Philosophies of teaching and technology

Kanuka (2008) presents three positions in the philosophies of technology, which are uses determinism, technological determinism and social determinism, and several teaching philosophies, such as liberal, progressive, behaviorist, humanist, radical and analytical orientations. At the moment, I am in the position of uses determinism. I agree that computers should be perceived as neutral tools for helping learners build their knowledge and learners should not be controlled by technology. Accordingly, my present teaching is of progressive orientation, in which the teacher and students have a partnership relationship and the teacher’s role is to organize and evaluate. The aim of students’ learning is for personal growth, and the instruction methods are basically experimental and problem-solving. In online teaching and learning, the interaction between the teacher and students is crucial in all kinds of activities. The teacher needs to find an effective way to involve the students in online activities. And if the students find it difficult to use the technology, the teacher needs to help solve the problem rather than letting the technology restrict the students from learning freely.

However, with the prevalence of the Internet, people can now do almost anything online. As a result, technology is being integrated into social and cultural changes. I believe, in the education system, technology will play a positive role to improve the quality of learning. Of course, I’m not saying that technology will be everything. The main purpose of learning is still to make the society better. In my opinion, both technology and society will have profound influence on each other in the future. Therefore, I would like to end up in a position between technological determinism and social determinism so that in teaching, I will focus not only on the content but also on students’ collaboration and communication.

Kanuka, H. (2008). Understanding e-learning technologies-in-practice through philosophies-in-practice. In The theory and practice of online learning (pp.91-118). Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/99Z_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf