Technology Choices Are Moral Choices
I’m a meat-eater, but I can’t justify it. I haven’t tried going vegetarian (let alone vegan) for very long. I’m not at all convinced that my body “needs” animal proteins, although it sure does like them. There is no defense for my support of industrialized slaughter. It’s just easy, and by being raised a meat-eater, some of the choice was made for me. Now it’s a matter of working against habit.
I’d venture that I’m not alone in the acknowledgement of the moral sketchiness of eating meat — at least in the packaged, convenient, affordable ways made available to most Americans. I’d further submit that many more meat-eaters consider their action morally questionable than are willing to do anything about it.
This is one example in which both problem and solution are obvious, but the solution is inconvenient. As that phrase might suggest, climate change is another one.
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” Replace “Christian” with basically any philosophy or ideology, and you have a similarly true-feeling observation.
Allow me to add one more to the list: using proprietary technology and even most free-to-use cloud services, in schools. Even these choices have moral valence, and we should make them carefully.
You Are What You Login To
Here are some things we know:
- Companies like Facebook and Google make money off your engagement with them. They do so by allowing advertisers to know more about you than you’d like based on the data you make available by using these services.
- Since smartphones became prevalent, mental health issues amongst adolescents have jumped 33%. Suicide has jumped 31%.
- Companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook are far from good corporate citizens. In addition to enabling censorship in China, troubling labor practices, and rampant sexism, the power these few companies exert on markets anticompetitive, if not downright monopolistic.
I have not named all the tech companies here with which I’d take issue. These are just some examples. It’s clear, though, that these companies and others do not have the best interest of our children in mind when they develop products. Even if they think their technology is ultimately a benefit to society, these ideas are often delusional.
So how are we supposed to feel about using these companies’ products in our classrooms? What are we supposed to do?
Option 1: Who Cares?
With the planet on life support, it’s hard to get too worked up about what email provider we use. Still, while we’re pre-Mad Max, it might be worth considering what messages we’re sending to kids.
“But Google Apps (now GSuite) just works!” one might say. And hey, I’ve deployed Google services and devices in schools. I’ve advocated for them, even, knowing full well that there’s a tradeoff between convenience and privacy. Given how much of our students’ lives is spent online, the choice of platform is material to how students experience the world.
Students define privacy differently than we might have even a generation ago. Causality is always tricky, but let’s at least acknowledge that the rethinking of privacy has come along with the commoditization of personal information by technology companies.
Here’s what you condone by blithely accepting all tech that comes into your classroom: that students are being taught to give up their personal information in exchange for access to convenient services. Maybe you are okay with it. Increasingly, I am not.
Option 2: Off the Grid
There are schools that eliminate technology entirely, or near to. I can’t condone this as, y’know, a professional technologist, but I understand the instinct. Still, the cost in preparation for the future is too high to justify this approach to protecting students from the grody side of tech.
You could also go full Richard Stallman — use only freedom/privacy respecting technology. My hat’s off to you if you can pull it off. I haven’t met many who can.
Option 3: A Healthy Technology Diet
I have tried to live a Google-free, social media-free life. It’s tough! Even as a private citizen rather than an educator, the amount of work it takes to excise these entities from daily use is highly technical and, frankly, unreasonable for most folks. I’d dearly love to change that status quo. In the meantime, most teachers have neither the time nor the inclination to remove every questionable bit of tech from their classrooms. The same goes for technology administrators, who are seeking cost-effective solutions (both in time and money) for their schools.
The term “technology diet” has been used to refer to a lessening of intake — limits on screentime, filters for content, etc. I’m using the other meaning of “diet” here: a description of what is consumed. Think lifestyle, not intervention. How do we use technology in mindful ways, understanding the good and bad effects of our choices? Sometimes that chocolate cake is fine, but not for lunch everyday, right?
So what goes into making a healthy technology diet? Here are some rules I’ve found helpful in my own life as well as my work as an education technologist.
Technology Diet Guidelines
Open > Closed
I’ve spoken about the importance of open source software before. It still rings true. Open source software protects privacy, ensures sustainability regardless of corporate strategy, and lowers the barrier to access for schools in all socioeconomic statuses. Wherever possible, seek open source solutions for your students. Admins: don’t sacrifice function, but if the constraining factor is your own technical acumen, perhaps look inward before determining open source is “not worth it.”
Manage attention
Your attention is a commodity. Protect it. This can include setting hard time limits for yourself and your students, either through class contract or tools like StayFocusd or Self Control. I also strongly recommend ad-blockers like uBlock Origin.
Think about what you’re consuming on the internet, and why. There’s a lifetime of worthwhile content, but almost all of it requires focus to read and understand. An environment full of ads and links elsewhere might not be the best way to absorb it. For myself, I find services like Pocket and Instapaper invaluable for saving the good and reading it in one quiet place.
Limit “Apps”
Besides the fact that apps on your phone are spying on you, each one is vying for your attention. This could fall under the heading above, but apps are ubiquitous enough to warrant their own section. Consider whether a constant stream of urgent notifications in your pocket is really a healthy part of modern life.
Choose Privacy-Focused Services
I’m all for software developers, even big ones, making money for the work they do. That position is compatible with loving and believing in free and open source software. Either way, the conduct of the developer matters: how will they treat your information? Do they even want it?
Alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo provide the same search functionality as Bing or Google, but their mission is slightly different: they want to be a good search engine, and that’s it. No ads, no data mining. Just search!
If you’re an Android user but would rather ditch the feeling that you have a Google-flavored spy on you at all times, consider LineageOSfor your phone. You can always put the Google stuff back if you like, but in the meantime you can experience what it’s like to not be tracked wherever you go.
Resist vertical integration
This one is probably the hardest for Apple users. If you use a Mac, it’s probably because you use an iPhone. And if you’re over 25, you probably had an iPod when you were a kid. That means you also probably have media that you’ve purchased on iTunes. If that sounds like you, you are in a walled garden, immaculately constructed for your user experience, but also so that you could never escape. The same can be said of Google or Microsoft; it’s just that Apple does it so well you don’t even notice. Or rather, you notice, but it’s like they’re doing you a favor. The “it just works” idea comes from a tightly-controlled environment in which Apple has all the power.
Alternatives? Well, certainly cross-platform streaming services are an option, although no streaming service resembles “ownership” of your entertainment media in any meaningful sense. But even forcing yourself to choose services that work across all platforms can help break down the walls of the garden. We want to avoid a situation in which we give a single corporation so much power over our digital lives that, without them, we’d be lost.
Make The Choices You Want To See
Making uninformed choices about technology in 2018 is about as excusable as making uninformed choices about, well, anything else. The information is out there for the taking.
So teachers: think about what moral lessons the technology in your classroom communicates. And administrators: consider what your technology choices signal about the kind of world you hope for your students.
