Transcript Twenty-first Century Literacy

Social Impact of Technologies in
Education
Chip Bruce
University of Illinois
Laws
• Moore: # transistors/chip doubles
every two years
• Metcalfe: network value increases
as the (# users) 2
Pivot Points
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Digital libraries
Multimedia
Collaboration systems
Ubiquitous computing
Tools for lifelong learning
In the Future Already
X-Files: on-line forum to discuss show’s direction
Science fiction itself has remained the same. We
have caught up to it...We are a science-fiction
generation.
–Ray Bradbury
We can’t think far enough ahead anymore.
–Ron Shusett
Opportunity: Digital Libraries
• Learning challenges: integrating knowledge
from multiple sources; finding information
• Social challenges: reliability of information;
hate sites, etc.; access
• Add’l learning challenges:; integrating
knowledge; learning how to find problems
Electronic Communication
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5,000 electronic journals
100,000,000 web users
Net traffic measured in terabytes
=> 100,000 War & Peace/day
E-mail communities
MOOs, MUDs
Kenya
• “my grandmother in Kenya”
• ATT leaves out continent
• windup radio
Opportunity: Multimedia
• Learning challenges: new representations of
knowledge; visualization; new skills (Sheldrake);
inquiry-based learning
• Social challenges: loss of common knowledge;
corporatization; reification of dominance
• Add’l learning challenges: meta-knowledge;
reflective understanding
Reification of Dominance
“well-trodden battle-lines of social conflict”
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access to tools & information
construction of disability
ascii
netiquette
desktop metaphors
web architecture
domain name system
Opportunity: Collaboration
• Learning challenges: new ways to work
together to solve problems; understanding
the perspective of others; using new tools
• Social challenges: plagiarism; ownership;
inclusion/exclusion
• Add’l learning challenges:social
understanding
Opportunity: Ubiquitous
Computing
• Learning challenges: understanding hybrids;
new ways to explore the world
• Social challenges: surveillance; control;
deskilling society
• Add’l learning challenges: reading
technology/reading the world
Surveillance
• The road to freedom via a two-way Information
Highway may turn into a one-way Surveillance
Street, used to condition people’s thoughts and
control their behavior.
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– Crawford,1994
• Video surveillance is now so ubiquitous that we’re
on television more than we watch it.
• CSCW research (program committee)
Opportunity: Lifelong Learning
• Learning challenges: new frames for
learning, neither time- nor space-bound;
learning how to learn
• Social challenges: new roles for teachers,
forms of accreditation, learning institutions,
etc.
• Add’l learning challenges: self-direction
Pivot Points
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Digital libraries
Multimedia
Collaboration systems
Ubiquitous computing
Tools for lifelong learning
Classroom Realities
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Power strips stolen!
50% typewriters broken
An Apple II on the info. superhighway
“Haven’t used it yet this year”
Alternate Realizations
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Idealization
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Separate Spheres?
We are taught to view the political and the
technological as separate spheres, the
former having to do with values, ideology,
power, and the like, the latter having to do
with physical artifacts exempt from such
vagaries of social life.
–L. Suchman (1988)
Technology as Social Practice
• Construct technologies out of social values
& practices (Akrich; Bromley; Selfe;
Spender)
• Conceive technologies in terms of our
socially-constructed views of reality
(Turkle)
• Construct ourselves through technologies
(Haraway; Kramarae)
Closing
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Dramatic changes in educational practices
More democracy, liberatory education?
Technologies alone do not produce change
Need to understand & shape these changes
Call for dialogue
Return to Basic Questions
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What is literacy? How does it develop?
What is its relation to schooling and life?
What is learning?
What is teaching?
What does it mean to be human?
Possible Consequences
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Information as a commodity
Reification of dominance
Hybridization
Virtual reality
Smart Highways
• Video scanners for electronic tags, radio
transponders
• Help with congestion, parking
• But, monitor movements
• Insurance, legal issues
The Computer Hybrid
• Like Music Minus One
• Listens, follows, adapts, ...
• New conceptions of practice, performance,
music
• Can it be too adaptive?
Opportunity to Learn?
• Prior experiences--computer at home; museum
trips; parental support
• Existing practices--pullout programs; classroom
experts; social networks
• Multiple ways to learn; learning difficulties-emotional, physical, cognitive
• Second-order--the treatment of difference
Social/Technology Relations
• (1) Tech. + {Social} –> {Social*}
• (2) Tech. + {Social} –> {Social*}
• (3) Tech. + {Social} –> {Social*} –>
{Social*.} –> {Social*} –> {Social*} –>
Assumptions about Net Use
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Reliable network
Software updates
Adequate training
Personal accounts
Work on the net
Compatible schedules (cf. the wizard)
Equitable access (cf. Foucault)
Knowledge => Info.
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys,
which distract our attention from serious
things. We are in great haste to construct a
magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but
Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing
important to communicate.
–Thoreau, Walden
Deep Blue not programmed to accept draw
Definition of Self
• Barbie & Her Magical House
– Visual discrimination: home decorating
– Cause/effect: select music
– Decision-making: choosing make-up
• Materials-centered
The Autonomy Myth
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We need to prepare for a strange future.
We can select specific aspects of new Ts.
We’re unaffected by T if we choose.
We can stand apart from Ts.
Mutual Constitution
• Can’t pull the plug; Ts are integral to our
social fabric.
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– build Ts on social values & practices;
– conceive Ts in terms of our socially-constructed
views of reality;
– construct ourselves through Ts
Hopes & Realities
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Conflict between hopes and realities
Computer not just a physical device
Sherry Turkle: The Second Self
Computer as text; user as reader
Read as library; museum; telephone; teacher; tool;
partner in inquiry
Theoretical Tools
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Re-creation
Idealization/Realization
Situated evaluation
Hermeneutic circle
Technology as social practice
Nested Contexts of Technologies
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Devices: Hardware & Software
Documentation
Activities
Training
Support system
Perceptions
Surrounding practices
China
• Diaoyu BB
• Terminals under glass
• Great Digital Wall
Changes
• Electronic communication: journals, users,
terabytes
• Information-driven science, work, education
• Smart devices: embedded systems
• Cyborgs: Vivace, medical