Maybe it’s Edith Piaf singing “Je ne regrette rien”, or maybe it’s the idea of breaking free, but there’s something about this video that resonates in me!  

What is real and what is not? The greyness and drearyness of the pixellated world suggests a lack of soul, or perhaps a repression of soul.  The clusters of old-fashioned light bulbs, dusty looking books echoes the  films and books telling of worlds imploding, technology failing and a return to living pre-technology, surviving in a bubble,  But this seems to be a reverse – the real world , nature, life, feeling is outside the bubble apart from a few illicit plants and the hamburger. 

Car manufacturers often use the idea of the car being a symbol of escapism; when you climb into your car, you enter another world.  “Je ne regrette rien”; a song of moving forward, leaving the past behind, there’s no going back.

But how does all this connect with the idea of technology-mediated education?

A constant cry from teachers I have worked with is that teachers can never be replaced by computers because learning requires passion, needs the face to face element to engage students that technology doesn’t have. One of the questions in the Twitter chat on Sunday morning (Saturday evening for the northern hemisphere folk!) was what did a future teacher look like and there were some interesting answers but most revolved around the idea of a blend of computers and real people. 

 

My experience is that learners are excited by technology and the positive opportunities it offers them but they still want someone they know and trust to explain and explore ideas more fully with them.  Humans all need feedback and affirming comments that reassure us that we are on the right track as well as the buzz it gives us when someone says, “Well done” and actually means it. The automated responses on online quizzes just don’t have the same buzz factor.