Rewilding Technology
Felicitas Macgilchrist
Abstract
This paper is rooted in the ecological crisis of our contemporary world. Rather than rejecting educational technology (edtech) as too environmentally damaging to use, it draws on critical utopian approaches, feminist science fiction and conservation projects to suggest ‘rewilding’ as a frame for designing and using edtech with a view to ameliorating technology’s long-term inequitable planetary impact. After briefly describing projects for rewilding nature, the paper turns to the specifics of rewilding edtech. It first highlights pragmatic suggestions for more sustainable edtech practices. It then suggests that the concept of ‘sustainability’ limits current practices, and proposes that a more radical and utopian rewilding can herald an education beyond sustainability. Rewilding edtech prioritises decelerating and degrowth, regenerating and relating, hospicing dying worlds and birthing new possibilities.