Digital technologies are more than tools we choose to use. They are part of the environments in which we learn, work, meet others, find our way and make decisions. This is why I approach them ecologically: by looking at the relationships they make possible and the relationships they change.
A screen, for example, does more than alter how we receive information. It changes what can reach us, when it can reach us and how long it may hold our attention. An interface makes some actions effortless while making others hard to imagine. A system that stores and recommends content also shapes what we remember, seek out or allow to recede.
Digital Ecology is my way of keeping these questions connected. My work concerns childhood and education, but also bodies, relationships, autonomy and adult everyday life. I am interested in what happens when a technology enters a classroom, a family or a community: the possibilities it opens, the habits it encourages and the human work it can make less visible.
I began using the name Digital Ecology for this line of inquiry in 2003. One question has stayed with me: “What do you want to forget today?” In an environment capable of retaining almost everything, deciding what deserves our attention — and what can remain in the background — becomes part of how we know and how we live.
This site brings together texts and projects that examine these changes closely. Their purpose is to help us notice the choices that are still ours to make.