Through three levels of abstraction: Towards an ecological framework for making sense of new technologies in education

Abstract

This position paper uses an ecological approach to examine how the interface between digital technology and education might be taken up as a complex system with interconnected facets that hold a range of implications. We understand the concept of ecology as the science of relations between living and non-living organisms and the environment, and we apply this model to identify the interactions between entities that exist in the hybrid space that intersects human social systems and technical systems. We use themes such as knowledge ecology and law of entropy to analyse how ecology is being discussed in extant literature and as a conceptual guide for thinking about how to develop an ecological framework for critical analysis of digital education. These two examples of are taken from conceptions of “complexity” and are key when illustrating contemporary developments in digital education. We propose ten categories derived from three groups of abstraction as a tool for research on educational, technical, and social impacts of 5G technology—or the relationship between 5G and education as a complex system.