Technology and Education: But Who Decides? | Catalonia | Spain

Last school year will go down in history as the year GPT Chat arrived in classrooms. We are moving into a new paradigm that represents the future of schooling and education. At educational centers—when the ministry announced that it was investigating and testing the device—teachers began experimenting with their students for the first time interacting not with humans, but with human-made “intelligences.” The challenges it poses to us are enormous.

Educational technologies may be an opportunity…

Last school year will go down in history as the year GPT Chat arrived in classrooms. We are moving into a new paradigm that represents the future of schooling and education. At educational centers—when the ministry announced that it was investigating and testing the device—teachers began experimenting with their students for the first time interacting not with humans, but with human-made “intelligences.” The challenges it poses to us are enormous.

Educational technologies are an opportunity to accelerate school transformation. We must be ready to accept the risks and opportunities they present to us. UNESCO has released a report on technology in education, highlighting the lack of adequate governance and regulation while urging countries to set their own standards. The report, dated July 26, was born out of one concern: to put technology at the service of education, not the other way around.

According to UNESCO the key question is not how we are going to digitize classrooms, but how we want to transform education. To this end, he proposes that before investing in technology, we should ask ourselves whether or not it will improve student learning and how it will do so. Knowing that not all change means progress and that technology is the means and not the end, we must always ask ourselves why new tools are created, when and how they should be used. When are they supportive and when are they distracting? What do we want to change?

UNESCO provides data and elements for reflection and moves away from polarization and attitudeism, but also, there is media that has debunked and undermined the message that cell phones are banned in classrooms. That is not true. It provides evidence of the dangers when technology is not with the teacher or is overused, and students are exposed to distraction, loss of privacy or security, and more misinformation and theft. There are other global risks to the school’s future. The biggest risk is that big tech companies will decide the future of education. And there is little control over content and little evidence of impact is usually produced by organizations and can be biased.

Mostly the result of digitization: we must bear in mind the future scenario of privatization, marketization and personalization of education (OECD 2020). Alternatively, consider restoring the image of the author, and assuming that he or she is a co-creator of AI content. Whoever governs us must demand recognition of the central role of teachers in decision-making and investment in schools in the face of the risk of divestment and privatization of education at the hands of big tech companies. So let’s ask ourselves, along with UNESCO: Who defines the terms for the use of technology in education?

Because, as UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay reminds us, “a screen teacher cannot be replaced.” School is where we learn together. Also, we learn well from each other. Nothing changes the human relationship that occurs at the heart of education law.

Anna Jolonch He is an educator and professor in UB’s Faculty of Education.

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