So two things about K.Kelly: -- With fixed link
I often listen to podcasts including one from WNYC (NY Public) called RadioLab. It's a great show which focuses on Science and Tech related topics and is hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich. In this particular episode (http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2010/nov/16/idea-time-come/), Robert is 'moderating' a forum at the New York City Library with Kevin Kelly and Steven Johnson (author of Where Good Ideas Come From). I find it interesting to listen Krulwich's hesitancy to accept Kelly's postulation of the Technium as a nearly living entity. It's fairly short if you wish to listen....
I think the concern I have is that the Technium, as presented by Kelly, is still not sentient, yet is "controlled" by humankind in the programming of that technology and that tools and gadgets which develop.
My second, and more pressing note on Kelly, is I further believe that Kelly hits home in his discussions regarding the Amish and I love that he assigns them with the "Hacker" label. Immediately, I become uptight and critical when the word "Hacker" is used because current rhetoric has put such a negative connotation on the word, yet it isn't bad. I love how the Amish manipulate the newer technological tools to fit into their desired lifestyles rather than shaping their lifestyles around the technological tools....That seems to be key for me in regard to my personal use of advanced technology in my personal and teaching spheres.
A current situation I am dealing with is the implementation of interactive whiteboard technology (IWB) in my English classroom. I am struggling to make the time to fully implement the technology because that is what the district has chosen to pursue, but I am also battling with the best ways to use the IWB for teaching composition and literature. For me, I am not convinced yet that this is the better mode of teaching kids to read, write and to explore literature.
The crux is that I haven't fully had time to evaluate the technology to see if it fully integrates with my goals for my students. In much the same way as the Amish do, I guess that I am one of the early 'testers,' but we have already bought in to fully outfitting each classroom with an IWB, but haven't defined its role in our mission and goals statement nor or current curriculum and teaching methods, so I believe we may have lost the POWER to reject technology.
That is where Kelly is heading, I believe...that we must leave ourselves the ability, power and position that we are not compelled to adopt all technology, but to pick and choose as the Amish.....
I've listened to a couple of Kevin Kelly's interviews, including the one you linked to above, Kent. I consistently have the impression that the radical, edgy, controversial aspects of the Technium tend to be muted in these conversations. That is, the build-up of ideas in the interviews is strikingly different from the the build-up of ideas in the book. There is something suspenseful in Kelly's book: the way he leads with an extreme version of the Technium and its implicit (even encoded) desires. But interviewers tend not to have as much patience with these ideas as readers must, because we are likely to follow a more or less sequential reading.
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