"The characteristic feature of modernity is criticism: what is new is set over and against what is old and it is this constant contrast that constitutes the continuity of tradition." Octavio Paz, "Invention, Underdevelopment, Modernity" in Alternating Current, trans. Helen Lane (Seaver Books, 1983/1967)
After the storyboards, we'll turn our attention to the writing assignment for the course: an essay in "technology criticism." By "criticism" I don't mean "negative remarks" (or even positive remarks) but rather a calling into question features of a technology's design and probable use that would likely be ignored in a merely descriptive/explanatory account of the technology. As the quotation from Paz suggests, the practice of criticism has been essential to the understandings of the world we consider "modern", and although the role of "tradition" has been seriously (and persuasively) attacked in the "post-modern" era, the basic "calling into question" that characterizes criticism remains an essential sign of academic life.
In this assignment I am asking you to find an example of technology (perhaps something as ordinary as a wristwatch or as extraordinary as a supercomputer) that strikes you as interesting precisely because its design and functionality presuppose and/or illustrate assumptions about what is useful, good or otherwise valuable.
As an example of criticism, we'll look at Terry Winograd's contrasting what he calls "library culture" with "information retrieval culture", a contrast suggested by the Web and specifically the interface(s) to (digital) libraries. We can then brainstorm possible topics for the paper (or just explain chosen topics to one another).
We'll finish Thursday's class, time permitting, with a look at Reader Rabbit: Kindergarten and perhaps some of the lapware at sesamestreetworkshop.org.
For Tuesday: Read the Dreyfus & Spinosa essay, "Highway Bridges and Feasts" for Tuesday, and "Designing for interaction: Six steps to designing computer-supported group-based learning," by J.W. Strijbos*, R.L. Martens, W.M.G. Jochems (Computers & Education vol. 42 (2004), pp. 403-24) for Thursday.