I FINALLY finished Kentaro Toyama’s Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology.  It took me so long to finish it because it was a holiday gift that I just couldn’t finish before my classes resumed.   After slowly chipping away at it over the course of the semester, I can finally write about it in the midst of the summer recess.

Toyama’s book is an excellent exploration of technology and social change.  As an educator and tech-industry insider, Toyama gives explicit examples of how technology can be used for better or for worse.  I appreciated his Law of Amplification, that “technology’s primary effect is to amplify human forces” (p. 29).

Particularly for educators, Toyama’s amplification theory points to conditions that are too often over-looked by tech-advocates and drowned out by tech industry marketing.

1. Toyama mentions that while our students have a natural desire to learn and to play, they also have a natural desire (fueled no less by media and marketing) to distract themselves in less productive ways.  Citing research for the claim, Toyama states, “If you provide an all-purpose technology that can be used for learning and entertainment, children choose entertainment” (p. 31).  I believe this shows that the inclination for entertainment over education is an especially strong force in educational technology applications, from why we justify its use to students’ expectations and orientations.
2. Educational technology does not make up for inequality in our schools.  A level playing field, as Toyama notes is attempted by compensating at school for lack of technology at home, doesn’t improve the skills of underserved students.  There are many other social, economic, and political factors that influence the overall educational experience for students, and these need to be fundamentally addressed.  Focusing on technology or claiming it is a solution for inequality is a very myopic view.
3. Rules are necessary.  Toyama shares his experience of learning the hard way with using technology in an after-school program.  Just a few rules, like closing laptops during demonstrations, limiting use to class activities, and setting consequences for misuse, made using technology more learning-centered.

Ultimately, it is our underlying human intentions and connections that make technology useful or detrimental.  Toyama suggests the upgrade we really need are to our “Three Pillars of Wisdom” (p. 129):

• heart, or intention
• mind, or discernment
• will, or self-control

I imagine that standing before a group of colleagues at an in-service about technology or a gathering at ISTE and talking about heart, mind, and will would amount to heresy.  But, education is the place to be having this conversation.  Education is not only about developing skills of the mind, but it is an opportunity for building social skills and deepening compassion.  The classroom is the place to build a more thoughtful, wiser use of technology with the intent of developing a more connected and socially just world.

I can’t imagine we could do it without more heart, mind, or will.

I am happily seeking educators, mindful practitioners, techno-geeks, students, and anyone curious about what that classroom could be like.