The Role of Computers in Education
by Irma S. Jarcho
Are computers the ultimate mind tool? Dr. Thomas Liao, Chairman of the Department of Technology and Society of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, posed this quandary at the Scientific Literacy Seminar at the Columbia University Faculty House on 16 May, then discussed various aspects of possible answers, or, as he put it, five ideas to ponder. He first discussed what he called the "tool metaphor" --"hand tools vs. mind tools." There is an evidence that a word processor offers any advantage over a typewriter, he observed. The word processor does not constitute a higher level of thinking.
Next, in discussing views of technology, Liao recommended several books, among them Gates and Negroponte's Being Digital, Postman and Stoll's Ideology of Machines, and Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil. Topics in these books include the use and misuse of television. The Internet is interactive, unlike television, Liao noted, where the viewer is passive and not a participant. Liao's third idea to ponder was the learning environment. Here he quoted Secretary of Education Richard Riley that we must restructure the learning environment in our schools. In particular, we should avoid the "horseless carriage problem": for a long time after automobiles began to be built, they were built like horse carriages. In restructuring the learning environment in our schools, it is necessary to integrate actual and virtual classrooms.
Fourth, Liao discussed obstacles to using the tools: Referring to the QWERTY problem (named _after the first letters on the typewrite keyboard), he noted that one could design a much more efficient typewriter keyboard, but people did not want to go to expense and trouble of making this change. Consequently, computer keyboards keep this awkward configuration. More generally, budget constraints prevent expansion of technology, yet technology should be regarded not as a cost but an investment. Putting computers in a few classrooms is a Band-Aid solution.
Lastly, Liao addressed the importance of literacy with computers. He observed that working with technology involves life-long learning so as to deal with technological change. It also enables more informed decisions. On the other hand, Liao warned that engineers often put too much trust in computer simulations; he illustrated this with the example of the Boeing 777 being designed entirely on computers and no experience with a real plane. Liao indeed stimulated a lot of thinking.
His presentation was very interactive, with the audience asking questions and making comments throughout. Notes from Scientific Literacy Seminar, 19 April 1996, taken by John Roeder: Paul Connolly (Bard College), "The Mangle of Science Education" Sam Devons: Two translations of Nullius in verba (motto of the Royal Society): `' Don't take anyone's word for it.`* Words alone won't get you anywhere.Literacy involves language, and science relies upon it for communication. Yet science is also communicated by demonstration and experiment -- and in these respects science and literacy are antithetical. Connolly:
Ref: Andrew Pickering, The Mangle of Practice The way to control an unruly cow is to expand the field. Pickering is a paticle physicist who developed an interest in the sociology of knowledge -- how scientists make knowledge. If Pickering is right, what are the implciations of this for science education?
We live in an age skeptical about the foundational structure of knowledge -- e.g., ceconstructionism. People have challenged the concept that knowledge is based on external reality and have maintained that it is socially constructed, and Pickering is disturbed by this socially constructivist view.
"Scientists are human agents in a field of material agency." They interact with nature via athe machines they build. This interaction takes the form of a dialectic betweeen resistance and accommodation.
Connolly's examples of machines: 1) legal writing pad 2) artists' books.
"Existing culture is the surface of human emergence." (Pickering) Pickering's example of machine: . washing machine ringer = "mangle" in British To Pickering, the culture of science includes all the "made things" of science.
Connolly looks at language as one means for interaction beween scientists and the physical world. Pickering efeels that this interaction between scientist and nature is always "mangled." He is disturbed that Hmost people associate science with its culture rather than its machines. At the founding of the Royal Society, a philosophy of correspondence (between words and things) held sway. Now it is felt to be inadequate for including the human dimension of knowledge.
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