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Suggestions for Further Reading
Apple, M.W. (1988).Teachers and texts: A political economy of class and gender relations in education. New York: Routledge.
Barthes, R. (1973)Mythologies. London: Paladin Grafton Books. Barthes demonstrates a semiotic way of performing cultural analysis by writing about modern myths. Barthes’ approach is used by Robins & Webster to review computer education (1987). Also, Barthes’ insights are applied to computerization narratives by Kling & Iacono’s ‘Making a “Computer Revolution’” in Dunlop & Kling (1991, pp. 63–75).
Bereano, P.L. (Ed.). (1976).Technology as a social and political phenomenon. New York: John Wiley. A foundation for social perspectives is provided in these classic readings from figures such as Jacques Ellul, Daniel Bell and Theodore Roszak.
Bereano, P.L. (1990). Technology and human freedom. In M.D. Ermann, M.B. Williams & C. Gutierrez (Eds.),Computers, ethics and society (pp. 278–284). New York: Oxford University Press. An important and illuminating essay on the social aspects of technology.
Bowers, C.A. (1988).The cultural dimensions of educational computing: Understanding the non-neutrality of technology. New York: Teachers College Press. Investigates computers as cultural objects carrying hidden agendas.
Cherryholmes, C. H. (1988).Power and criticism: Poststructural investigations in education. New York: Teachers College Press. Uses contemporary developments in philosophy to examine schooling.
Cockburn, C. (1988).Machinery of dominance: Women, men, and technical know-how. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. Reveals the power of beliefs about gender and technology: “When a new invention arrives in the workplace it is already gendered by the activities and expectations of its manufacturers and its owners...The computer was the brainchild of male engineers and it was born into a male line of production technology.” (p. 170).
Cuban, L. (1984).How teachers taught: Constancy and change in American classrooms 1890–1980. New York: Longman. Although Cuban may be better known forTeachers and machines, the depth ofHow teachers taught will impress anyone interested in understanding educational innovations.
Dublin, M. (1991).Futurehype: The tyranny of prophecy. New York: Dutton. Chapter five addresses education: “Because of the hype both from members of the ‘artificial intelligentsia’ like Papert and corporations like IBM, there has been a rush to find uses for computers in the classroom, the vast majority of which are obviously inappropriate, in order to usher in a new era of education.” (p. 164).
Dunlop C. & Kling, R. (Eds.) (1991).Computerization and controversy: Value conflicts and social choices. Boston, MA: Academic. This anthology brings together thought provoking points of view including a discussion of the fatal irradiation of patients by malfunctioning computers.
Ellsworth, E. (1989). Why doesn’t this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy.Harvard Education Review, 59, 297–324. Ellsworth’s essay is essential reading. It reports fighting racism on a university campus through the eyes of a professor endeavoring to have an emancipatory media class. Ellsworth is co-author ofThe ideology of images in educational media.
Hlynka, D. (1991, June). Postmodern excursions into educational technology.Educational Technology, pp. 27–30.
Hlynka asks where aesthetics might take educational technology beyond the systems approach to instruction. Hlynka is co-author ofParadigms regained.
Lyotard, J. (1984).The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. This is contemporary thinking on the social effects of scientific and narrative ways of knowing. Lyotard sees education in computerized societies as a commodity and challenges the notion of communicational transparency.
Nichols, R.G. (1990, November). A challenge to current beliefs about educational technology.Educational Technology, pp. 24–28. Asks where the politics of learning may lead beyond instructional systems.
Oettinger, A.G. (1968, May 18). The myths of educational technology.Saturday Review, pp. 76, 77, 91. The sound of coins dropping into the box beside the blurry screen of the microfilm reader-printer creates a sense of deja vu: “There is too much rigidity even in the present innovation fad which, ironically, diverts human and financial resources from both basic research and sustained application and evaluation efforts into the most visible quickie approaches that can sustain the illusion of progress.” Oettinger also wrote,Run, computer, run.
Perry, R. (Ed.) (1990, Autumn).SIGNS: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. A guest-edited issue publishing several vital articles such asMismeasuring women: A critique of research on computer ability and avoidance.
Robins, K. & Webster, F. (1987). Dangers of information technology and responsibility. In Finnegan, R., Salaman, G. & Thompson, K. (Eds.),Information technology: Social issues: A reader, pp. 145–162. Sevenoaks, Kent, U.K.: Hodder and Stoughton. The authors examine the curriculum of a practical class on computer applications and propose that it contributes to a technological mythology that oppresses and obscures (pp. 153–156).
Smith, F. (1986).Insult to intelligence: The bureaucratic invasion of our classrooms. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Begins with a witty editorial describing the common misuse of students and computers in education: “Meet the R-bbit.”
Solomon, J. (1988).The signs of our time: Semiotics: The hidden messages of environments, objects, and cultural images. Los Angeles, CA: Jeremy P. Tarcher. A readable introduction to semiotics and thinking past everyday myths.
Webster, F. & Robins, K. (1986).Information technology: A Luddite analysis. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. The book starts by informing readers that the Luddites were political victims but “Nowadays, we no longer hang the opponents of technological revolution.” Chapter two increases readers’ awareness by tackling “The Selling of the New Technology” from a transatlantic viewpoint.
Winner, L. (1986).The Whale and the Reactor: A search for limits in an age of high technology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapter six defines mythinformation: “The almost religious conviction that a widespread adoption of computers and communications systems along with easy access to electronic information will automatically produce a better world for human living.” (p. 105).
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Yeaman, A.R.J. Seven myths of Computerism. TECHTRENDS TECH TRENDS 37, 22–26 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02811518
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02811518