To Educate or Not?

Well week two of the e-learning and digital cultures MOOC on Coursera. Well if I am honest it is week 3 but I am behind in my work so just to catch up.

We have been asked to look at 5 videos this time under the theme of popular cultures

Well I started by writing a synopsis of each of the films and what I thought about them. the I started to read the ideas and interpretations and realised that this wasn't enough. So here's what I think.

Utopia vs Dystopia or To Educate or Not?

There is a very fine line between the benefits of technolog, safety, access to information, communications and the negative effects control, lack of freedom, no privacy.

Learning technologies are being hailed as the answer to student engagement with learning, well how about the tutors?  Prensky says "the single biggest problem facing education today is that  our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language." (Prensky, 2001) So how do we as tutors, the digital immigrants, in this digital age communicate in this new language with the students, the digital natives? There is a discourse between tutors who engage with digital technologies and those who don't, also tutors as learners trying to play catch up with students. Digital natives multi-task as part of everyday life, how many tutors will not allow students to be on social media, text whilst within the traditional lesson? 

Some of the films this week showed the controlling effect that technology can have on society, how easy it is to be drawn into a world  and society which feels safe but actually has had freedom, in it's true sense, denied.  'Friends' report their every action and feeling in their status on Facebook, they check in using location indicators such as FourSquare, we record our every action and make it freely available on YouTube. How far are we away from that connected controlled dystopian world?

Another question which comes to mind ia about the basic right to education. I would like to know who says and why? Shouldn't education be a choice? Lots of people are happy with their lives as they are and who are we to show them that they should not be? Is education right for them? Would it make them less happy to know that there is something better (in our opinion)out there and that they should be striving for a better life? Who are we (the educators) to decide that people need or want to be educated?

On the other hand educating people that there is something better raises expectations and a drive to succeed and achieve higher and higher targets, which surely must improve lives..

So I ask to educate or not?