Reconsidering change and ICT: Perspectives of a human and democratic education

Abstract

Has ICT changed education? Has the reformative, humanistic and emancipatory role that many educators have envisaged for ICT in education been realized in the reality of classrooms? Bearing in mind these two critical questions, the present paper attempts to approach the visionary narrative of the so-called information society (in recent times also referred to as knowledge society) and the rhetoric underlying the role of ICT as an agent for change and a substitute for education. Latest international facts and figures are examined with the purpose of assessing the realization of this role and raising critical arguments against the idea of perceiving ICT as the totem of educational change. From this evidence, it is argued that educational media and tools cannot revolutionize, but can only strengthen, further and reinforce established educational goals, curriculum contents, teaching and learning methods. This leads us to conclude that, as the educational use of ICT becomes assimilated, it mirrors and to a certain degree broadens or exacerbates prevailing socio-economic problems and current educational conditions. Thus the main focus of the paper is to attempt to redefine and re-approach the role of ICT from a human and democratic standpoint. It concentrates on ICT success stories, which seem to whisper the critical pedagogy tale. These stories serve as an avenue for reflecting upon the liberating possibilities of ICT, which can flourish when they are embedded in an alternative and progressive educational setting. In such an educational context, ICT represents an interesting, challenging and essential educational theme, one of the necessary keys for unlocking, understanding and participating in a competitive, demanding and insecure world. On the other hand, critical use of ICT tools enhances, promotes and extends democratic curriculum practices, processes and structures by offering students and teachers a multiple set of media and tools for expression, interaction, creation, reflection, analysis, construction, communication and meaning making. Focusing on students' participation in common life as critical, knowledgeable, conscious and able citizens appears to bring about a new conception of ICT, namely a critical pedagogy and pedagogy of praxis perspective towards ICT. Yet, for such a focus to prevail we need to change our view of what it means to educate and what it means to be educated.