air  educational enterprise), clandestinity and local protection: surviving political repression over a long period of time is impossible outside a deep-rooted network of local acquaintances and complicity.

O’Connell, A. M. (2011). The Irish hedge schools: Rejection, resistance and creativity (1695-1831). Revue Civilisations, (11), 55-86

School boards have attempted to justify their removal decisions based on “educational suitability,” despite substantial evidence that those removals were politically motivated. 

Schroeder, R. L. (2021). How to ban a book and get away with it: Educational suitability and school board motivations in public school library book removals. Iowa L. Rev., 107, 363.

The main social determinants of mental health include adverse early life experiences, poor education, unemployment, job insecurity, poverty and income inequality. 

Mohammadi, A. Q., Neyazi, A., Habibi, D., Mehmood, Q., Neyazi, M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2024). Female education ban by the Taliban: a descriptive survey study on suicidal ideation, mental health, and health-related quality of life among girls in Afghanistan. Journal of Public Health, 46(3), e439-e447.

Success was determined by the school’s ability to fulfill the objectives laid down by the policy makers; assimilation was the prime objective.

Haig-Brown Vayro, C. (1986). Invasion and resistance: Native perspectives of the Kamloops Indian Residential School (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).

Agency

How can educational technology play a positive role in resisting ideological education?

Asymmetrical and other kinds of education

Breakin’ rocks in the hot sun
I fought the law and’a the law won
I fought the law and’a the law won
I needed money ’cause I had none
I fought the law and’a the law won #ednontech

Thanks for visiting us for EnT 83! We are veering heavily towards the tech aspect of the Ed non-Tech with this episode, including speaking to some obsolete if not downright anachronistic technologies which have been part of the public education endeavor in past and recent years!

Here is the least obsolete YouTube video we are capable of at this exact moment in time! #ednontech

Audio of an indeterminate shelf life contained hereabouts! #ednontech

During our discussion we went in lots of different directions!

Reviewing the recording, I think our chat regarding penmanship and the personal qualities of handwritten letters stands out the most for me as the most personally resonant part of this episode. Definitely, I rely on handwritten notes to internalize anything important. Digital communication formats, for all their potential persistence, tend to feel less personal and more ephemeral than handwritten messages. And so, to that end, I’ve written a letter to you, the EnT listener and/or viewer and/or reader, and embedded it here digitally! This feels like an approach which I may use more often!

Whereby any Game of mere Skill, such as Bowling, Coyting, Cloyshcayls, Half Bowl, Tennis, or the like, is declared an unlawful Game, or which enacts any Penalty for playing at any such Game of Skill as aforesaid, or which enacts any Penalty for lacking Bows or Arrows…

Peel, R. (1845). An Act to Amend the Law Concerning Games and Wagers. 8 & 9 Vict., C. 109.

In common with other branches of education, penmanship demands thorough elementary instruction. Three things are indispensable to the success of a class in writing :

It is of absolute importance that the teacher should be educated in the science of penmanship. I

Payson, J. (1877). Penmanship. New England Journal of Education, 6(12), 135-136.

Three fundamentals marked the first educational curriculum: (1) catching fish with the bare hands, (2) clubbing tiny horses to death, and (3) frightening saber-toothed tigers with torches.

By studying those three subjects in their “schools” the stone-age people got along fairly well until there came a changed condition caused by the movement of ice from the north, the forerunner of the ice age.

Peddiwell, J. A. (1939). (Harold Benjamin). The Saber-Tooth Curriculum. New York: McCraw-Hill Book Co.

Doug: This concept of obsolescence was so well known 85 years ago that satirical books were being published on the subject.

If my grandparents walked into a typical classroom today, they would know exactly what to do: Sit at their desks, be quiet, and listen to the teacher.

Wolk, S. (2017). Educating students for an outdated world. Phi Delta Kappan, 99(2), 46-52.

The tremendous advancement in science and technology leads to new knowledge and skills, necessitating timely revision of existing curriculums to avoid instances where learners gain obsolete skills that lack global competitiveness.

Law, M. Y. (2022). A review of curriculum change and innovation for higher education. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 10(2), 16.

Things we used to teach:

 Training for selected obsolete professions:

Mandatory

Technology has made much of the curriculum obsolete. How can we as educators reduce that impact on learners?

The benefits of it…

Feudalism, Baby!

I say, and when it drops, oh, you gonna feel it
Know what you were doing’s wrong
I say, when it drop, oh, you gonna feel it
Know what you were doing’s wrong #ednontech