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 The Wales-Wide Web :: Graham Attwell on Learning, Knowledge and Technology
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Weblog | 455 entries | 26-October-2007 | 1 authors |
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Technology, learning and politics
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Blog Entry | 0 replies2.10 Kb | 02-April-2004 | Graham Attwell |
This entry is from my monthly column in the Welsh socialist newspaper, Seren.
This entry is from my monthly column in the Welsh socialist newspaper, Seren. Its Friday afternoon, its spring at last and best of all Werder Bremen are striding towards winning the Bundesliga. But I've got a stack of work to do before I can go home and I promised the editor I'd post him my column today. Seem to remember in my head, he sent us an email a couple of weeks ago saying he was producing a special edition on what socialism might mean in Wales. Seems a cool idea but hard to dream up from sunny Bremen. So I thought I might write a little about technology and socialism. In my spare time I'm a researcher on something like technology, work and learning. And so I got invited to London ten days ago for a conference on just this subject. The conference was at the Institute of Education in the University of London. I always get mixed feelings going o these events. Firstly I'm flattered they asked me - me with my BA from Swansea amongst all these learned professors and doctors. Then while I struggle to understand what they are all talking about I wonder why the hell I came. Then I get angry that these people seem so far away from the real world. But in this case I stuck with it and learned a lot. The people at the meeting were from all over - with researchers from the USA as well as from different countries in Europe. Most of them were engaged with an idea called activity theory. Extended text for this entry:Activity theory was initiated by a group of revolutionary Russian psychologists in the 1920s and 1930s. Sadly space does not allow a long explanation but the basic idea is an emphasis on social actors and an interaction between social agents and their environment. One central idea id that tools play a central mediating role in activity systems. Sounds a bit complex, doesn't it. But its important when we look at technology. Because we are brought up to believe that technology is something external to our society, inevitable and just happens. The activity theory people say technology is a tool, employed by people to mediate human relations. And of course, we can control it and decide how we use technology, just like any other tool. A lot of the presentations at the London seminar were very down to earth, taking very small scale case studies. A Finnish professor, Yrjo Engestrom, looked at how the Finnish health system could be changed to improve its effectiveness and give patients more say. An American researcher looked at how researchers and workers in a fish farm viewed statistics in a different way - with the worker making sensed of them from her everyday experience. Bonnie Nardi - another American - looked at how people are using web logs (blogs) as a means of expression. Now for me this is what socialism is about. It is about us being able to express our ideas - individually and collectively - and control the tools and technology which mediate our society. And - fair play to the London people - to be able to do this we need to understand how our society works. For far to long in the UK we have had a downer on researchers and theoreticians. We don't think we need them, they just sit around and talk. Margaret Thatcher tried to wipe out sociology form UK universities,. If she hated it that much it has to have something going for it. Oops - tried to write something serious this month and ended up like usual having a rant. I'm off now to prepare for Sundays big game against Freiburg. We are nine points up with eight matches to go. Hopefully by next months column we will be champions. |
