- Amplifying Agency: Technology as an opportunity (Image: Baseball crates)
- RJ says "Ideas are equal. Opportunities are not."
- I agree, but I don't necessarily think all ideas are good; it is just that there is some good in every idea. Our role is to find that good and amplify it.
- And, I don't always have the best idea of what a good idea looks like; so, even more so, my role is to work with with you and your students to enable them to amplify the good ideas they see in others.
- So, what is technology? (Image: Bonobo eating ants off stick)
- For the purpose of me talking to you about technology, I'd say it is simply using tools to amplify agency
- Amplifying agency is what we all want for your students
- It is what I want for your students to provide to others
- Technology is everywhere and can be almost anything where people turn it into a tool
- Computing is a very flexible tool
- Finding virtues in complexity (Image: a house made entirely of sticks)
- To find agency, the behavior of your medium has to be predictable. If you can't intuit what will happen when you act, that's the definition of not having agency.
- While the medium might not appear to have any value judgement of its own, it may amplify some outcomes more than others. Choosing a medium, or developing a medium, impacts outcomes and is therefore a moral choice.
- I believe the baseline is that each of us wants to be a positive force in the world. This is simply an article of faith for me, but I generally just don't see the value in concluding that anyone is fundamentally guided by bad intentions. Instead, I see the world as amplifying the bad in their ideas, rather than building on the good. Ultimately, none of us lives in a bubble, isolated from the rest of the world, so it is our role to look for the best in the ideas and help them flourish.
- When a system gets complex enough, it will drift towards failure unless it is continuously maintained
- Tolerating failure locally, using readily available and replaceable building blocks, prevents the failure of the whole
- Meet Chloe (Image: Chloe running in a field playing soccer)
- I want to tell you the story of Chloe and her experience of technology.
- The image on the next slide was inspired by a Pearl Jam concert t-shirt I had as a kid.
- On one side, the t-shirt said "9 out of 10 kids prefer crayons to guns".
- The other side had this image on it, with the word "choices".
- The image can invoke some strong emotions, and it is meant to, but for the purpose of this story, this is simply how I imagine Chloe making a choice to find her own self-expression with drawing, even if she didn't know she was making that choice.
- Let's please save any political discussion for the right time and place. If you are offended or frightened, it is not my intent, but I accept your judgement and am happy to revisit with you how to express my idea better. Please visit with me after the presentation.
- Chloe fell in love with drawing (Image: Chloe "choices" drawing)
- Crayons helped Chloe find a voice for self-expression
- This isn't a binary choice; Chloe could have found any number of mediums
- For me, computers and electronics became my medium
- For you, how did you learn to express your ideas?
- Chloe felt inspired by the masters (Image: starry-night)
- Chloe felt confident
- Chloe mastered