«Technologies in education: desirable features, wicked effects?»
Faraón LlorensUniversidad de Alicante
Abstract
As TIC have gained importance in society, people have become involved with them: we can say that the world is now divided between technophiles and technophobes. When computer science was only a matter for a few freaks, it had no media interest. Now that digital technologies permeate everything, they have entered the public debate. And both the positions and the arguments for and against are fundamental to generate the necessary debate. I am concerned about two figures: the naive technophiles, that is, those people who defend technology without analysing the risks it carries; and the recalcitrant technophobes, who reject technology simply because it is technology, without thinking about its benefits. The speaker will talk about digital technologies in education and avoid falling into these extreme positions. Technologies can bring great benefits to the world of education, though with dangers and difficulties. To reduce the negative effects of digital, salomonic decisions that limit the use of technology to avoid the collision between analogue and digital are of no use.
Bio
Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Alicante (since 2003); holder of university school (1995-2003) and professor of EGB (1983-1995). Director of the Santander-UA Chair of Digital Transformation at the University of Alicante. Vice-rector for Technology and Educational Innovation (2005-2012). Executive Secretary of the sector commission for Information and Communication Technologies of the CRUE (2010-2012). Director of the Higher Polytechnic School (2000-2005). Principal investigator of the annual reports “UNIVERSITIC: ICT in the Spanish university system”. Co-author of the report “UETIC 2017: state of ICT in Ecuadorian universities” and of several books on these subjects. Distinguished with several awards related to educational quality and innovation. His research work is framed in the fields of artificial intelligence, video game development and gamification, the application of digital technologies to education, IT governance and digital transformation.
