Sasquatch hunting in Ed Tech

As a horror reader, cryptids (animals that some people believe exist, but whose existence is disputed) feature a lot in the literature. I mean, who doesn’t find the idea of rampant weird creatures descending on an annoying bunch of privileged American teens appealing? The archetypal cryptid is Sasquatch (Bigfoot), who many people firmly believe exists. I came across a free Audiobook, purporting to examine the evidence impartially (reader, he is not impartial). I came away less convinced of their existence than I did going in, which was pretty low. But of all the cryptids, Sasquatch is the one that makes me think there is maybe 1% chance it actually exists, compared with absolutely no chance.

The idea of ed tech unicorns has been rightly mocked, but a Sasquatch offers a slightly different take on the mythical animal metaphor I think. The Sasquatch legend has the following characteristics which we can transfer to education:

• It appeals to a certain type of person who positions themselves in opposition to accepted practice (usually it’s men)
• People project idealised versions of society on to the myth (eg Bigfoot is more ecologically in balance, caring, communal, compared to man)
• Absence of substantial evidence is just a spur to further investigation
• Small pieces of disputed evidence are exaggerated as proof
• The traditional, embedded knowledge of indigenous people who probably place the creature in a different plane of existence is stripped of nuance for a very Western interpretation
• Its pursuit becomes all consuming for some
• It probably doesn’t exist, but there is a very small chance that it might.

If we take that list of, admittedly carefully selected, characteristics, then some ed tech parallels come to mind. This is probably just a rehash of Audrey’s Ed Tech zombie ideas, but the Sasquatch framing is maybe fun and useful. The ed tech idea that comes to my mind when I view that list is personalisation. From the proposal of learning objects that could be assembled on the fly, to AI generated curriculum, via MOOCs and Virtual Worlds, people just love the idea of personalisation in education. To take our list of characteristics:

• As with our Sasquatch hunters the (usually male) proponents often deride the current education system and see themselves as mavericks outside of conventional academia.
• Idealised versions of education are projected on to the mythical fully personalised utopia, which ignores many of the potential difficulties in highly individualised programmes (such as lack of common knowledge, lack of sense of cohort, timing and reliability)
• We haven’t really had much success with implementing highly personalised education, and yet it always seems just within reach, with this new tech we’ll definitely get there.
• Dubious evidence, such as the Hole in the Wall or learning styles work has not been replicated but is still often held up as a prime example of what we can do if just get the teachers out of the way.
• Personalisation does exist in a human context – good teachers do it every day. But they know it takes time, effort and resource. As with the indigenous knowledge of Sasquatch, this is grounded in a complex understanding of context which the tech bro version wants to strip away.
• Personalisation returns as the key aim of many individuals and start up companies. Because it has to be good, right?
• While the magic personalisation on the fly may not exist, there is actually a good chance that some flexibility in resources, timing, assessment and structure will benefit an increasingly diverse population of learners.

To be clear, I don’t think that all personalisation in education is impossible to achieve or undesirable, I just feel that it is not unproblematic and it is often allied with ed tech bullshit. It has more than a whiff of the Sasquatch about it (you can buy a spray to smell like Sasquatch if that appeals to you). Perhaps if we think of these ideas not as definitely true or false, but more along the lines of Bigfoot, we might approach them with the appropriate level of interest, scepticism and caution.

If personalisation is my ed tech Sasquatch, what’s yours?

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