::fibreculture:: Microsoft and the critical classroom

[David Teh]

David Teh wrote:
   > 
   > >From today's SMH. One wonders what the quidproquo is for organisations
   like Cisco, Microsoft and Fujitsu.
   > 
   > School's in for computer whizzes under $50m plan

Trevor Batten wrote:

   > An interesting paradox: I'd have thought that people who knew nothing
   > about IT would be the only ones to use Microsoft products.

   > So how does one educate people without educating them?


this raises some very interesting questions i think. here @usyd i teach a course 
called "history and theory of informatics" to bright young things in our Arts 
Informatics program. not all of them have a background in computing or IT, but 
they are enrolled in perhaps the only degree program which fixes its sights on 
the nexus between IT and 'society'. so one might expect a reasonable degree of 
software-savvy. 

at a lecture yesterday all the students were asked what sort of operating systems 
they used. of 130-odd students, ONE used Mac and ZERO used a Linux platform. of 
course, i can't talk - i'm one of their teachers and i'm as much a slave to MS as 
anyone. but should i really be that self-conscious about this? have we attracted 
the wrong set of students for our course? i certainly don't think so.

when it comes to secondary schooling, the situation is slightly different: the 
ideal syllabus would take in a broader sweep of the available platforms, 
including MS etc (proprietary models) and open source models. i sincerely hope it 
will at Redfern. but software is only one little aspect of an information system, 
and the above anecdote would suggest that there's even bigger pedagogical issues 
in play here: namely: regardless of what sort of software you use or teach, how 
do you get the students to view the programs with critical eyes? how do you get 
them to demand more of their tools, to be conscious of what the tools CAN'T do, 
or perhaps what they SHOULD do? 

is it necessary to treat the software as a TEXT for the purposes of the class/
course, so as to encourage critical 'readings' (a la lit.crit.)? or are practical 
means (workshops etc) more effective for this?

dt

  
David Teh
Power Department of Art History and Theory
R  C  Mills  Building   A 26
University   of   Sydney     
N S W   2 0 0 6  AUSTRALIA
(E) dteh at arthist.usyd.edu.au


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