" The very techniques and technologies that disburden men and women of the backbreaking and mind-numbing work performed by previous generations - and still performed by men,women and children in developing countries - also present challenges that many perceive as threatening. The same techniques and technologies that bring the exhilaration of rapid change are perceived in some quarters as diminishing the quality of life. One of the most basic paradoxes of our technological milieu is that techniques and technologies ostensibly developed as means of control are now viewed by many individuals as spinning out of control, or at very least as operating beyond their personal control."
Hickman, L. 2001. Philosophical Tools for Technological Culture: Putting Pragmatism to Work (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Technology) Bloomington and Indianapolis. Indiana University Press.
Interesting in the context of a class that I took yesterday where youth workers have been seemingly 'mourning' the passing of the age of face-to-face communication in the light of the digital age, but who then get really excited about using a free platform that transfers a pdf document into a magazine ( http://issuu.com/business?gclid=CKvxqLnzgrQCFerItAodQ3cATA )!
Interesting also are the issues of control and confidence for educators: the feeling that I must be all-knowing in terms of the transfer of knowledge rather than facilitating the acquisition of knowledge. Dewey's concepts of learning as related to the reconstruction and reorganisation of knowledge and experience are relevant - how do we skill youth workers up to feel confident about asking the right questions of young people and their engagement with digital media? How do we recapture youth work process and principles within this landscape that is seemingly so alien and terrifying to some?
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