Evaluating Second-Order Consequences: Technology Assessment and Education

Abstract

Technology has become an inexorable part of our culture, with ramifications affecting all aspects of our society. Education has not been immune from this trend. Never before have teachers, learners, and administrators had more hardware, software, courseware, and instructional development strategies available to them. Technology has been able to solve significant problems, both inside and outside education, but there is a growing awareness that, in solving these problems, technology also produces unanticipated side effects. A movement for technology assessment, the evaluation of consequences that may flow from human activities and actions, has emerged in order to reduce the probability of being surprised by such side effects. The technology assessment movement has generally occurred outside the context of education, and those supporting the movement believe that, by anticipating the second-order consequences of technology, interventions may be instigated that enhance those side effects that are beneficial and, at the same time, avoid those side effects that are detrimental. In this paper, we attempt to review those aspects of technology assessment that seem particularly relevant to education. We first explore the origins, meaning, and methodology of technology assessment and then examine its purposes, assumptions, and potential conse-