A few years ago, when Rens van der Vorst made up the balance of the first fifteen years he worked in education, he came to a sad conclusion. At Fontys Hogeschool he was responsible for “educational innovation with digital technology”, a hip function. The department of Van der Vorst built applications to collect data about the performance of students, created an “e-learning environment” and invested in artificial intelligence. All projects with a wonderful business caseHe says. Estimated costs over the years according to Van der Vorst: around 250 million euros.
But what did it bring? “Did little,” he says. The applications did what they had to do, systems worked. Only: education had not improved, he thinks. Students were more gloomy than ever, education had become more expensive, the quality was not noticeably improved and teachers had received it busier.
How is that possible? Van der Vorst: “We did not understand what good education in the core was all about, because we did not ask that essential question. Now I think: that is all about good teachers. And only technology that helps teachers get even better is progress. The rest is wasted money.”
Or worse, because technology often has unexpected effects. As an example, he gives the Web Lecturethe included college that students can look back, if desired at one and a half speed. The teacher is preparing to the last detail and ensures a tight PowerPoint presentation, then there is hardly any interaction because students do not show up. “Hopeless,” says Van der Vorst.
He is now a teacher at Fontys (Function: ‘Technophilosopher’) and he wrote the book Don’t Mention the VAR. That is about another technological phenomenon that concerns many people: the Video Assistant Referee. The book appeared last month.
Since the video referee made his appearance in professional football about ten years ago, he has quickly become commonplace. Profile competitions and tournaments without VAR are now the exception, sometimes the systems are so advanced that they claim to be able to determine with the help of AI whether a player was an inch or two offside. At the same time, heated discussions about the arbitration have not disappeared, on the contrary.
Van der Vorst, supporter of NAC (“No fan, a fan mainly loves the game, who now looks at the World Cup for clubs, I am committed to NAC, I want to win”), sees a perfect example of how technology changes our view of the world. How he presses man into the background, while the promised progress is not forthcoming.
Why a book?
“I have a fascination for technology and for football. The VAR fits exactly there and I think also stands for a greater social phenomenon. We think we are seeing a problem. Then we are looking for a tech solution. It turns out not to be completely resolved. Then the next step is: even more technology. And we are no longer concerned with what the intention was.”
What is the intention of the VAR?
“Proponents often say that the VAR makes football fairer. But why is football the most popular sport in the world? Precisely because it is not fair, I think. It is the only major team sport where you can be a lot worse than your opponent and yet you can win. There is nothing better, I know as a NAC supporter.
“It’s a game of hope and fear. You have to cherish that. Make football more fairly, then you make it more unfair in a certain sense. Because then the club always wins with the most money. What the VAR has to do is make the game more righteous, that is an essential difference. If you lose through a Liverzig Counter, fine. If you lose a meter, is a meter.”
Isn’t that exactly what the VAR occurs?
“I am also in favor of the VAR, isn’t it! Only a good var, as it was initially intended, to detect large, obvious mistakes. But as it goes with technology, ultimately the technical possibilities we do. Then it appears that we can also determine a centimeter offside, at least we think. A handball that has not been trying,
What is wrong with that?
“The game is constantly standing still, it flows less. The cheer has come under pressure. Then you celebrate a goal and it is rejected three minutes later. But more importantly: the VAR makes decisions that may be according to the rules, but still feel unjust.
“Take the Belgian Loïs Openda during the last European Championship. In the match against Slovakia, he gave the ball after a nice action for striker Romelu Lukaku. Goal. But the sensor in the ball had registered that Openda had hit the ball somewhere very lightly, so light that no one could perceive it, after which the goal was not in fact. Teen offside is, apart from the fact that technology cannot reliably determine it at all. “
Those animations that can sometimes be seen nowadays suggest that it is possible.
“Stop with that! Technology also has to do with error margins and sometimes does incomprehensible things. Bizarre anyway: you note on TV from all kinds of corners that you can’t see if something is offside, but if a cartoon is then showing that a toe or a nose is offside, no one asks. No idea how that animation is generated, no idea or suddenly.”
What would be a solution?
“Use margins that are equal to what you can perceive with the naked eye. If an attacker remains inside, then it is not offside. Let the VAR only intervene with large and obvious errors. Then you never have to humiliate a referee by calling him to the screen again. Either a mistake is large and obvious, the VAR will be tasty. And we also do not play the VAR. Referees are, because those are alpha bosses, and that is fine on the field, but rather not behind the screen.
Can we resist what is technically possible?
“We need the courage to push technology more to the background. You never regret it. Take smartphones. Initially there was a lot of opposition to schools, now there is a lot of enthusiasm among school boards, parents, teachers and even students from schools who have dared. There are schools that Magister Magister [een leerlingvolgsysteem, red.] have turned off for parents. That is hopeful, we can do it. And I heard that my book is at the KNVB arbitration department, so who knows. ”
I saw that you don’t use WhatsApp yourself.
“That is out of self -protection. Otherwise, during competitions, I will only be the caught guest in app groups with friends. I want to do things with attention. An additional advantage: I am a football coach of a youth team, those guys have to call me to cancel for a training. They are normally all there.”