Faculty of Education & HKIERThe Chinese University of Hong Kong
IT in Education:
Sociological Perspective
Wing-kwong TsangSino Bldg. Room 707B; Ext. 6922;
[email protected]; www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~wktsang
IT Education in Perspective
1. Why in sociological perspective
2. Which sociological perspectives?a. From Sociology of Technology to Sociology of
Information Technology
b. From sociology of Education to sociology of Information Technology in Education
Thinking Sociologically about Technology
1. What is technology?a. Ron Westrum’s conception
① Technology as things and artifacts
② Technology as techniques
③ Technology as knowledge
b. Thomas P Hughes’ conception① Technology as machine
② Technology as system
③ Technology as institution
④ Technology as culture
Artifact
Technique
Knowledge
Machine System Institution Culture
Thinking Sociologically about Technology
Epistemological Dimension
Ontological Dimension
a. Technology in human history① Technology of hunting
② Technology of pastoralism• Technology of horsemanship
③ Technology of farming• Technology of irrigation
④ Manufacturing industrial technology
⑤ Information technology
Thinking Sociologically about Technology
Machine
Artifacts Techniques Knowledge
System
Institution
Culture
Hunting
Horsemanship
Irrigation
Manufacturing industry
Information
Thinking Sociologically about Technology
Thinking Sociologically about IT
a. IT as man-made means in handling information① Receiving information
② Collecting information
③ Codifying information
④ Storing information
⑤ Interpreting information
⑥ Generalizing information
⑦ Communicating information
a. IT in human history① Before the Gutenberg Galaxy
• Spoken languages as media• Speaking and memorizing as IT
Thinking Sociologically about IT
1440 in Germany
a. IT in human history① Before the Gutenberg Galaxy
• Spoken languages as media• Speaking and memorizing as IT
② The Gutenberg Galaxy• Printed languages as media• Writing and printing as IT
③ The Internet Galaxy• Digital signals as media• Computer, …… Internet as IT
Thinking Sociologically about IT
Thinking Sociologically about IT
Artifact
Technique
Knowledge
Machine System Institution Culture
Digital media
Conception of IT
Spoken media
Pictorial media
Typological media
1. Think sociologically about educationa. Max Weber’s typology of education
systems
Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education
1. Thinking education sociologicallya. Max Weber’s typology of education systems
TYPE OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMCLASSIFYINGCHARACTERISTICS
A B C
Education Content Heroic / Magical Cultivation Specialized ExpertTraining
Legitimate Base Charismatic Authority Traditional Authority Legal-RationalAuthority
Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education
1. Thinking education sociologicallya. Max Weber’s typology of education systems
b. Max Weber’s conception of education in industrial society
Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education
Industrialization & bureaucratization
Increase in complex work process &elaborate division of labour
Fragmentation of skills and knowledge
Distinction among areas of knowledge & disciplines
Training of specialized experts as educational ideal
Regular curricula
Specialized & standardized examinations
Emphasis on educational certificates and credentials
Monopolization of expertise
Legitimatizaton of hierarchical occupational structure
Legitimization of system of unequal allocation ofwealth, power & social prestige
The advent of the domination of
technocrats and bureaucrats
Max Webers’ conception of industrial society
1. Thinking education sociologicallya. Max Weber’s typology of education systems
b. Max Weber’s conception of education in industrial society
c. What’s next?① Education in Global-informational Economy
② Education in Knowledge Society
③ Education in Information Age
Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education
2. Think sociologically the relationship between IT and educationa. Karl Marx’s thesis on base and superstructure
b. Marx’s thesis on the determinism of means/technology of production and socio-educational institutions
c. Does IT determine education or education determine IT?
Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education
3. IT in education in the perspective of critical theory: The dialectic of the enlightenment and technological rationality
Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education
3. IT in education in the perspective of critical theory: The dialectic of the enlightenment and technological rationalitya. The dialectic of technology as progress and as fall
b. The dialectic of technology as autonomy and as heteronomy
c. The dialectic of technology as efficiency and inefficiency: Whose efficiency and whose technology?
Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education
3. IT in education in the perspective of critical theory: The dialectic of the enlightenment and technological rationality③ …
④ The dialectic of technology as centralized control and as democratic collaboration③ Technology as control over nature and human
④ Technology as collaboration with nature and human
Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education
What is Sociological Perspective
1. Sociology as imagination: C.Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination
2. Sociology as a form of consciousness Peter L. Berger, Invitation to Sociology
3. Sociology as a way of thinking Zymunt Bauman, Thinking Sociologically
What is Sociological Perspective
2. Sociological imagination as way of conceiving personal, immediate, local, and global issues in social, political, economic, cultural, and historical contextsa. Thinking relatively and contextually
b. Perceive experience with historical-configurative scope c. Disenchanting the culturally cherished and socially
respectable
d. Debunking the dominance and hegemony
e. Problematicizing the taken-for-granted and common-sense knowledge
Thinking IT in Ed: Sociologically
1. Thinking IT and IT in Ed in epochal contexta. Locating IT against its historical contextb. Locating IT against its economic contextc. Locating IT against its political contextd. Locating IT against its social contexte. Locating IT against its cultural context
Thinking IT in Ed: Sociologically
2. Thinking IT in Ed in schooling contexta. Locating IT in Ed in the context of knowledge
and education
b. Locating IT in Ed in the context of teaching and learning
c. Locating IT in Ed in the context of students
d. Locating IT in Ed in the context of teachers
e. Locating IT in Ed in the context of HKSAR
f. Locating IT in Ed in the context of mainland China
IT in Ed: Promethean Fire or Pandora’s Box?
Promethean Fire & Pandora’s Box?
1. Promethean Firea. Prometheus’s tragedy in Greek mythologyb. IT in Ed as Promethean Fire
2. Pandora’s Box/Jara. Pandora’s tragedy in Greek mythologyb. Sociology of IT in Ed as Pandora’s Boxc. What’s left in the Box?
Promethean Fire & Pandora’s Box?
The End Of the Beginning