Abstract:

This study examines how the growing use of artificial intelligence and digital technologies contributes to processes of social acceleration in education. Building on the findings of a study from the project BrAIn – Application of Artificial Intelligence-Based Digital Technologies in Education project, it aims to explore possible indicators of social acceleration in education, drawing on concepts from Hartmut Rosa (2013). Although technology advancements can increase productivity, the ‘slipping slope’ syndrome of modern society paradoxically creates a time deficit. Free time is no longer used for rest but rather as a resource for continuous self-improvement in order to maintain social competitiveness (Rosa, 2013; Buddeberg and Hornberg, 2017). In this context, technology may also compromise education by fragmenting attention and reducing deep thinking to mere information processing (Hoofd, 2017). The main aim of the study is to conduct a thematic analysis of 50 focus groups with the pupils and 28 focus groups with teachers using coding to identify possible manifestations of social acceleration in education, based on three levels described by Rosa (2013): technological (time-saving tools), social (knowledge obsolescence), and personal (multitasking and time pressure). As this accelerated pace of education may also foster a profound sense of alienation (Rosa, 2014), the analysis additionally maps corresponding signs among pupils in relation to space (e.g., distraction and boundaryless studying), time (always-online presence), actions (outsourced effort), objects (plagiarism and loss of meaning), and self/others (psychological distress and social isolation).

Although this paper does not measure the extent of acceleration in Croatian schools, it may help identify its most prominent elements and open questions for further research. It may also offer practical insight, suggesting that the solution does not lie in slowing down or rejecting technology, but rather in fostering processes of resonance. As Rosa (2019: 244) argues, resonance “begins with the excitement of the teacher, who in a way functions as the first tuning fork, preparing her students for resonance so that in the resonance event between them the material (whether classical drama, a mathematical formula, the rules of grammar of a foreign language, or a political party platform) comes alive and begins to speak” (Rosa, 2019: 244).

References:
[1] Buddeberg, M. i Hornberg, S. (2017). ‘Schooling in times of acceleration’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38(1), str. 71–85.
[2] Hoofd, I. M. (2017). Higher Education and Technological Acceleration: The Disintegration of University Teaching and Research. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
[3] Rosa, H., (2013). Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press.
[4] Rosa, H., (2014). Alienation and acceleration: towards a critical theory of late-modern temporality, NSU Press, Malmogade.
[5] Rosa, H., (2019). Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World. Translated by J. C. Wagner. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Keywords:

Social acceleration, artificial intelligence in education, acceleration of education, alienation in education.