Technological Power Play:

New Media as Critical Pedagogy

As society and education move toward a new type of functional literacy, one that emphasizes the knowledge and use of technology, new media is playing a more significant role in pedagogy.  Students (and teachers) are developing a symbiotic relationship with technology in which machines and technology are being systematically ingrained in culture and human history.  According to Hayles (2006), “[c]ultural beliefs and practices are part of this co-evolutionary dynamic because they influence what tools are made and how those tools are used, which in turn affects who we are as biological organisms, which then feeds back into the co-evolutionary spiral."  Because it is the responsibility of educational practitioners, as well as the field of education to meet the social and academic needs of their students, the teacher, and the field must change to accommodate the evolution of its students and society.  Ultimately, to meet the needs of its students, the academic institution must, as it has always done, reflect the societies, cultural norms, and social norms that shape human beings. 

As an expansion of my new media project and Tech/Rhet Wiki tool (WebQuest and The Khan Academy), I want to continue my exploration of the use of new media as critical pedagogy.  This would mean demonstrating for educational practitioners (school teachers and administrators) how the use of technology as a part of their curriculum and instruction helps students develop an understanding of their social position in the classroom and society.  This means that in addition to considering how the use of technology affects superficial student learning, research must demonstrate how technology facilitates student (and teacher) understanding of the relationships of power in the classroom and society.  Research centered on the role of technology as critical pedagogy must consider the extent to which agency (power) and autonomy exist in teaching and learning as students (and teachers) make meaning of knowledge (Toffoletti, Baudrillard, Derrida, Badmington).
 
Paulo Freire (1969) maintains that when teachers engage in teaching practices that facilitate conscientization (awareness) and praxis (reflective analysis) among their students regarding their relationships with power a shift occurs within these dynamics of power in society through education.  The forms (embodiment) in which these tools and practices manifest (i.e., how lessons/lesson plans are structured/constructed) demonstrate for the educational field how social reproduction occurs in society (Hayles, Welch, Bolter, Johnson-Eilola & Selber).  Considering this social construction of schooling, one must also consider the social construction of the student and the teacher (Hayles).  The aim is to consider the different roles technology and new media play in education as a tool (or agent) of teaching and learning.  In so doing, one is able to consider the ways in which technology informs pedagogy, and pedagogy informs technology.