Instructional Technology: Themes past, present and future

The other day I considered, while reading Paul Gee's text, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Literacy and Learning, what will be the view of the world of young people in the future? I am sure that question is an old one because it must've been considered by every generation of young people who had to translate their surroundings and make-do with what their historical context gave them. Record turntables turned into musical instruments. Media in its multiple forms bombards us all and develops our consciousness with images, words, screens, sounds, bytes, and pixels in completely different ways than humans ever experienced. How will technologies be turned on their head to subvert the oppressors?

Instructional technologies can be any technology that can be used to descipher, translate or change the world. Wires intersecting metal, die-cast or plastic compartment; connecting machines, connecting humans. The question remains who is the technology or what is the technology being used for. If we are to use say blogs, in a Freire conceptualization of education for "freedom," to communicate to each other our feelings and knowledge of the world, can we use these to unify our experiences of the universe so that we don't feel so alone? In the 19th century Marx said that religion was the opiate and sigh of the masses, maybe web 2.0 is that drug.

Obviously some objects are considered specifically "technology." Computers, servers, iPods, laptops, etc. for the general population is fetishized as technology, ignoring the many objects around us were technology in the past: tv or radio for instance. Consider that even our thumbs were an evolutionary technological advance that differentiated us from other animals.

12 years ago I used to be skeptical about the use of technology like email to communicate with friends and family. I don't think I even considered back then the use of a cell phone. Now I can't even consider what would life be without these items. They've become appendages to our existence. For good or bad?

For one I don't think I'm using these technologies to exploit or oppress anyone but rather communicate in a new form that may be more immediate than past technologies. Dime in public telephone. In other words haven't our present consciousness been shaped by these technologies we've adapted to our lifestyle?

I think we can use these to our advantage to engage each other in a praxis that doesn't involve the ruling elite who would want to use these to make a profit and further suppress our ideas and more importantly our actions. We can use these to teach our understand the consciousness of the oppressed.

A new theme? No it's the history of society in conflict. Shattered by bullets and time cards implemented by humans not by technology.