Web 2.0 for juandoming

Who is right? Well, both are wrong -- because they are asking the wrong question. The question is not "What will the computer do to us?" The question is "What will we make of the computer?" The point is not to predict the computer future. The point is to make it.

Our computer future could be made in many different forms. It will be determined not by the nature of the technology, but by a host of decisions of individual human beings. In the end, it is a political matter, a matter of social philosophy and of social decision how we will remake and rethink our world in the presence of technology. When we talk about computers in education, we should not think about a machine having an effect. We should be talking about the opportunity offered us, by this computer presence, to rethink what learning is all about, to rethink education.

Technocentrism

I coined the word technocentrism from Piaget's use of the word egocentrism. This does not imply that children are selfish, but simply means that when a child thinks, all questions are referred to the self, to the ego. Technocentrism is the fallacy of referring all questions to the technology.

In the proceedings of conferences on technology and education, there are questions like: Will technology have this or that effect? Will using computers to teach mathematics increase children's arithmetic skills? Or will it encourage children to be lazy about adding numbers because calculators can do it? Will using word processors make children become more creative writers? Or will it lead to a loss of handwriting skills? Will computers increase children's creativity? Or will they lead to mechanical, rote methods of thinking? Will the computer increase interpersonal skills? Or will it lead to isolation of children from one another?

These questions reflect technocentric thinking. So do all questions about whether this use or that use of the computer is the right one. "Does drill and practice improve children's performance in arithmetic?" "Does Logo lead to more mathematical thinking?"

These are interesting questions, of course, but they are not fundamental ones. It is not drill and practice -- or Logo -- that will achieve this or that result; it is how we use these things. But beyond questions about the most efficient way to teach arithmetic, there are questions that existed long before the computer, questions that have to do with general theories of education.

Long before the computer, the education world was divided into two camps. One emphasized the development of the child and the child's active construction of an understanding of the world. We might call these child-centered or developmental-centered approaches to education. On the other hand, in quite sharp opposition are those who believe in a more curriculum-centered approach.