Course Syllabus for ED253A (Spring
2001)
Education, Technology and Society Reading and Seminar Schedule
Requirements: Class
presentations, participation on the list-serve,
and take-home final on class readings and discussion
Technology, Education, and Society: Conflicting
Perspectives [ED253A];
Douglas Kellner
Spring 2003; Monday 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Moore Hall
A great debate is unfolding between those
who see new information and communication technology as the key to
solving the problems of education, employment, and social inequality,
opposed to those who see this as a siren song, detracting from the
real problems of social and human life. To investigate these issues
requires theorizing technology and discussing the ramifications of
new information and communication technologies in the economy, politics,
education, culture, and everyday life. The seminar will according deal
with a variety of issues concerning the nature and effects of a range
of computer and multimedia technologies:
1) Opposing Positions: Technophilia vs. Technophobia;
Sherry Turkle, Life On Screen versus Robins and Webster, Times of the Technoculture
2) Theorizing and envisaging technology: Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
and Arthur C. Clarke, 2001
3) New Technologies, education and cyberculture; Burbules and Callister, Watch
IT: The Risks and Promises of Information Technologies for Education
4) Media and Computer Literacy: selected writings by D. Kellner
Requirements: Class presentations, participation on the bulletin-board, and
take-home final on class readings and discussion
March
31
Introduction to Seminar; Technophobia
vs. Technophilia: Toward a Critical Theory of Technology
April
7
Turkle, Life on Screen
Intro, DK; Part I, Seducations of the Interface _______;
Part II, “Of Dreams and Beasts” _____________;
April
14
Conclude Turkle, Chapters 7 and
8_____________; C9-10_____________;
Begin Robins and Webster, Time of the Technoculture;DK Introduction and
C1, 2: _____________;
April
21
[VIRTUAL SEMINAR AERA WEEK] Robins
and Webster, Time of the Technoculture; C3:___________;
C4:___________; C5:____________; C6___________; C7_____________;
April
28
Robins and Webster, Time of
the Technoculture; C9:____________; C10:____________; C11:__________; Marshall
McLuhan: Understanding Media and Technology; Introduction:
DK
May
5
Marshall
McLuhan: Understanding Media and Technology:__________;
___________;__________; _____________; _____________; _____________;
_____________
May
12
McLuhan, Understanding
Media; _______________; ________________; ______________
Begin Arthur C. Clarke, 2001
May
19
Finish 2001 and begin Burbules & Callister, Watch
IT; C1:_____________; C2:______________; C3___________;
C4:____________