Introducing the Unfolding a Smartphone Curriculum
by Ryan Smits
My first smartphone was a hand-me-down iPhone 3GS that I received in 2011. I remember being skeptical about why I would want or need a phone with the internet on it. Now, fifteen years after the first iPhone was launched in 2007, it is hard to imagine the world without smartphones. The smartphone is the device of devices which Apple captured in its early “There’s an app for that” advertisement campaign. There are 38 apps pre-installed on iOS including the “App Store” which is the portal to about 2.2 million more apps from which to choose. “Google Play,” the Android equivalent to Apple’s App Store, has about 3.5 million apps available. Some of these apps have led to profound shifts in the flow of people’s lives. Social media apps like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are often the focus of media scrutiny about the role technology plays in people’s lives ( see Jacob Pleasant’s review of Johann Hari’s book as an example of how social media takes the blame for much of our dwindling ability to focus). However, other apps on our smartphones have just as profound, or greater, ecological impacts on the flow of our everyday lives. These apps have long histories with centuries of technological development leading to their possibilities. In our Unfolding a Smartphone curriculum we want teachers and students to reassess their relationships with technology starting with three default apps: Clock, Maps, and Messages.
Media Ecologists like Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman have made the argument for looking not just at the technology itself but all of the ripple effects a new technology generates (see blogs on figure/ground analysis and media ecology. In the unfolding a smartphone lesson, students answer three questions about each app that encourage ecological responses and thinking:
What are the benefits of the app?
What are the drawbacks of the app?
How does the app change the flow of your everyday life?
We chose smartphones as the focus of investigation because of their ubiquity, centrality to contemporary life, and transformative force on society. We use unfold to conjure an organic process connected to the natural world. The millions of available apps create a tangled knot of the technologies used in and by smartphones. This milieu of parts makes the machinery of a smartphone indecipherable and obscure. Our hope is that as students unfold a smartphone they will gain a greater understanding of the technologies folded within so they can make more informed individual and social decisions.
Dan Krutka and I have written one-page explanations with accompanying timelines of the technologies undergirding each app that is an entry point for asking broader questions about their smartphones and the technology they choose to use (see blog post on teaching about technology). Each page also contains multiple video and text sources that examine different aspects of each app, its associated technologies, and effects on society. Educators have the option of completing this activity in person or online.
The in-person activity involves giving students access to older versions of the technology. For example, if one were to unfold the “Notes” app, a collection of writing instruments (e.g., quill, dip pen, fountain pen, ball-point pen, charcoal, pencil), typewriters, paper, notebooks, word processors, PDAs, computers, and printers would serve as the older versions of the technology of written communication. Students would then interact with the older versions of technology and try to accomplish the same task they would with their smartphone app. Throughout the process they would ask about the benefits, drawbacks, and how each version of the technology changed their experience or flow. Educators can use sources from the Unfolding a Smartphone curriculum in conjunction with the examination of older technology to spur critical thinking.
The entire activity can also be completed online, but it will likely require more time because students will only be able to watch videos and read about older versions of the technology rather than interacting with them physically. Each page includes sources that explain the technological mechanics that make the app work. There are also sources that explain how people used to engage with the technologies that came before the app and online museum sources which allow students to see older versions of the technology under consideration. Educators can use the site as-is with their older students or choose sources they think would be useful for their curricular goals. Our hope is that it provides enough information and is flexible enough to allow students to think critically and deeply about their relationship with these everyday technologies.
Folded up, one can only see the intended benefit the app presents. It is an educator’s task to teach students the process of unfolding devices like the smartphone because people can become numb to how technology affects their lives. For instance, one may not realize they have very little knowledge of their neighborhood or surrounding area because they use the Maps app to travel past places rather than noticing and minding the environment. As students learn about Polynesian wayfinders, how GPS works, and consider downsides of web mapping apps, they may reassess whether the benefits are worth the costs. When devices are left unexamined, humans are vulnerable to the whims of technological development that prioritize machine ends over human values. This path may produce more efficient devices but will exploit people in unimagined ways.
There is no simple answer for how to relate to technology. Students are encouraged to think through the ecological effects of each app as they unfold a smartphone. As they develop answers to the three questions, they will consider their relationships with technology and learn how to illuminate their lives with technology rather than passively accepting what is new and available.
Older students are familiar with all the commodities that smartphones present them with, but they may not be familiar with the technological means and human labor behind the smartphone. Through the critical study of the histories and technologies of smartphones, students learn how to think about their devices in critical, ecological ways. According to Albert Borgmann, devices obscure our engagement with the world and procure commodities with hidden means. By unfolding a smartphone, we are unconcealing some of that obscurity to reveal possibilities people can bring forth that honors and respects our relationship with others and the world (listen to Borgmann discuss his philosophy of Technology). The Clock app procures time through the concealed technologies of timekeeping; the Maps app procures location through the concealed technologies of wayfinding and navigation; and the Messages app procures connection through the concealed technologies of telecommunication networks.
We will continue to develop this curriculum. It is designed for use with older students, but the curriculum can be simplified or adapted for different grade levels and contexts. We will add more apps for educators and students to unfold, or maybe you could help unfold an app with us. We invite you to explore and utilize the curriculum we have developed at civicsoftechnology.org/smartphone and let us know how you and your students responded through the contact form.