Part 1:
● What do we mean when we talk about technology?
--social platform
-- students communication online
-- sharing content
-- bigger audience
-- interdisciplinary collaboration
-- international collaboration
● Quotes to think about (this is where we broke into small groups):
1. Importance of slowing down: “We should freely resist the reflexive conclusion that
because our students come to Williams with different modes of encountering and
absorbing information (multitasking, multimedia, instant access, short attention
span) we must become like them if we are to reach them and educate them”
(Falk, 97)
2. Digital Divide: “Access to computers remains unevenly distributed. In our
comments about formal education, implicit is an awareness that even the most
basic resources (including computers) are lacking in the nation’s most
impoverished public schools as well as in the nation’s poorest homes”
(Goldberg, 22)
3. “With participatory learning, the play between technology, composer, and
audience is no longer passive. Indeed, participatory learning blurs these
traditional lines” (Goldberg, 17) .
4. “The invention of the printing press might have been thought to presage the end
of the university…but no such thing occurred” (Falk, 97).
Responses to Quote #1:
● Short attention vs. processing
a. No places for contemplation...no space time.
i. change expectations in order to have spare time.
b. Sitting down to read a book is not the only way to digest information. More ways
to learn that are more engaging and inspire creativity
c. If processing takes shorter periods of time, How far are we lagging behind? How
do we catch up? What ways, or tech, will we need to catch up and learn?
● Every generation is taught differently..Not a good thing or a bad thing.
Responses to Quote #2:
● Two realms of Access;
a) There are people who do not have access to modern technology. → Getting
people who don’t have access to computers to have access.
b) Just because the technology is there, that doesn’t mean that the person is
capable of using it. → Need to be classes that prepare people to use technology
● Even though there is a lot of access to information online, the question becomes who
has the power to create material or edit it?
● 2 issues that should not be conflated:
○ The digital divide and unequal access to information
■ You might have access to information, but you might not have access to
education.
● Technology does not impact political economy, political economy decides the role of
technology.
● Access vs. useability → Instruction is still important in order to learn
Responses to Quote #3:
● information isn’t education
--You need skills
-- You need an expert to guide you
● collective consciousness
-- What happens when we have access to everyone’s mind?
● Does technology leads us towards collectivism or perpetuates individualism?
Responses to Quote #4:
● Why is it that the printing press didn’t mess with education?
○ Because you still need someone with expertise.
BREAK - Part2:
What will and will not change with the advent of technology regarding the following themes:
● Class/Race power dynamic
● student/teacher power dynamics
● epistemological changes
● curriculum changes
● Residential education
● Institutional organizational changes
● Are institutions of higher education at the forefront of technology?
○ Not liberal arts colleges but research universities are at the forefront of building
new tech.
○ institutions must find ways to work with technologies.
● Another problem: Who gets heard on the internet?
○ For instance, in the #BlackLivesMatter movement, Black queer women
organizers do not receive any acknowledgment for the work they do. Black men
do. The real problem is power hierarchies, until those are fixed, folks will be
silences again.
● Anonymity online:
○ Can it bring new voices to the table?
○ What ideas are being validated and what ideas are not?
○ The content is the message, not the actual person!
○ Anonymity allows people to assume a new identity in order to express themselves.
■ Might need to be anonymous amongst peers but identifiable to instructor/faculty members.
● Curriculum changes:
○ the ability to connect to students to one another and to other classrooms (which
is amazing).
○ Maybe won’t affect Liberal Art colleges but in order for it to work it must start at K12.
Learning more about tech should start early
● What do we mean when we talk about technology?
--social platform
-- students communication online
-- sharing content
-- bigger audience
-- interdisciplinary collaboration
-- international collaboration
● Quotes to think about (this is where we broke into small groups):
1. Importance of slowing down: “We should freely resist the reflexive conclusion that
because our students come to Williams with different modes of encountering and
absorbing information (multitasking, multimedia, instant access, short attention
span) we must become like them if we are to reach them and educate them”
(Falk, 97)
2. Digital Divide: “Access to computers remains unevenly distributed. In our
comments about formal education, implicit is an awareness that even the most
basic resources (including computers) are lacking in the nation’s most
impoverished public schools as well as in the nation’s poorest homes”
(Goldberg, 22)
3. “With participatory learning, the play between technology, composer, and
audience is no longer passive. Indeed, participatory learning blurs these
traditional lines” (Goldberg, 17) .
4. “The invention of the printing press might have been thought to presage the end
of the university…but no such thing occurred” (Falk, 97).
Responses to Quote #1:
● Short attention vs. processing
a. No places for contemplation...no space time.
i. change expectations in order to have spare time.
b. Sitting down to read a book is not the only way to digest information. More ways
to learn that are more engaging and inspire creativity
c. If processing takes shorter periods of time, How far are we lagging behind? How
do we catch up? What ways, or tech, will we need to catch up and learn?
● Every generation is taught differently..Not a good thing or a bad thing.
Responses to Quote #2:
● Two realms of Access;
a) There are people who do not have access to modern technology. → Getting
people who don’t have access to computers to have access.
b) Just because the technology is there, that doesn’t mean that the person is
capable of using it. → Need to be classes that prepare people to use technology
● Even though there is a lot of access to information online, the question becomes who
has the power to create material or edit it?
● 2 issues that should not be conflated:
○ The digital divide and unequal access to information
■ You might have access to information, but you might not have access to
education.
● Technology does not impact political economy, political economy decides the role of
technology.
● Access vs. useability → Instruction is still important in order to learn
Responses to Quote #3:
● information isn’t education
--You need skills
-- You need an expert to guide you
● collective consciousness
-- What happens when we have access to everyone’s mind?
● Does technology leads us towards collectivism or perpetuates individualism?
Responses to Quote #4:
● Why is it that the printing press didn’t mess with education?
○ Because you still need someone with expertise.
BREAK - Part2:
What will and will not change with the advent of technology regarding the following themes:
● Class/Race power dynamic
● student/teacher power dynamics
● epistemological changes
● curriculum changes
● Residential education
● Institutional organizational changes
● Are institutions of higher education at the forefront of technology?
○ Not liberal arts colleges but research universities are at the forefront of building
new tech.
○ institutions must find ways to work with technologies.
● Another problem: Who gets heard on the internet?
○ For instance, in the #BlackLivesMatter movement, Black queer women
organizers do not receive any acknowledgment for the work they do. Black men
do. The real problem is power hierarchies, until those are fixed, folks will be
silences again.
● Anonymity online:
○ Can it bring new voices to the table?
○ What ideas are being validated and what ideas are not?
○ The content is the message, not the actual person!
○ Anonymity allows people to assume a new identity in order to express themselves.
■ Might need to be anonymous amongst peers but identifiable to instructor/faculty members.
● Curriculum changes:
○ the ability to connect to students to one another and to other classrooms (which
is amazing).
○ Maybe won’t affect Liberal Art colleges but in order for it to work it must start at K12.
Learning more about tech should start early