Four researchers from Trent University in Peterborough Ontario, kick off a report on the benefits of technology with a warning published a century ago. Even that far back, some folks could already see technology’s limitations.
The Trent researchers spent two years exploring the benefits of vastly more modern, sophisticated technology and how it could contribute to the solution of homelessness and child welfare issues.
Today, they are well placed to evaluate how several technology-oriented programs that have been introduced by the Canadian Federal and Provincial governments are making meaningful progress in combatting current homelessness and child welfare crises.
Their conclusion regarding the benefits of technological investment? It hasn’t delivered much.
The researchers’ techniques and evaluations have relevance, not just in Canada, but literally anywhere that technology is being eyed as a social welfare solution.
Read much more about the research methodologies and findings in The Conversation: Technology is far from a silver bullet for solving homelessness or child welfare issues
