Publications
Publication details [#1661]
Smith, Thomas. 2013. Digital Renegades in America: Changing Metaphors to Realize the Potential of Technology in Education. Critical Questions in Education 4 (1) : 30–41. 12 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Abstract
The paper focuses on metaphorical conceptualizations of education and their implications for the public perceptions of the role of teachers and technology. The author discusses metaphors of “digital natives” vis-à-vis “digital immigrants”, introduced by Prensky in 2001. The former refers to the generation growing up with new media and thus totally at ease with new technologies, while the latter describes older generations as much less proficient in technology. The author argues that the prevalence of these metaphors in the current educational discourse, along with the uncritical belief in technology, undermines the role of teachers as the main force of democratic renewal and growth. Accordingly, he opts for new metaphorical conceptualizations which, in his view, would be a better reflection of both the positive and negative aspects of technology in the classroom.