Hare vs Hedgehog: Education and Technology

Abstract

It is commonplace to find the age in which we live described as an age of fundamental change in the way people interact. Recent rapid advances in technology have enabled, facilitated or accelerated communications in personal, commercial and educational contexts to such an extent that virtually all fields of human activity appear radically transformed, and on the verge of even more radical transformations. In these circumstances, schools, colleges and universities need to reflect on and to adapt their teaching, learning, and assessment practices, in order to provide an education that is of and for our time, through judicious and controlled use of new and old technologies. What may help us in the process is an awareness of the dialectic between orality and literacy that has existed and developed ever since the invention of writing. In the light of this, I shall try to formulate some practical suggestions for recalibrating our systems to deal with current and future challenges.