How does technology alter thinking and action without our awareness? How can instantaneous information access impede understanding and wisdom? How does technology alter conceptions of education, schooling, teaching and what learning entails? What are the implications of these and other technology issues for society? Meaningful technology education is far more than learning how to use technology. It entails an understanding of the nature of technology - what technology is, how and why technology is developed, how individuals and society direct, react to, and are sometimes unwittingly changed by technology. This book places these and other issues regarding the nature of technology in the context of learning, teaching and schooling. The nature of technology and its impact on education must become a significant object of inquiry among educators. Students must come to understand the nature of technology so that they can make informed decisions regarding how technology may influence thinking, values and action, and when and how technology should be used in their personal lives and in society. Prudent choices regarding technology cannot be made without understanding the issues that this book raises. This book is intended to raise such issues and stimulate thinking and action among teachers, teacher educators, and education researchers. The contributions to this book raise historical and philosophical issues regarding the nature of technology and their implications for education; challenge teacher educators and teachers to promote understanding of the nature of technology; and provide practical considerations for teaching the nature of technology.

How does technology alter thinking and action without our awareness? How can instantaneous information access impede understanding and wisdom? How does technology alter conceptions of education, schooling, teaching and what learning entails? What are the implications of these and other technology issues for society? Meaningful technology education is far more than learning how to use technology. It entails an understanding of the nature of technology — what technology is, how and why technology is developed, how individuals and society direct, react to, and are sometimes unwittingly changed by technology. This book places these and other issues regarding the nature of technology in the context of learning, teaching and schooling. The nature of technology and its impact on education must become a significant object of inquiry among educators. Students must come to understand the nature of technology so that they can make informed decisions regarding how technology may influence thinking, values and action, and when and how technology should be used in their personal lives and in society. Prudent choices regarding technology cannot be made without understanding the issues that this book raises. This book is intended to raise such issues and stimulate thinking and action among teachers, teacher educators, and education researchers. The contributions to this book raise historical and philosophical issues regarding the nature of technology and their implications for education; challenge teacher educators and teachers to promote understanding of the nature of technology; and provide practical considerations for teaching the nature of technology.

Introductio; Section I Philosophical & Historical Issues in the Nature of Technology; Chapter 1: Informing Ourselves To Death; Chapter 2: Know thy Cyborg-Self: Thoughts on Socrates and Technological Literacy; Chapter 3: The Interpersonal Divide; Chapter 4: The Nature of Technoscience (NOTS); Chapter 5: Computer Savvy but Technologically Illiterate: Rethinking Technology Literacy; Chapter 6: Transforming Learning with Technology: Beyond Modernism and Post-Modernism, or Whoever Controls the Technology Creates the Reality; Section II Technology’s Faustian Bargain for Education; Chapter 7: Visually Dominant, Dynamic and Yet Deceptive: The Nature of Simulation Technology as Displayed in Secondary School Science Teachin; Chapter 8: Social Networking Technology and Societal Expectations for Teachers as Role Models; Chapter 9: And Now this . . . Problem: Neil Postman, Technology and the Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum; Chapter 10: A Cautionary Note: Technology’s Tendency to Undermine Serious Study and Teaching; Chapter 11: Smart Boards, Money and the Pedagogy of Watching; Chapter 12: The Purposes of Schooling and The Nature of Technology: The End of Education?; Chapter 13: Learning From Technology or Learning With Technology: Theoretical Perspectives on the Nature of Using Technology in the Classroom; Chapter 14: The Nature of Social Communication Technologies and Cyberbullying: Filtered Cues and Disinhibited Actions; Section III Teacher Education and the Nature of Technology; Chapter 15: Convergence of Postman and Vygotsky Perspectives Regarding Contemporary Media’s Impact on Learning and Teaching; Chapter 16: Ideologies in The Conceptualization and Use of Educational Technology: Using Huxley, Orwell and Forster to Inform a Humanizing Framework for Educational Technology Practice; Chapter 17: Implications of the Nature of Technology for Teaching and Teacher Education; Section IV Teaching the Nature of Technology; Chapter 18: Teaching about the Nature ofTechnology: Issues and Pedagogical Practices; Chapter 19: Promoting Middle School Students’ Understanding of the Nature of Technology; Chapter 20: Confusion in the Classroom About the Natures of Science and Technology: Implications for Scientific and Technological Literacy; Chapter 21: Technology Criticism in the Classroom; Author Biographies; Recommended Reading; Index.