Post-Covid-19 Education and Education Technology ‘Solutionism’: a Seller’s Market

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic and the social distancing that followed have affected all walks of society, also education. In order to keep education running, educational institutions have had to quickly adapt to the situation. This has resulted in an unprecedented push to online learning. Many, including commercial digital learning platform providers, have rushed to provide their support and ‘solutions’, sometimes for free. The Covid-19 pandemic has therefore also created a sellers’ market in ed-tech. This paper employs a critical lens to reflect on the possible problems arising from hasty adoption of commercial digital learning solutions whose design might not always be driven by best pedagogical practices but their business model that leverages user data for profit-making. Moreover, already before Covid-19, there has been increasing critique of how ed-tech is redefining and reducing concepts of teaching and learning. The paper also challenges the narrative that claims, ‘education is broken, and it should and can be fixed with technology’. Such technologization, often seen as neutral, is closely related to educationalization, i.e. imposing growing societal problems for education to resolve. Therefore, this is a critical moment to reflect how the current choices educational institutions are making might affect with Covid-19 education and online learning: Will they reinforce capitalist instrumental view of education or promote holistic human growth? This paper urges educational leaders to think carefully about the decisions they are currently making and if they indeed pave the way to a desirable future of education.

Technological Barriers and Challenges in the Use of ICT during the COVID-19 Emergency Remote Learning

“…Teachers of all backgrounds and ages have had to plan and deliver their classes from home, with all the logistical and technological difficulties that this entails, and sometimes without sufficient professional assistance [52]. The students explained how teachers and students learned new skills and adjusted to new forms of learning and teaching together during the first month of school closures.…”

“…The students agreed that they found the first month of ERT very stressful. Educational institutions should carefully consider their online learning options and technology in education [52]; so, that the learning can be more easily accessible for both students and lecturers, regardless of their technological capability.…”

Retracted: The Influence of Digital Virtual Technology on Contemporary College Students’ Ideological and Political Education

“…The reason is simple: virtual reality is not only a technology, it is also a medium, and it has proven the power of the medium [8]. Companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Google are using neural networks to promote computer language translation, even though the existing domain of human language knowledge has disappeared [9,10]. At present, when the book publishing era is gradually depressed, through the organic combination of virtual reality (VR) technology and books in the digital publishing era, the traditional content and value-added services can be fully integrated, and it also gives traditional publishing a new Development path.…”

The Covid-19 World: Learning or Downfall

“…(Brookfield 2016: 28) A critical pedagogy of the new normal demonstrates that a systemic change cannot be avoided and acknowledges an important lesson learned during the Covid-19 pandemic: we live in the same world, and international cooperation, instead of protectionism, is needed at all levels. As Teräs, Suoranta, Teräs, and Curcher (2020)…”

“…It should echo traditions and values developed through the long history of free/radical education: self-education ('autodidactism'), intrinsic motivation, respect for and utilization of learners' visions and life experiences, inclusion of everyone according to their needs and abilities (see Green et al 2020). Study materials should be accessible to all and freely downloadable from online collections along with the free provision of the Internet (Suoranta 2020). & All forms of learning collaboration should produce an empowering mindset:…”