Social and Cultural Perspectives on Educational Technology

The Digital Age

Our Resources

Bush, V. As we may think

• The atomic bomb
• Science is the priority
• Knowledge is cataloged and classified
• Accessibility of knowledge

Poll Everywhere

Digital Natives

Globalization

The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. Friedman, T.

Grown up Digital. Tapcott, J.

• Growing up Digital. Brown, J.S.

THANK YOU!

The Ten Flatteners of the World

Outsourcing

Supply-Chaining

Workflow Software

Informing

Collapse of the Berlin Wall

"The Steroids"

Netscape

Uploading

Offshoring

Insourcing

Annotated Bibliography

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K5KfC67FcAK27b5cXMilmj7UKXQ7RJ7i4Kk4eUpYXtg/edit?usp=sharing

Agenda

Social and Cultural Perspectives on Educational Technology

• Introduction to the Digital Age
• Technology and the Nature of Learning
• Technology, Culture and Identity
• The other side of Tech

The Other Side of Tech

Political Implications of Tech

Technology & the Nature of Learning

Do artifacts have politics?

Winner, L.

Technical Arrangements and Social Order

Robert Moses

• Underpass too low to allow buses to pass

• Prevented the lower class and minorities from accessing certain areas

Mechanized Tomato Harvester

Inherently Political Technologies

• Only affordable for big farms
• Reduced tomato farms from 4,000 to under 600
• Resulted in 32,000 lost jobs

Technological Trade Offs

Larry Steinberg

Stephanie Gamache

Afifa Alawi

Charles Mageean

Lisa (Foltz) Lamont

Delivery of Content

5 Things We Need to Know About Technological Change.

Postman, N.

Are we more Left-Brained or a Right-Brained?

• all technologies have a trade off
• advantages and disadvantages are never equally distributed
• embedded in every technology, there is a powerful idea
• Technological change is not additive, it is ecological
• Media becomes Mythic

• Understanding media.McLuhan, M.

Let them eat data. Bowers, C. A.

Alone together:

Turkle, S.

Why we expect more from technology and less from ourselves.

Please Complete 5

questions on

Poll Everywhere.

After we will have a

short discussion.

• Difference between Western technologies and more ecologically sound cultures
• Alternative approaches to technology when making democratic decisions involving technology
• Further study is needed on how modern technology changes culture and commodifies relationships
• A more complex view of culture is needed than what is currently presupposed by modern technology enthusiasts
• Technology affects language and thought patterns
• Issues of justice arise when technology and the nature of work intersect
• We should understand how the computer carries cultural assumptions that threaten diversity and sustainability.

• Introducing media studies. Sardar, A., & Van Loon, B.

Directions for the future of education

Pink, D. (2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future

Weinberger, D. (2007). Social knowing.

† U.S. Department of Education. (2010). National education technology plan.

Technology, Culture & Identity

Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U.

Why Youth <3 Social Network Sites. Boyd, D.

• Persistence
• Searchability
• Replicability
• Invisible Audience

How do you tell someone's gender online?

Technology and Culture

Suler, John (2002). Identity management in cyberspace

Tom Sawyer

• When Mark Twain and the book, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Catfishing is becoming a problem but the real question lies in how can we be 100% certain the person on the other end of the conversation is who they say they are without seeing them?
• So the question I put before you is what kind of questions could you ask to verify a person's gender? And do you feel these questions would be an accurate indicator? Why or why not?

This article discusses the personas people portray online versus those they portray in the real world. Are they the same or are they different? Furthermore he discusses 5 factors that can be used to distinguish how people manage their cyber personas.

• Level of Dissociation and Integration
• Positive and Negative Valence
• Level of Fantasy or Reality
• Level of Conscious
• Awareness and Control
• The Media Chosen

Gender and Technology

Gender and Computer:

Understanding The Digital Divide. Cooper, J. & Weaver, K.

• Aggressive metaphor
• Sound effects
• Rapid eye-hand coordination

• Problem-Focused
• Task oriented learning tools
• Programs with communicative feedback

Suler, J. R. (1999). Do boys (and girls) just wanna have fun

Suler’s Reason for online Gender Switching

1. The Good:

a. To learn how the other half works/thinks to benefit current and future relationships

b. It allows those unsure of their true identity to experiment without negative consequences

2. The Bad:

a. To Catfish individuals

b. To learn how to manipulate the other sex in various situations

c. Anonymity makes it hard to catch.

3. The Neutral:

a. To seek attention

b. To gain advantages in the gaming world