Bob Leamnson (RLEAMNSON@umassd.edu)
Thu, 19 Nov 1998 11:33:59 -0500 (EST)
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 11:33:59 -0500 (EST) From: Bob Leamnson <RLEAMNSON@umassd.edu> Subject: [ifets] technology
Like Ruth Crawley I'm a recent subscriber. I have also, for some
time, been interested in teaching technology in all its guises, and
more from a philosophical point of view than theoretical. I was
encouraged to hear that concerned people (Martin Owen) are still
reading Vygotsky.
I have been equally impressed by the observations and research of
more recent scholars and commentators. Walter J. Ong (Orality and
Literacy) studied the work of Vygotsky and Luria (and others) and
made a strong case for technology making striking cultural changes,
some of which were/are completely unpredictable. He notes that the
writing/reading technology changed the way people spoke and
eventually they way they thought. Oral cultures seem not to put
much stock in syllogistic reasoning and are much more concerned
with the concrete here and now--the specific and not the abstract. So
that particularly technology (literacy) made a huge change in the way
we live. Neil Postman (Technopoly) suggests (along these same
lines) that technology is ecological and not additive. It does not just
add something to what's there, it changes everything.
Gilbert Highet (The Art of Teaching) wrote in a way that appeals
to a lot of particularly dedicated teachers because he emphasized the
extraordinarily personal nature of teaching. Richard Elmore
(Harvard), when he spoke of the "core of education" was also
pointing to this "on the spot" interaction of teacher and student.
I consider it a truism that the ultimate educational/cultural effect of
new technologies is quite unknown. It is easy to predict what we
think it will be. It was predicted in 1939 (I think) that TV would
raise the cultural level of all nations that took it to their hearts. I
suspect the prediction that highly electronic technology will improve
thought processes is equally untested.
I hope concerned parties continue to, or start to, see technology
as a tool (as suggested in these postings). Tools can sometime
determine not just how a thing is done, but what gets done. (To
someone who has just discovered the hammer, everything looks like
a nail.)
Bob
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