Mobile applications and decolonization: cautionary notes about the curriculum of code

Smith, Bryan

Abstract

The current generation of students live and learn within a pedagogical milieu saturated by digital technologies. Curriculum scholars have not ignored this, theorizing and critiquing the ways that technology both affords and limits opportunities for students. Notably absent from this conversation, however, is a consideration of how the technologies themselves are designed and the implications that this design process has on the role and use of technology in our classroom spaces. In this article, I use the development of a decolonizing mobile application designed to teach students and educators about the history of residential schools in Canada, as an example, offering a nascent theorization of computer code. In particular, I argue that the exploration of computer code is an important avenue for critical scholarship. In so doing, I suggest that there are three important considerations—obfuscated representation, translation, and the engendering of technocracy—that need to be considered when doing curriculum work about/with computer technologies. While I do not argue that curriculum scholars need to become proficient in the programming languages central to the design of computer applications, I provide this exploration as a means of gesturing toward that which is often not considered but is central to the 21st century classroom.

Journal

Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy

Publication Name

N/A

Volume

ISBN/ISSN

2156-8154

Edition

N/A

Issue

Pages Count

Location

N/A

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Publisher Url

N/A

Publisher Location

N/A

Publish Date

N/A

Url

N/A

Date

N/A

EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.1080/15505170.2016.1196274