Eric Anctil

Associate Professor of Education

“My area of expertise is centered on the intersection of humans and technology. Humans have been creating, refining, and evolving with technology since the first fires were lit and the first tools were used to hunt and farm. Machine automation, computer and communication ubiquity, and the near synergy of humans and machines today present countless points of intersection that contain profound implications for how we access information, how we socialize in a digital world, and how we will continue to control our own evolution in the future with the very tools we have created and refined.

Currently, my scholarship includes working with schools at all levels, educators, parents, and the broader public to explore students’ relationship to technology both in and out of the classroom. My research has included exploring the social aspects of technology and how it is changing the nature of ‘going to school.’ I am exploring how technology is affecting our relationships to each other as well as to the things we do, such as finding and sharing information and collaborating and creating.

I am also working with students in our education doctoral program on examining how technology is creating a different kind of college- bound student. One of the areas we are exploring is the question of what should be the role of the traditional university given our media- rich landscape and their experience growing up digital and living in a digital world.

When I am teaching a class, I consider it to truly be an intellectual collaboration with students. My favorite exercise I use in all my classes is to look at something that we tend to take for granted, break it open, and examine it through another lens or from a different perspective. That is what learning, intellectual curiosity, and inquiry are about. If students leave my classes feeling like they see their world differently, I have accomplished my main goal.”

More about education >
More faculty profiles >