1.
Reimagining Technology
and Communication for
Better Education Futures
Keynote address by Gerard Goggin, University of Sydney
2018 Distance Symposium, The 4C-able Future -
Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Creative
Thinking, 9-10 August 2018, Sydney

2.
Technology has long
underpinned
distance education

3.
School paper V & VI, 1902. Source: Gold Museum
Ballarat

4.
A "School of the Air" classroom in progress at Broken Hill, presided over by Mrs. Phyllis
Gibb, a well known district identity, ca. 1958 [picture] / Jeff Carter: Source: NLA

5.
Blind telephone operator using special switchboard, Sydney, 1974 / Douglas
Thompson Source: NLA

6.
Television, record player, radio and cassette player Kriesler Australia, 1963-1977.
Source: NLA Trove

7.
Radio/double cassette player, Sanyo Electric Company Ltd, Japan, 1985
Source: NLA Trove

8.
Doctor Charles Ellis, Royal Flying
Doctor Service of Australia, sends a
patient's medical records by fax to
Cairns Base Hospital, Croydon
Hospital, Croydon, Queensland, 17
June 2005 [/ Loui Seselja: Source:
NLA

9.
Kathy Wall assists daughter Rebeca with interactive School of the Air lesson,
Langidoon Station, north-east of Broken Hill, south-west of New South Wales,
October 2003 / Bill Bachman. Source: NLA

10.
Steven Yinawanga and Stuart Martin during a Business Studies class, at the Batchelor
Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Northern Territory, 4 August 2010 [picture] /
Darren Clark. Source: NLA

11.
Canberra
Islamic
school fete.
Muslim man
using a
mobile
telephone
Seselja,
Loui, 1948-

12.
[Jessica Berliner, 18, talks on
her mobile phone while
'texting' on a friend's phone,
Haberfield, N. S. W.,
December 2004] [picture] /
Sean Davey: Source: NLA

13.
Judy
Horacek,
‘Mobile
Phone
Sunset’.
Source: NLA

14.
‘Muscular dystrophy robot-building twins enable themselves through
3D printing technology’, 20 April, 2014, 774 ABC Melbourne

15.
‘Digital
storybook
tells it the
Warlpiri
way’,
National
Indigenous
Times,
23.11.16

16.
The mediation of distance
education –– and indeed
education generally –– via
technology has only
intensified in recent years.

17.
major issue is how to fit
technology critically &
productively in the contemporary
mission of education
place of technology in society
is central issue for all now

18.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 15 August 2011

19.
Kevin Donnelly, ’The Failed Education Revolution’, ABC News, 2 Feb 2011

20.
Computer Lab in the Education Centre, Baxter Immigration Reception and
Processing Centre, near Port Augusta, 12 July, 2002 / Damian McDonald. Source:
NLA

21.
Robbie Fordyce & Kate Murray, ‘BUILDING A NATIONAL BROADBAND FOR
EVERYONE...EVEN GAMERS, THE PURSUIT, U. OF MELB, 6 AUG 2018

22.
Humanoid
robot ‘Sophia’ at
United Nations,
New York, US,
11 October 2017
Photograph:
Lohr-J/Sipa.
Reproduced in
van Badham,
‘We Can Beat
Robots – with
Democracy’,
Guardian, 3 Nov
2017

23.
Missing in Action in Australia
Tech Imagination:
Social, cultural innovation in
technology?
Rights?
Digital inclusion?
Education?

24.
The ‘ways of seeing’ –– in essence, we
imagine technology and communication
–– have profound implications for how
we see the nature, limits, and
possibilities of educational futures.
Hence need for frameworks for critical
assessment of the place of technology in
better educational futures.
This is highlighted by current Human
Rights Commission project on Human
Rights and Technology

25.
‘Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow is leading a project that explores the impact
and opportunities of new technologies to protect and promote our rights and freedoms.
The project will look at:
1. The challenges and opportunities for human rights of emerging technology.
2. Innovative ways to ensure human rights are prioritised in the design and governance of
emerging technologies.
We will report on and make recommendations for responsible innovation to protect human
rights in Australia in 2019.’ HRC, July 2018: https://tech.humanrights.gov.au/

26.
Human Rights & Technology Issues paper
‘As new technology reshapes our world,
we must seize the opportunities this
presents to advance human rights by
making Australia fairer and more
inclusive. However, we must also be alive
to, and guard against, the threat that
new technology could worsen inequality
and disadvantage.’ (AHRC, 2018, p. 4)

27.
Data privacy in wake of Cambridge
Analytica scandal
Source: NY Times, 10 April,
2018:
https://www.nytimes.com/
2018/04/10/us/politics/ma
rk-zuckerberg-
testimony.html

28.
Australia My Health Record
debate https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/my-health-record

29.
Human Rights & Technology Issues paper
‘New technology is becoming integrated into
almost every aspect of life … It is crucial,
therefore, that the whole community is able
to access and use such technology’
‘how do we ensure the technology that
enables us to enjoy our basic human rights is
itself available and accessible?’ (AHRC, 2018, p.
36).
Key case study –– people with disabilities &
(digital) citizenship

30.
Disability, justice &
social transformation; a
distance travelled in last
20+ years in Australia

31.
Disability &
communication,
well beyond
narrow notions of
accessibility

32.
Communication & inclusive design
• Communication includes wide range of ways that human
relate to each other and their environments – face-to-
face, languages, images, sounds, touch, mediated forms
of communication
• Communication thro’ digital technologies & platforms has
become a crucial part of everyday life, work, education,
commerce, public life, social participation & support
• Many people are excluded from societal forms of
communication, or experience barriers or lower quality
communication; this is even the case in much vaunted
digital technology, which is presented as a boon for all
(especially marginalized or excluded groups)
• Hence the importance of universal design in
communication

33.
The future is often imagined via visions of technology;
& our spaces & places, especially in cities, are
increasingly combining virtual and built environments
- in universities or schools, for instance, learning takes place
in classrooms where people ‘bring their own device’ – so
design needs to embrace built + virtual environment
(accessible digital devices; software accessibility;
accessibility of social media systems; digital books & digital
library accessibility; digital student records; captioned &
described videos in online environments like MOOCs)

34.
What is digital citizenship?
• not just cybersafety & digital literacy (very
important; taught in schools now)
• contemporary citizenship – civil, political, social
& cultural – involves digital technology
• across attitudes, liveable communities,
employment & better access to services
• So we have rights to digital technology (starting
with Internet & mobile tech rights)

35.
‘low level of digital inclusion’
‘For people with disability, digital inclusion is low, but
improving steadily. People with disability have a low
level of digital inclusion (44.4, or 10.1 points below
the national average). However, nationally, their
inclusion has improved steadily (by 2.6 points since
2014), outpacing the national average increase (1.8
points).’
Thomas, J, Barraket, J, Ewing, S, MacDonald, T, Mundell, M & Tucker, J 2016, Measuring
Australia’s Digital Divide: The Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2016, Swinburne University
of Technology, Melbourne, for Telstra.
Definition of ‘disability’: ‘Disability: people in this category receive either a disability pension, or the disability support
pension’ (p. 7)

36.
Oz 1st, Olympics web accessibility test case

37.
Disability helps us reimagine digital
citizenship
• 1st of all: technologies have to be accessible,
useable & affordable for all
• esp. digital technologies – if designed &
implemented – offer new forms of accessibility (e.g.
web accessibility; screen readers; voice &
communication technologies; different kind of
interfaces via touch; automation; robotics)

38.
Key ideas for disability, inclusion & digital technology
Socially shaped, disability spans a wide variety of different
bodies, conditions, and situations we can find themselves
more or less “disabled,” identifying or dis-identifying with
disability, through the course of our lives
In relation to technology, there are many ways in which
barriers, obstacles, and inaccessibility can be “built-in” to
systems, rather than producing “enabling” environments
Disability has an especially close association with design,
offering many ways to rethink “universal” and “inclusive
design”;

39.
Key ideas for disability, inclusion & digital
technology
Disability draws our attention to new aspects of literacy,
education, and user support requiring accessible
formats, inclusive education, as well as drawing attention
to cultural and linguistic aspects of digital inequality (the
importance of sign language for Deaf communities, for
instance)
Many of the proffered solutions for global connectivity,
such as cheap mobile phones, fall well short of meeting
the needs, preferences, and desires of users with
disabilities
People with disabilities are marginalized in the
research, policy, technology design, and policy
formulation relating to digital citizenship & inequality

40.
Disability, digital citizenship &
education: New rights
• Technology now crosses divide between ‘assistive’ and
‘mainstream/other’ technologies in new ways (e.g.
tablet computers such the iPad) – this changes market,
economic & consumer dynamics
• right to technologies as integral part of human rights
are set out in the Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities (CRPD)
• So is right to inclusive education (Article 24)
• People with disabilities face significant social inequality
& justice - technology + education is seen as key tool in
addressing this

41.
Do we have a map of digital
citizenship in NSW?
• How does each person and household gain affordable,
accessible access to & use of accessible technology? (e.g. what
role is played by NSW tech industry & ecosystem; employers;
NDIS system & providers in assistive tech; Fed govt in universal
service; anti-discrimination/human rights law; state gov &
agencies; local govt; community groups; education institutions?)
• How does everyone learn the basics about digital technology?
across different groups/demographics in communities, especially
addressing distinct requirements across families; communities;
schools; work; institutional settings;
• How do we ensure everyone has access to training & support for
new kinds of digital technology? E.g. to access ‘digital’
government services (paying bills; licence renewals) Often
community groups, libraries, local governments provide/support
such training/support

42.
Map of digital citizenship in NSW?
• What say do citizens have in introduction & operation
of digital technologies? (e.g. what are the governance
arrangements for data gathering & digital services in
‘smart’ cities currently being developed?)
• Policies for intersectional digital citizenship (e.g. what
the concepts & needs of disability digital citizenship
that come from innovative use in particular
communities – cultural diverse, indigenous, rural &
remote communities, gender & sexually diverse
communities?)
• Digital citizenship across the ‘life course’ (e.g. what
about mandating Wi-Fi access in nursing homes & care
facilities for older people?)

43.
Tech dreaming, tech realities
- Critical frameworks via user
experiences (of disability,
disadvantage, exclusion)

44.
Exchange
Telstra
blog, 1
May 2014

45.
Figure 1: “Look Ma, No Hands”:
Steve Mahan, Google self-
driving car test
‘Web giant Google has already changed the way we search
the internet, watch video and navigate. But the firm's
latest breakthrough could be its biggest innovation yet.
The company promises that its self-driving car will enable
blind people to drive’ Daily Mail, 29 March 2012

46.
tech’s disability turn

47.
Automation, voice &
listening: new ‘norms’ &
systems of controls?

48.
Conclusion: reimagining tech &
communication for better Ed futures
• Disability features prominently among the wide range of
‘intersectional issues’ often pushed to margins of society,
especially education
• Disability becomes a paradigm case for rethinking both
media and media’s potential contribution to social
progress
• Disability is a key part of wider understandings of cultural
and media diversity, but is of particular interest because
of disability struggles’ strong focus on digital technologies
and their ‘affordances’, capabilities & design
• Disability is recognized as rich source of social innovation
to shape technology
• Shows the power of critically reframe our ‘ways of seeing’
& imagining society via technology – via the struggles of
everyday life & contexts, especially those of marginalized
& the ‘information have-less’