Computer Technology in Higher Education: An Experiment, Not a Solution.

One of the major issues in higher education today is incorporating computer technology into our programs and delivery systems. As is often the case with science and technology, many people assume that technology should be incorporated, and they move right into implementation without asking whether the technology should be incorporated and, if so, under what conditions and for what purposes. This paper raises some of those questions, with a particular concern for issues surrounding social responsibility, community, and alienation. Utilizing material from both sociology and the philosophy of technology, questions are presented with a particular concern for distance education. The paper concludes with a suggestion that we treat technology as an experiment rather than as a solution.

[1]  Goldie Blumenstyk.  Western Governors U. Takes Shape as a New Model for Higher Education. , 1998 .

[2]  T. Evans,et al.  Distance education as the gendered privatization of learning , 1995 .

[3]  H. Dreyfus.  What Computers Can't Do: The Limits of Artificial Intelligence , 1978 .

[4]  Clifford Stoll,et al.  Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway , 1995 .

[5]  David E. Cooper,et al.  Technology: Liberation or Enslavement? , 1995 .

[6]  D. Ihde.  Technology and the lifeworld : from garden to earth , 1991 .

[7]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine , 1993 .

[8]  C. Mitcham,et al.  Thinking through Technology: The Path between Engineering and Philosophy by Carl Mitcham (review) , 1995, Technology and Culture.

[9]  Michael Heim.  The Computer as Component: Heidegger and McLuhan , 1992 .

[10]  Richard N. Katz,et al.  Higher Education and the Forces of Self-Organization: An Interview with Margaret Wheatley. , 1997 .

[11]  Lynnea McHenry,et al.  Communicating at a distance: A study of interaction in a distance education classroom , 1995 .

[12]  Derek Rowntree,et al.  Teaching and learning online: a correspondence education for the 21st century? , 1995, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[13]  Faith Gabelnick.  Educating a Committed Citizenry , 1998 .

[14]  Myles Brand,et al.  The Wise Use of Technology , 1995 .

[15]  J. Dewey.  Democracy and education : an introduction to philosophy of education / John Dewey , 1916 .

[16]  R. Putnam.  Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital , 1995, The City Reader.