Rational Technical Perspective

The rational technical perspective is one based on the thought that we can help solve our problems through technology and that the rational piece being that it is culturally neutral. The way in which it relates to morality in educational technology is that in the field the belief is that everyone should be educated.  The technology is introduced to improve teaching and learning, it goes back to the definition of technology that we discussed early in the semester. Instead, this rational technical perspective is too focused on the technology use in a way that does not help everyone, like our morals are telling us that we should be doing. Educational technology that is used is a lot like traditional ID models and not viewing learning as complex. The thought being is that technology, and the way it is used, is helping everyone but in reality that is not the case. An example in the article is the introduction of word processing and how instead of helping the student it actually negatively affected the students writing. Students who were struggling before and then received the technology with the intent of helping them instead hurt them even more. This is often times overlooked if the majority of the students are doing well and the student who is not doing well is then perceived to be a bad student. It also causes harm in equity issues. Students who were poor, minority, or female had less access to computers. The third way in which it is harmful is through pollution of the environment and the effects that it has on the world. In this country, everyone believes that you should have a fair shot, and that we should help keep our country and world prosperous for the next generation, but technology does not necessarily do that for us. It comes with a price, one if it is not closely watched can devastate what we morally believe in. If people truly have an equal shot students no matter what their background should have a fair shot at a high quality education and access to the same technology that other students have to help them through their education. Technology can be very useful in the classroom if it is planned in advance for the situation that it is used in, not just thrown in because it is new and cool. Teachers also have to be aware that some students might not be able to learn better through the use of technology and provide academic interventions that will help the students learn. We also have to be aware that we are damaging the earth through the use of technology and with that awareness the need to develop cleaner technologies to preserve the planet for our next generations is necessary. If we are too focused on the rational technical perspective we are going away from our morals and we need to ensure that our morals are not being compromised over uses that are not aligned with our morals.