Learning Technologies for Good and Evil
NEW Course for M.Ed. in LDT Students in Spring 2020
Class 29993, 3 credits
Many courses about learning technology focus on how it can be harnessed for good. This online course starts from the assumption that good outcomes are never guaranteed—that the use of technology for learning, or any other purpose, always entails a struggle between good and evil.
The LDT Online Programs faculty is pilot testing a new online course titled LDT 897 – Learning Technologies for Good and Evil. The course is appropriate for our advanced M.Ed. in LDT students, especially those who have completed more more than 5 courses in our online program.
Built for learning technology designers, educators, and researchers, this course takes a practical angle. To fight evil and grow good, learning technologists and educators must understand how to determine what is good, how to recognize both good and evil in action (with a critical knowledge of just how bad the evil can get), and how to fight back when we recognize that evil is lurking at the classroom door. Course materials combine brief selections from academic literature with timely reports from popular outlets and other resources about contemporary ethical issues in learning and educational technologies.
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand and apply basic frameworks for ethical thinking and action
- Articulate guiding values and a practical code of conduct for their work with technology
- Engage knowledgeably in contemporary ethical debates about technology in education
- Critically examine ethical dimensions of educational technology products and systems
Module topics include: Frameworks for ethical action, utopias/dystopias, engagement and addiction, technology and norms, surveillance, technologies of oppression, misinformation and radicalization, the influence of money, the virtue of wisdom in tech-oriented reform, and more.
Major assignments include weekly discussions, critical evaluations of existing learning or educational technologies of your choice, and the development of a code of ethical conduct for your profession’s use of technology for learning.
This course would be applied to a student’s progress toward the M.Ed. in LDT degree (upon successful completion). Students with interest in taking the course should first consult with their assigned academic advisor. Once your advisor indicates their support, please write to Dr. Josh Kirby to be added to the course. Note that the course is listed as a University Park Campus course that is delivered only online—in the same format as our other World Campus courses. Our World Campus students are indeed eligible to take this course, so please contact Dr. Kirby to be added.
Please email Dr. Tanner Vea with questions about the course content or for a draft syllabus.