ABSTRACT. The integration of technology in education has received much attention throughout recent years. Many argue that technology can be packaged as a product to improve learning outcomes, make education more cost-efficient, and enhance education retention and access, among other potential outcomes. Nevertheless, research has shown that technology use in education so far only achieves its many promises in very few specific scenarios. This article aims to contribute to the still relatively small critical voice and perspective on educational technology in a field dominated by an overall optimistic – if not euphoric – tone of potential and promise. We suggest that the major questions driving educational technology might not be the best questions to begin with. We first discuss an overarching critical stance on money-driven educational technology and then move on to illustrate our critique in the specific case of challenging two major assumptions underlying such money-driven educational technology developments. We conclude with a proposal of ‘better’ questions to inspire a more meaningful development of educational technology, which might enable educational technology to better live up to its many expectations.

Keywords: EdTech; educational technology; equity; access; developing country; literacy

How to cite: Hackman, S. T., & Reindl, S. (2022). Challenging EdTech: Towards a more inclusive, accessible and purposeful version of EdTech. Knowledge Cultures, 10(1), 7-21. https://doi.org/10.22381/kc10120221

Received 6 September 2021 • Received in revised form 24 February 2022
Accepted 24 February 2022 • Available online 01 April 2022