Proactionary Principle

At this point, we must assume that technology is a permanent part of our schools (after all technology has been a part of humanity forever). Educators do have a responsibility to engage with technology and our technology-using populations. Many have adopted the precautionary principle which means that they will adopt no technology until it proves to be harmless. Ostensibly, that allows one to be careful and to proceed only when the path is known. In reality, the precautionary principle results in one never adopting any technology. Although that may be many educators' goal for adopting the precautionary principle, it is a position that is increasingly difficult to justify.



I have recently finished Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants (look for more of my reactions here once I get a chance to reread the more provocative sections). He recommends that humans are better served by the proactionary principle which suggests that we adopt new technologies but that we immediately begin evaluating the technology and that we continue to assess and evaluate throughout our use of any technology. All of this video is worth watching, but at about 13 minutes, Kelly talks about his proactionary principle.