Shaping agendas for the more sustainable use of digital technologies in universities
Susan Brown, Lecturer and Programme Director of Education for a Sustainable Environment, University of Manchester
Digital technology has been characterised both as socio-environmental friend and a socio-environmental foe (Greenwood & Houghman, 2015). There is significan research and debate around its role as friend in advancing education and much less around its role as foe (Selwyn, 2024).
This talk argues the need to recognise the negative socio-environmental impacts of digital technology within HE and to shape agendas for the more restrained and discerning use of digital technology.
In making this case, it draws on ideas from the digital degrowth, rewilding technologies and computing within limits movements. It argues these movements offer foundations for greater creative and sustainable thinking around digital technology use in universities.
