Morals and Methodology in Educational Technology Strategy

E-learning practitioners, managers and strategists have a higher profile within the University than they have ever had. That means their decisions and actions have a greater power to disrupt the practices of others. With every decision there will be losers as well as winners. Who has the right to decide what action should be taken? What procedures must be gone through in order to do the 'right thing'? Who is thinking about the emergent long-term impact on education and the education system we are handing down to generations to come? In this domain, it strikes me that morality and methodology come together. There is no doubt that decisions have to be taken: which VLE, virtual classroom, e-portfolio, etc do we choose? But the outcome of those decisions may depend not on the particular decision that is made, but on how it is made. Top-down managerial committees present moral problems, which in turn produce practical difficulties and possible emergent pathology in education. Appreciating the causal impact of the way decisions are made may be very important...