Educational technologies /technologies of articulation: Critical and technical literacy in the global economy

This study offers an interpretation of a new, arguably unprecedented technology (the Internet), as it relates to an emergent economic condition (new capitalism) and presents the notion of articulation as a device to rethink how technology is taught and situated in schools. Because new capital and its structure, the distributed network, are shaping the world in which students will live, teachers, students, and teacher educators must confront the idea that mere "critical literacy" is no longer sufficient. Students will need not only the adaptive skills required by the distributed network, but also the reflexive knowledge to survive in the new economy. The overarching goal of this study is to assess the utility of the concept of articulation for helping teachers generate new media education practices. Articulation is an analytical concept designed to grasp the political work of managing and contesting power relations, identities, and meanings that are constantly in flux. This is a powerful concept for teachers when it is used to frame questions about how we teach technology and with technology. The use of technology in schools has much more potential than merely aiding students in learning skills such as word processing or even programming The concept of articulation can inform teachers' uses of technology for the purpose of introducing students to broader "systems knowledge" or "meta-information"---ways to understand how work and life in the new economy function and change.