Philosophy of Education: Technology and Education

EPE 640, Wednesday, 7:00-9:30, 207 TEB

Spring 2001

Instructor: Barbara Duncan

Office: 144a Taylor Education Building

Phone: 257-2705 (office) 971-0351 (home)

Office hours: Tu Thurs 11:00-12:30 or by appt.

E-mail:

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Course Description

This course will focus on the idea of “information” and the notion of “identity” or the “self” as they relate to education and technology. We will explore the “information problem” expressed in terms of the rising glut of information and information technologies, and the new directions and connections with librarianship and information science, and the idea of an “information ecology,” a conglomeration of information shaped into knowledge through social communities, technologies, and text.

The second part of the course will deal with the self in relation to technology and education. This section will address gender, race, and class issues in conjunction with new media technologies. We will examine the nature of virtual identities in relation to some of these categories and analyze how media affects and shapes the next generation, as well as how people and communities are constructing themselves in opposition to some of the new technologies, or despite these new technologies.

Course Objectives

Students will gain an understanding of some of the predominant arguments for and against (or somewhere in between) the use of technology by reading several well-known exemplary texts in the area of technology and media studies. An emphasis will be on the structure of argument, as students will explore these issues in a couple of medium-length essay, drawing and making comparisons between texts and everyday life. Both of these papers will provide students with a way to pursue their own interests in relation to the concepts explored in this course.

Texts

The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology, Langdon Winner
Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, Sherry Turkle
The Cult of Information: The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking, Theodore Roszak
After the Death of Childhood: Growing Up in the Age of Electronic Media, David Buckingham
Information Ecologies: Using Technology With Heart, Bonnie Nardi and Vicki O’Day

Course Components/grading

Paper One (Information):

Using one or more of the readings, examine an “information ecology” about which you have some personal expertise. This might be in the form of a website, a government bureaurcracy, a neighborhood, a library, or a print reference as it is used in a community. Some of the ideas you might develop are cases of “misinformation,” how the information is translated, how audiences perceive the ecology, how the information flows, how certain information is hidden, and how and to what extent technology plays a role. (40%)

Final Project (Identity) tba:

(50%)

Attendance, participation:

10% of your grade will be based upon general classroom participation and discussion.

Schedule

Week 1

January 10 - Introduction

Week 2

January 17 Information Ecologies, chap. 1-5

Week 3

January 24 Information Ecologies, chap. 7, 8, 13

Week 4

January 31 The Whale and the Reactor, chap. 1-3

Week 5

February 7 The Whale and the Reactor, chap. 6, 10

Week 6

February 14 The Cult of Information, preface, introduction

Week 7

February 21 The Cult of Information, chap. 5-6

Week 8

February 28 The Cult of Information, chap. 7, 8

Week 9

March 7 The Cult of Information, chap. 9-11

Week 10

March 14 After the Death of Childhood, chap. 4-6 (First Essay Due)

Week 11

Spring Break!

Week 12

March 28 After the Death of Childhood, chap. 7-10

Week 13

April 4 Life on the Screen, chap. 1, 2

Week 14

April 11 Life on the Screen, chap. 7, 8

Week 15

April 18 Life on the Screen, chap. 9,10

Week 16

April 25 (Final Project Due)