One of my objectives for EDC Week Two was to climb out of the “uncanny valley,” the depths of repulsion/attraction to all things artificially human-like. It is easy to become absorbed and fascinated by these ‘creepy’ and ‘uncanny’ humanoids, androids and cyborgs. Taking inspiration from J. Sterne’s foregrounding of ‘audialization’ (Honor Hagerger, 2003) in Historiography of Cyberculture(2006), I tried to weave some sound into the the blog posts; hence the ‘creepy’ mouth, ‘creepy’ androids singing ‘freedom,’ and posts on ‘uncanny’ robo-cats. The fascination has begun to wane, as I tried to shift my focus to more constructive visions and less bizarre human-technology couplings.

Another theme this past week was “appropriateness.” Dr. Sian Bayne tweeted “If not TEL then what?” In her brilliant article ‘What’s the matter with technology enhanced learning’, she deconstructs the constituent elements of ‘TEL’ to illuminate how they have conjoined to express the current state of emerging digital technologies; what used to be known as ‘e-learning.’ I wondered whether the ‘enhanced’ element of TEL really accurately captured the normative aspects; that is, enhancements could be destructive, as well as constructive. In response, I asked if the term ‘appropriate’ should be considered, perhaps on two levels. First, as it relates to technology, the phrase ‘appropriate technology’ has been universally used in the field of international development as considering which technologies are ‘appropriate’ to particular societies based on their level of development. Some technologies may cause more harm than good, if the culture or society can not integrate them properly. I recall the film, The Gods Must be Crazy where a coca-cola bottle falls out the sky and disrupts the lives of primitive people.

The second argument for possibly associating ‘appropriate’ with TEL is the learning dimension. I posted a video of the ‘dental doll’ as a technological application that I felt epitomized an appropriate blending of human and technology for learning purposes. On the hand, I am increasingly concerned that many technologies, such as violent video games for childern are not being used for ‘appropriate’ learning. This type of learning could lead to future anti-social, destructive behaviors. The dilemma is how and who should regulate or educate society to use these powerful emerging technologies wisely. As Bayne states: …”we have to form a more nuanced understanding of the relation between education and technology.”(p.6)