From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Ph.D. Focus on Scrutinizing Information Technology (Chron
Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 11:32:29 -0500
Tuesday, May 4, 1999
SUNY-Buffalo Plans a Ph.D. Focus on Scrutinizing Information Technology
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
No, you still can't major in Luddite studies, but the State University
of New York at Buffalo will soon offer a Ph.D. concentration in
questioning the value and impact of information technology.
The two professors heading up the course of study, which is called
"Critical and Cultural Studies of Information Technology," say they're
not opposed to technology. They simply want to create an intellectual
community to question common assumptions about computers and data
networks.
"The assumption is that technology is automatically equated with
progress," says Hank J. Bromley, an assistant professor of educational
leadership and policy who is leading the new course concentration. "How
is it that we have come to a situation where we assume that this is a
natural thing to do?"
Though plenty of universities have academic programs that focus on
technology and society, Mr. Bromley says, they are primarily boosterish.
"Most of them tend to have a focus of how best to use technology," he
says. "We're asking questions about the technology."
The course of study is not a formal department or program, explains
Thomas L. Jacobson, an associate professor of communication who is also
leading the effort. Instead, students working toward doctorates in
communication or the social foundations of education will be offered the
option to choose C.C.S.I.T. as a focus area. Mr. Jacobson or Mr. Bromley
will steer interested students to courses already offered in various
departments, such as philosophy, media studies, sociology,
comparative literature, and computer science.
For instance, Mr. Jacobson will teach a course in the fall called
"Political Participation and the Internet" that will be listed in the
concentration. Mr. Bromley will teach "Technology as a Social Practice."
Other courses in the concentration will include "Cybertheory and
Technoculture," "Gender and Technology," and "The Sociology of
Communities."
Mr. Bromley says he hopes that the new focus area will help professors
on his campus raise questions about their own technology use in the
classroom. University administrators are increasingly buying computer
equipment and encouraging professors to use it, he adds.
Not enough consideration has been given, says Mr. Bromley, to "the most
sensible way to move toward a technology-based education."
Both professors realize they might as well be painting bull's-eyes on
themselves: "When you start raising questions about technology, you get
quickly viewed as anti-technology," notes Mr. Bromley. "And you get told
that you're a Luddite and that perhaps you are afraid of change.
"Really all I've said is we should sit back and talk about this like we
would any other education change."
Questioning 'computer literacy'
Meanwhile, the winter issue of The American Scholar questions the value
of teaching "computer literacy" at high schools and colleges.
In an article titled "http://www.when_is_enough_enough?.com," Paul De
Palma criticizes educators for taking up class time to teach students to
use commercial software like Microsoft Word. The computer industry, not
taxpayers, should pay for this training, he says.
"Sadly, the proponents of computer literacy have won the high ground by
virtue of the term itself," writes Mr. De Palma, who is a professor of
mathematics and computer science at Gonzaga University. "Who would argue
with literacy? It is, after all, one of the more complex human
achievements."
But, he continues, "The skill imparted is at best trivial and does not
require faculty with advanced degrees in computer science."
Mr. De Palma is also wary of being dismissed as anti-technology.
"This is not a neo-Luddite plea to toss computers out the window," he
says. "This essay is simply a plea to think reasonably about these
machines, to recognize the hucksterism in the hysterical cries for
computer literacy, to steel ourselves against the urge to keep throwing
money at Redmond and Silicon Valley."
Copyright © 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education