I am tired of dystopian narratives when it comes to the future, particularly of education. I read them, I’ve studied them, I’ve written about them. I am tired of tech companies taking those dystopian futures and using them as the inspiration for their next big thing. We know that tech and EdTech solutionism hasn’t worked, and yet we struggle to see beyond them because Silicon Valley has ensured that they dominate not just the narrative, but our imagination as well. We need to imagine differently. We need to imagine a whole lot of better, different, more responsive to local needs, more human, more humane, less extractive, less invasive, more just, more flourishing futures.

There are people who are doing this work. I wanted a space where I can share the work, write about the work, think through the work, invite people to come and talk/write about their work, but most of all, inspire and show there are other ways. I wanted to create space, to help facilitate connections, to surface and make more visible people whose imaginations are more creative than mine, whose vision and drive have started to make those imaginaries a reality.

This site in inspired more generally by Ruha Bejamin’s book Imagination: A Manifesto and more specifically by the work and writing of Ben Williamson, particularly in his role as one of the editors of Learning, Media and Technology. They both (among others who will show up on the blog) have challenged me to imagine differently, and right now, my imagination has set its sights on EdTech, the place where I live and work.