11 Aug 2011 - 16:30
Both the cure and the disease of contemporary education, if not of the culture more generally, is arguably the clustering of phenomena centering around electronic technologies and the internet. The dominant tendency within education over the last generation has been to increasingly technologize the classroom. This phenomenon has become so familiar and pervasive that, initially intended as a tool to aid education, it has come to provide schooling with its central content. And as recent as this phenomenon has been, the current generation of students has never known a classroom (or a world)that was not electronically saturated.
In this workshop conversation, I would like us to consider the kind of education that is appropriate for this moment. Of course, to inquire into education raises issues that touch on virtually every aspect of society and culture. I would hope that our collective reflections on this question could be fruitful, not so much in terms of providing a solution to the problematic that I outline, but in terms of raising considerations about it that each of us alone may not fully appreciate.
My opening gambit is that traditional liberal arts education makes sense only in the context of the worldview of the modern, and is no longer appropriate within the increasing hegemony of the digital postmodern. I do not consider this to be a good thing.
I am eager to hear to the variety of alternative perspectives that those who are also concerned with the nature of contemporary education might offer.
Workshop facilitator: Philip Lewin
Workshop duration: 1 hour
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This workshop will be conducted in parallel with Elizabeth Simpson’s first workshop and Hugo Letiche’s workshop. Please choose one to take part in and do not sign up for more of these three workshops. You may mention your second choice out of these three workshops in the comment box below to mark where you would like to go if this workshop is under- or over-subscribed.
