Social Implications of Technology in Education
Despite being a bit outdated, I found Castells' article The social implications of Information and Communication Technologies relevant to what's currently happening with technology and education. Castells breaks down the implications of information and communication technology on society based on several categories:
- Education
- Economy
- Society (inequalities)
- Space/Time (history and urbanization)
I'll limit my discussion to Castells points on education since it's necessary to think about technology in terms of how it impacts current trends in education, particularly urban education. Castells point of view is that ICT tools should be knowledge production tools that supplement, not necessarily replace, other learning tools in education. I appreciate Castells consistent points about generating relevant knowledge through ICT tools. Castells writes,
Our economy is informational because the capacity to generate relevant knowledge, and process information efficiently, is the main source of productivity and competitiveness for firms, regions and countries (237).
Interestingly enough, Castells' point about a productive economy reminds me of Mayor Bloomberg's recent comments about his choice for Chancellor of NYC public schools, Cathie Black. He says of Black,
"There is no one who knows more about the skills our children will need to succeed in the 21st century economy,"
On one hand, I can understand why it's necessary to consider how technology, for instance, can prepare learners for a productive and competitive economy, even if it does come across as Orwellian. Though I wonder what a complete focus on technology's role within education as tool to increase productively and competitiveness in our economy, says about our view of technology and education in general. I come back to Castells main point that technology should be seen as a supplementary tool in schools, and that "increasing computer equipment is not the answer" (236). Technological determinism aside, I think the quantity argument is an important point for us to consider because it speaks to how we use ICT tools as opposed to how many or what type of "latest" tech tools we use.
On another note, I wonder if Black, being a former high profile publishing executive, has any plans for implementing more technology into public schools seeing as how she and Bloomberg seemingly want to prepare our children for a competitive economy - like the little worker bees.
*cough cough*
Trying to Move Forward (MSTU 4020; Week 8)
This is exactly what I look like while typing this post & trying to narrow down a topic for the final project (except for the blond hair).
This week's prompt ask 1) What do I think I need in order to move forward on a final project? and 2) how can I get what I need?
The assumption is that I've identified some themes and I've begun to refine my questions. I've certainly identified some themes, though it seems that while trying to refine my questions only more of them spring up. For instance, after reading Nicholas W. Jankowski's article "Creating Community with Media: History, Theories, and Scientific Investigation, I began to ask myself more questions related to Baym's (1999) questions:
- What forces shape online identities?
- How do online communities evolve overtime?
- How does online participation connect to offline life?
- How do online communities influence offline communities?
I've asked similar questions throughout the semester (though stated a bit differently). Here's what I have so far:
- What is the difference between 'real' and virtual?
- How does our participation with/in both 'real' and virtual relate to identity formulation?
- What makes up a virtual terrain; cyberspace?
- What constructs virtual space? Identities? Data?
- What is the relationship between identity and data within cyberspace?
- Does defining the space of cyberspace even matter?
- How does identity formulation occur and knowledge production emerge from/within digitally connective spaces and processes?
- How can we measure identity formulation in relation to our participation with/in digitally connective spaces and processes?
- How can we measure how knowledge production/creation emerges within digitally connective spaces?
- What can other disciplines and theories, aside from sociology and communication, tell us about what cyberspace is, our relation to it, and our participation with/in it (identity formulation & knowledge production)?
So in other words, I have no idea where to begin for the final project.
Moving forward, I really need to hone in on one or two of the questions above. It seems that most of the questions deal with identity formulation and knowledge production, and how we can measure them both epistemologically and ethnographically. The philosophical questions of what is cyberspace? and what constitutes real/virtual? may be, as professor Kinzer noted in class, career-long inquiries (paraphrasing).
In terms of what I need? To be on the look out for more perspectives and readings that address identity formulation, ethnography, discoursive practices, and epistemology of online and digitally connective spaces/processes.