Mission.
The Civics of Technology (CoT) project aims to empower students and educators to critically inquire into the effects of technologies on their individual and collective lives. We conduct research, develop curriculum, and offer professional development. Our work seeks to advance democratic, ethical, and just uses of technology in schools and society.
Origin story.
The Civics of Technology (CoT) project formally started in 2022 with the launch of this website and coordinated planning for research and curriculum development, but our roots extend further back. While humans have wrestled with their relationships to technology for centuries, the rapidly changing technological landscape of facial recognition, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and other pervasive technologies requires citizens who can address associated social problems. Our CoT team of primarily social studies and educational technology educators and researchers seeks to develop approaches, curriculum, and research to help students grow as citizens in a highly technologized world.
While there are many movements encouraging teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms, and STEM/STEAM initiatives aimed at increasing students’ technological skills, there have been few initiatives or curriculum aimed at helping students to pursue a technology education that delves into the varied effects of technology through ecological and critical lenses. We therefore seek to revive an older idea, largely lost to school curriculum dialogues, for technology education that challenges students to critically inquire into the collateral, disproportionate, and unexpected effects of technology on our lives. Across our projects, we work to advance a civics of technology in schools and society that struggles for just democracy.
Daniel G. Krutka
Project Facilitator
Dr. Krutka (he/him/his) is Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of North Texas. A former high school social studies teacher in Oklahoma City, his research focuses on intersections of technology, democracy, and education. He is co-editor of the Social Studies Education section of the Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education journal, hosts the Visions of Education podcast, and is co-founder of the Civics of Technology project.
Marie K. Heath
Project Facilitator
Dr. Marie Heath (she/her) is not a robot, but she refuses to prove it to Google’s CAPTCHA. She currently works as an Assistant Professor of Learning Design and Technology at Loyola University Maryland. Prior to her work in higher education, Marie taught high school social studies in Baltimore County Public Schools. Her scholarship interrogates schools and technologies as current sites of encoded oppression, and labors to advance more just technological and educational futures. She is co-editor of the CITE Social Studies Journal, co-founder of the Civics of Technology project, and a faculty fellow at the Center for Leadership and Social Justice Education at Loyola University Maryland. If you ask generative AI a question about Marie, it replies with the Mariah Carey “I don’t know her” meme.
Michelle Ciccone
Project Contributor
Michelle Ciccone (she/her/hers) is a PhD student in communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Previously she was a K-12 technology integration specialist, and she continues to build media literacy and critical digital citizenship curriculum for middle and high school grades. Michelle's research interests sit at the intersection of media education, science and technology studies (STS), and critical edtech. You can follow her on Twitter at @MMFCiccone.
Charles Logan
Project Contributor
Charles Logan is a PhD student in learning sciences at Northwestern University. A former high school English teacher and university educational technologist, his research interests include critical digital pedagogies and literacies, co-authoring counter-narratives to challenge ed-tech imaginaries, and designing learning experiences to support educational dignity. He is on Twitter @charleswlogan.
Lance Mason
Project Contributor
Lance E. Mason is an Associate Professor of Education at Indiana University Kokomo, where he teaches courses in foundations of education and social studies teaching methods. His research examines the intersections of media, technology, politics and democracy in education and has appeared in journals such as Curriculum Inquiry, Theory and Research in Social Education, Education & Culture, Dewey Studies, Democracy & Education, and Social Education. He is currently co-editor of the CITE Journal – Social Studies.
Scott Metzger
Project Contributor
Dr. Metzger is Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at Penn State University. Before earning his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, he taught social studies in mid-Michigan high schools. He now works with undergraduate and graduate students in secondary (7-12) social-studies teacher certification and courses on history and social studies topics. His scholarship and professional writing focus on history teaching, learning, and curriculum, particularly on what and how people learn and think about the past, including media/technology and classroom discussion of social and historical difficult topics. He was co-editor of the Wiley International Handbook of History Teaching and Learning and an early joiner of, and contributor to, the Civics of Technology project.
Jacob Pleasants
Project Contributor
Dr. Jacob Pleasants is an Assistant Professor of Science Education at the University of Oklahoma, where he works to prepare future secondary (grades 7-12) science teachers. His scholarship focuses on how to help teachers make connections between science, technology, and engineering in their classrooms in ways that accurately reflect the nature of those fields and their complex roles in society. Jacob does not have much of a social media presence, but evidence of his love for the outdoors can be found on Strava.
Jeffrey Radloff
Project Contributor
Dr. Jeffrey Radloff is an Assistant Professor in the Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department at SUNY Cortland, where he teaches elementary science methods, STEM foundations, and critical media literacy courses. He has a background in biology and pre-college engineering education, and he received his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Purdue University. Dr. Radloff’s interests are in understanding how to best support pre- and in-service teachers’ integration of interdisciplinary STEM instruction, as well as exploring related instructional variation across classrooms. His current work focuses on chronicling this variation and fostering the development of teachers’ computational thinking using robotics and applications of artificial intelligence.
Ryan Smits
Project Contributor
Ryan Smits is a PhD student in education at the University of North Texas. He was a high school English teacher who strove to engender a passion for reading and writing. Ryan's research interests include educational policy, literacy instruction, learning environments, and critical edtech.
Cathryn van Kessel
Project Contributor
Dr. van Kessel (she/her/hers) is an Associate Professor of Curriculum Studies at TCU in Fort Worth and a former social studies and Latin teacher in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her research focuses on conceptualizations of evil and how they can function in different contexts. Her interest in Jean Baudrillard’s work on “symbolic evil” led to her interest in "hyperreality" and thus media education. You can find her on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter as @DrEvilAcademic.
Aman Yadav
Project Contributor
Dr. Aman Yadav is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology in the College of Education at Michigan State University with extensive experience in research, evaluation, and teacher professional development. His research and teaching focus on improving student experiences and outcomes in computer science and engineering at the K-16 level. His recently co-edited book, Computational Thinking in Education: A Pedagogical Perspective tackles how to integrate computational thinking, coding, and subject matter in relevant and meaningful ways.
Sumreen Asim
Project Contributor
Dr. Sumreen Asim is a COFFEE enthusiast. She currently teaches STEM courses to both undergraduate and graduate students at Indiana University Southeast. Over the last two decades she has focused her work to share, love and grow with fellow educators. Her research interests are in collaborative efforts, STEM education, culturally-responsive teaching, and critical educational technology.
Natalie Milman
Project Contributor
Dr. Natalie B. Milman (she, her, ella) is Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Professor of Educational Technology at The George Washington University's Graduate School of Education and Human Development, teaching in the Educational Technology Leadership Master's and the interdisciplinary Human-Technology Collaborations PhD programs. She is a member of GW’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers and winner of the 2017 Bender Teaching Award. Her research examines the design of instruction and integration of technology at all academic levels with a current focus on critical educational technology. She's also investigated online student support needs; issues of diversity, inclusion, and digital equity; and digital professional portfolios. She is fluent in Spanish, a first-generation Colombian-American, and a first-gen BA, MA, and PHD graduate.