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Date:         Wed, 30 Sep 1992 19:34:15 -0700
From:         James Crosswhite <JCROSS@OREGON.BITNET>
Subject:      Computer Travels

Computer Traveler here, checking in again, ready with
another "principle" (after reading Reiner Schurmann's book
on Heidegger, I'll never use that word the same way again).
The next principle is an easy one. *Keep users in control.*
As we all know from reading MBU, and as I learned in my
travels, there's often a structural conflict between Big
Central Computing and the little decentered labs and
classrooms in which teachers work. Looked at one way,
there's a tendency for technical people/organizations to
think that because they know more (about machines), they
also know better (how to use them). However, teachers know
better how to reach their own goals. They need to have the
major say in decisions that affect their teaching.
   I think students need a say, too. Dickie Selfe lets
undergraduate consultants have a voice and a vote on what
goes on in MTU's labs. He gives them responsibility, a stake
in what's happening. (This is correct, isn't it Dickie?) In
my utopia (which is always postponed so that we can enjoy
the process of imagining it), the technical people (from Big
Computing) offer advice and choices to the teachers and
students (from little rooms), with the teachers having the
swing voting block.
  There should be lots of ways to make the conflicts between
technology and teaching open and generative of new ideas.
Technical people can help teachers see things in new ways,
see choices they didn't imagine existed--but they shouldn't
force changes where teachers clearly do not want them. I
suppose there is a Maoist utopia in which technicians are
teachers and teachers are technicians, but this doesn't seem
either practicable or desirable to me. I have a more
romantic view of conflict in which it generates newness. We
need the difference in order to get the newness. What counts
as being a technician and what counts as being a teacher
keeps changing for as long as we sustain the conflict, the
generative kind of conflict.
  How to make this work institutionally, organizationally,
is the problem. During my travels, everyone urged me to
create a good working relationship with Big Computing right
away. I'm meeting with the Director of University Computing
on Monday--and looking forward to it. I'm thinking that
establishing mutual good will and respect would be a good
goal. I think I may try my principles out on him, too.
  And about computer traveling: if I had my trip to take
over again, I think I would try to visit some campuses where
programs failed, or had major problems. I got little
glimpses of what was going wrong on some of the campuses I
visited--and these glimpses were invaluable for me. Computer
traveling should probably be like the study and use of
history, in which negative examples are as helpful as
positive ones in interpreting the tendencies and
possibilities of our own times and places.
   Coming soon: more principles! Simplicity, access, and
more.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU