As many readers will have guessed already, the answer to this book’s title is ‘yes/no/all points in between’. The confluence of technology and education is complicated, contradictory and messy. There are no easy answers and no clear solutions. On one hand, titles that start from the premise of ‘Is Technology Good For . . . ?’ can be criticized justifiably as ‘stupefyingly dualistic’ and indicative of the ‘simplification’ that has eroded recent public discussion over digital futures.ⁱ On the other hand, these continue to be the types of question that many people find themselves asking on a daily basis. This book therefore adopts what might be seen as a rather crude premise as the starting point from which to explore a range of difficult issues and debates that are not usually part of the ‘ed-tech’ debate. This is a book intended to make you think otherwise about technology and education.

A main ambition for writers working in the social sciences and humanities is to produce ‘apt characterizations’ of important topics that otherwise tend to be described inadequately in popular and political circles.ⁱⁱ In this spirit, the underlying intention of this book is to develop an apt characterization of technology and education: that is, to present the key issues and debates relating to ‘ed-tech’ in appropriately nuanced and aware ways. This book therefore seeks to shift the nature of the conversation about technology and education. It does not set out to make spectacular predictions or present hitherto unseen evidence. Instead it offers an opportunity to pause for thought and to take stock. In an area of digital society that is infused with hyperbole and exaggeration, such an interruption is surely a ‘good’ thing.

That said, this is a book that takes the ‘hype’ of education and technology seriously. In the spirit of Polity’s ‘Digital Futures’ series, the following six chapters focus deliberately on the ‘freshest contemporary aspects of the current literature’ and ‘ideas that are shaking up the field at the moment’. So veteran observers of education and/or technology should be warned from the outset that this book does contain prolonged discussions of topics such as the ‘disruption’ of education, digital ‘personalization’ and other such buzzwords. There may well be some readers who feel immediately contemptuous of such debates. Indeed, much of the talk that surrounds technology and education certainly mimics the generally vacuous and enthusiastic excesses of ‘tech-talk’. For some critics, then, it is tempting to see these ideas and agendas as simply not worthy of serious attention.

Yet while reacting to these current ideas and debates as little more than nonsense, noise and hype is understandable (especially from an academic perspective), these are arguments that should not be simply ignored and dismissed out of hand. Whether we like it or not, these are all arguments that are being taken very seriously by policy-makers, industrialists and many other powerful groups outside of education. These are ideas about educational futures that currently are directing billions of dollars of investment. Conversely, these are also arguments that many people inside education are not fully engaged with, yet are already beginning to feel the effects of. As such, this book aims to give these ideas and assumptions a fair hearing while also looking to develop more credible alternatives. Whatever your position on the past, present and future of education, these are arguments that require attention.

So, before we get started, I would like to thank Andrea Drugan at Polity for pitching this as one of the initial titles in the ‘Digital Futures’ series, and Elen Griffiths for her subsequent work in getting the book published. Thanks to Justin Dyer for copyediting the final draft. I would also like to thank Scott Bulfin, Luci Pangrazio and Selena Nemorin for their ongoing conversations about technology, education and society throughout the writing of this book. My writing on the topic has definitely been much improved by their support.

Neil Selwyn
Melbourne
October 2015