Guest editorial

摘要

Technology has brought about immense benefits to learning, pedagogy and human communication and connectivity. Countries across the world have been expending resources to infuse their learning environments across colleges, universities, schools and other institutions with information and communication technologies. In this process, the term high-tech has become prevalent as a desirable facet when applied to different aspects, including in learning and pedagogy. However, high-tech may not always be possible, and may not always be desirable either. In such cases, the term low-tech comes to the forefront. Low-tech refers to environments that incorporate mostly analog, non-digital materials along with limited digital technologies for use (Knudson and Wallace, 2019; Nicol et al, 2018). In many developing as well as in some developed countries, there is a high prevalence of digital divide, with a portion of the population left out of the technological and infrastructure growth. Many schools, colleges and universities in these regions may lack even basic infrastructure, with little to varying degrees of effective technological infrastructure. Internet connections may be slow or even non-existent. Computers, even if present, may not have been updated in several years. Even in cases where the latest technological infrastructure is present e.g. in countries such as Japan, USA, South Korea, Germany and Singapore, people might struggle with too much technology use, where a lot of people are constantly glued to their phone or computer screens. In such environments and to fight technology addiction, some people are advocating creating technology free zones in their school, home, work or meeting spaces (Powers, 2010; Turkle, 2016).