Responsible Technology

1. Responsible Technology

2.  It is often stated that technology is merely a
tool. The typical argument goes something
like this: it’s not the technology itself, it’s what
you do with technology that counts. This
notion fails to recognize that technology itself
embeds a message.
 One should be able to recognize the latent
potential in creation for computer technology
and how it is a gift from God. However,
technology often changes things in subtle
ways, and it requires discernment as we
decide how technology ought to be used in
education.

3.  The book “Responsible Technology” defines
technology as:
A distinct cultural activity in which human beings
exercise freedom and responsibility in response
to God by forming and transforming the natural
creation, with the aid of tools and procedures, for
practical ends or purposes.
 This definition recognizes that
- technology is a human cultural activity; it is more
than just devices, it is what we make of the
world.
- technology is a response to God, one in which
we have both freedom and responsibility.

4.  Andy Crouch, in his book Culture Making, suggests
several questions we can ask when evaluating new
cultural developments. Two questions in particular
acknowledge the extraordinary power of culture
(and hence, technology) to “shape the horizons of
possibility". When it comes to technology, the initial
questions to be asked ideally are:
◦ what does it make possible?
◦ what does it make impossible or more difficult?

5.  Neil Postman argues in his book Technopoly that
“[e]mbedded in every tool is an ideological bias, a
predisposition to construct the world as one thing
rather than another, to value one thing over
another, to amplify one sense or skill or attitude
more loudly than another”. In other words,
technology is value-laden, and these values make
some things possible, while at the same time
making others more difficult. These values involve
a range of modalities including economic, legal,
aesthetic, social, and cultural aspects.

6.  McLuhan went even further when he coined the
phrase “the medium is the message.” This
aphorism emphasizes the fact that the values
embedded in technology are far more significant
than any content they may carry. This is not just the
case for computer technology, but applies equally
to older technologies like the television,
automobiles, and the printed word.
 For example, the printed word as a medium has
profoundly shaped education. But the content often
distracts us from the values that are sculpting us as
we use a technology, be it printed word or
something else. McLuhan put it this way, “the
‘content’ of a medium is like the juicy piece of meat
carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of
the mind”.

7.  Some have gone even further by suggesting that
technology is not a choice, but rather a requirement.
Postman dubbed this idea technopoly, the submission
of everything to the sovereignty of technology. Jacques
Ellul wrote that
“it is not in the power of the individual or the group
to decide to follow some method other than the
technical”.
 The definition of technology given earlier suggests that
technology is not an autonomous force, but something
for which we have both freedom and responsibility.

8.  Carr developed his ideas further in a book
entitled The Shallows: What the Internet Is
Doing to Our Brains. In this book, he
observes that we are turning into “pancake
people—spread wide and thin as we connect
with a vast network of information” (196). His
book draws on dozens of studies by
neurobiologists and educators who all point
to the same conclusion: “When we go online
we enter an environment that promotes
cursory reading, hurried and distracted
thinking, and superficial learning” (115–6).

9.  A 2009 study at Stanford University investigated
the effects of multitasking, a common mode of
operating with students who are “digital natives.”
Their conclusions found that intensive multitaskers
are “sacrificing performance on the primary task to
let in other sources of information” (15585).

10.  These kinds of findings bring new meaning to the
words of Qur'an. The Qur'an warns about idols,
indicating that who trust in them will become like
them. An undiscerning trust in digital technology
will gradually mold us into patterns of thought that
mirror that of a computer. As this happens, we
gradually lose our abilities to contemplate, reflect,
and rest. Once again, we may shape our
machines, but they will also shape us.

11.  We can be thankful for computer technology and
for the many things it makes possible. However, we
need a posture of humility as we muddle through
the unexpected issues that will almost certainly
accompany new digital technologies. Rather than
passively allowing the messages in digital
technologies to shape and sculpt us, we need to
keep in mind as Muslims the primary purpose of
education: to be intentional about shaping hearts
and minds for serving God as his caliphates on
earth.