The social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing

This paper is an exploratory investigation into how social constructivist pedagogical theories shaped the development of personal computing in the mid to late 20th century. There are two main objectives for such an investigation. The first is to highlight the contingent historical nature of the appl...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Frédérik Lesage, Gwénaëlle André
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Digital Culture & Education (DCE) 2017-09-01
Series:Digital Culture & Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/s/lesage-Sep-2017.pdf
_version_ 1797370029886406656
author Frédérik Lesage
Gwénaëlle André
author_facet Frédérik Lesage
Gwénaëlle André
author_sort Frédérik Lesage
collection DOAJ
description This paper is an exploratory investigation into how social constructivist pedagogical theories shaped the development of personal computing in the mid to late 20th century. There are two main objectives for such an investigation. The first is to highlight the contingent historical nature of the application of these pedagogical theories in the development of human-computer interaction for personal computing. The second is to show how social constructivism as a theory of knowledge that links pedagogy to democratic thinking was implemented as a ‘mode of operation’ by key early designers of personal computing technologies before being taken up and adapted as part of capitalist modes of production and distribution. This account leads us to conclude that the social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing has become a technology of the self that privileges ‘interaction for interaction’s sake’. The paper concludes with a discussion of the consequences of this conceptualisation and analysis for how we understand personal computing as public pedagogy and elaborates potential implications for future research.
first_indexed 2024-03-08T17:55:30Z
format Article
id doaj.art-af8dc654aa9b4391960f782fc491c9e3
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1836-8301
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-08T17:55:30Z
publishDate 2017-09-01
publisher Digital Culture & Education (DCE)
record_format Article
series Digital Culture & Education
spelling doaj.art-af8dc654aa9b4391960f782fc491c9e32024-01-02T05:00:17ZengDigital Culture & Education (DCE)Digital Culture & Education1836-83012017-09-01916782The social constructivist mode of operation for personal computingFrédérik Lesage0Gwénaëlle André1Simon Fraser UniversitySimon Fraser UniversityThis paper is an exploratory investigation into how social constructivist pedagogical theories shaped the development of personal computing in the mid to late 20th century. There are two main objectives for such an investigation. The first is to highlight the contingent historical nature of the application of these pedagogical theories in the development of human-computer interaction for personal computing. The second is to show how social constructivism as a theory of knowledge that links pedagogy to democratic thinking was implemented as a ‘mode of operation’ by key early designers of personal computing technologies before being taken up and adapted as part of capitalist modes of production and distribution. This account leads us to conclude that the social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing has become a technology of the self that privileges ‘interaction for interaction’s sake’. The paper concludes with a discussion of the consequences of this conceptualisation and analysis for how we understand personal computing as public pedagogy and elaborates potential implications for future research.https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/s/lesage-Sep-2017.pdfinteractivitypersonal computingsocial constructivismmode of operationpublic pedagogy
spellingShingle Frédérik Lesage
Gwénaëlle André
The social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing
Digital Culture & Education
interactivity
personal computing
social constructivism
mode of operation
public pedagogy
title The social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing
title_full The social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing
title_fullStr The social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing
title_full_unstemmed The social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing
title_short The social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing
title_sort social constructivist mode of operation for personal computing
topic interactivity
personal computing
social constructivism
mode of operation
public pedagogy
url https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/s/lesage-Sep-2017.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT frederiklesage thesocialconstructivistmodeofoperationforpersonalcomputing
AT gwenaelleandre thesocialconstructivistmodeofoperationforpersonalcomputing
AT frederiklesage socialconstructivistmodeofoperationforpersonalcomputing
AT gwenaelleandre socialconstructivistmodeofoperationforpersonalcomputing