Faculty of Education & HKIERThe Chinese University of Hong Kong

IT in Education:

Sociological Perspective

Wing-kwong TsangSino Bldg. Room 707B; Ext. 6922;

wktsang@cuhk.edu.hk; 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