1. Faculty of Education & HKIER The Chinese University of Hong Kong IT in Education: Sociological Perspective Wing-kwong Tsang Sino Bldg. Room 707B; Ext. 6922; wktsang@cuhk.edu.hkwktsang@cuhk.edu.hk; www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~wktsang

2. 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

3. Thinking Sociologically about Technology 1.What is technology? a.Ron Westrum’s conception Technology as things and artifacts ‚Technology as techniques ƒTechnology as knowledge b.Thomas P Hughes’ conception Technology as machine ‚Technology as system ƒTechnology as institution „Technology as culture

4. Artifact Technique Knowledge Machine System InstitutionCulture Thinking Sociologically about Technology Epistemological Dimension Ontological Dimension

5. a.Technology in human history Technology of hunting ‚Technology of pastoralism Technology of horsemanship ƒTechnology of farming Technology of irrigation „Manufacturing industrial technology …Information technology Thinking Sociologically about Technology

7. Thinking Sociologically about IT a.IT as man-made means in handling information Receiving information ‚Collecting information ƒCodifying information „Storing information …Interpreting information †Generalizing information ‡Communicating information

8. a.IT in human history Before the Gutenberg Galaxy Spoken languages as media Speaking and memorizing as IT Thinking Sociologically about IT

10. 1440 in Germany

11. a.IT in human history Before the Gutenberg Galaxy Spoken languages as media Speaking and memorizing as IT ‚The Gutenberg Galaxy Printed languages as media Writing and printing as IT ƒThe Internet Galaxy Digital signals as media Computer, …… Internet as IT Thinking Sociologically about IT

13. Artifact Technique Knowledge Machine System InstitutionCulture Digital media Conception of IT Spoken media Pictorial media Typological media

14. 1.Think sociologically about education a.Max Weber’s typology of education systems Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education

15. 1.Thinking education sociologically a.Max Weber’s typology of education systems Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education

16. 1.Thinking education sociologically a.Max Weber’s typology of education systems b.Max Weber’s conception of education in industrial society Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education

17. Max Webers’ conception of industrial society

18. 1.Thinking education sociologically a.Max Weber’s typology of education systems b.Max Weber’s conception of education in industrial society c.What’s next? Education in Global-informational Economy ‚Education in Knowledge Society ƒEducation in Information Age Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education

20. 2.Think sociologically the relationship between IT and education a.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

21. 3.IT in education in the perspective of critical theory: The dialectic of the enlightenment and technological rationality Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education

23. 3.IT in education in the perspective of critical theory: The dialectic of the enlightenment and technological rationality a.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

24. 3.IT in education in the perspective of critical theory: The dialectic of the enlightenment and technological rationality ƒ… „The dialectic of technology as centralized control and as democratic collaboration ƒTechnology as control over nature and human „Technology as collaboration with nature and human Thinking Sociologically about IT in Education

25. 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

26. What is Sociological Perspective 2.Sociological imagination as way of conceiving personal, immediate, local, and global issues in social, political, economic, cultural, and historical contexts a.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

27. Thinking IT in Ed: Sociologically 1.Thinking IT and IT in Ed in epochal context a.Locating IT against its historical context b.Locating IT against its economic context c.Locating IT against its political context d.Locating IT against its social context e.Locating IT against its cultural context

28. Thinking IT in Ed: Sociologically 2.Thinking IT in Ed in schooling context a.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

29. IT in Ed: Promethean Fire or Pandora’s Box?

30. Promethean Fire & Pandora’s Box? 1.Promethean Fire a.Prometheus’s tragedy in Greek mythology b.IT in Ed as Promethean Fire 2.Pandora’s Box/Jar a.Pandora’s tragedy in Greek mythology b.Sociology of IT in Ed as Pandora’s Box c.What’s left in the Box?

31. Promethean Fire & Pandora’s Box? The End Of the Beginning