Metaphors of Ed Tech

In this episode I explore how the rollout of smart motorways in the UK, and the reaction to it, has lessons for educational technology implementation.

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I talk with Jim Groom of Reclaim Hosting about the use of metaphors in their branding, edupunk, runaway metaphors, and film.

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I am joined by Eamon Costello from Dublin City University and we discuss his use of metaphors in teaching and using speculative fiction.

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In this short episode I offer some areas of caution around the use of metaphors.

I discuss the OER23 conference with ALT CEO Maren Deepwell. We talk about how the conference has evolved, and the OER23 conference in Inverness, plus some of the metaphors we liked during sessions there.

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In this episode I explore the economics of investing in a centralised "Death Star" type solution, and also examine some early metaphors for the internet such as the Information SuperHighway

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This episode looks at two metaphors that have relevance to the pandemic and the online pivot. Firstly, the design of the internet as a model of a robust system, and secondly the notion of resilience from ecology to examine institutions ability to adapt to crises.

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I explore two metaphors in this episode: How the movie Jaws relates to the online pivot, and how mudlarks provide a metaphor for educational technologists.

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In this episode I explore a number of music related metaphors, including edupunk, the educator as DJ and the pillars of hip-hop.

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In this episode I examine the lecture from two perspectives. Firstly as the main model that people hold for higher education and how that limits our imagination when it comes to online learning. Secondly, the haunted house novel is used to explore the reasons for continuing with the lecture when students have stopped attending.

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In this episode I explore two metaphors that relate to open practice. The first are the 19th century riots in West Wales which focused on Toll Gates, and I make the connection to reactions to academic publishing with movements like ICanHazPDF and Sci-Hub. The second metaphor looks at anthropology and how the role of women in hunter gatherer societies was often overlooked by researchers. This is analogous to the types of activity in academic practice which might be overlooked in academic institutions.

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In this episode I explore two rather persistent, and often damaging, metaphors, namely that of Digital Natives and Uber (or other technology companies) for Education.

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I explore two metaphors relating to specific educational technologies. Firstly, the implementation of Video Assisted Refereeing in football and what it tells us about learning analytics in education is explored. Then the various metaphors relating to VLEs (or LMSs) are discussed.

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I look at two metaphors: The Welsh castle, Castell Coch, and what it tells us about venture capital investment in higher education; The rewilding approach to introducing apex predators and how we can think about our ed tech ecosystems.

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I explore early metaphors of the Internet and how these shaped our thinking, but then how they have changed also over time.

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I briefly set out the reasoning behind using metaphors to talk about educational technology, and then how metaphors work and shape our thinking.

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