The Dual Nature(s) of Technology: Towards a Unified Conception of Digital and Analogue Technology
2022 (English)In: PATT 39: PATT on the Edge Technology, Innovation and Education / [ed] David Gill, Jim Tuff, Thomas Kennedy, Shawn Pendergast, Sana Jamil, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada: Memorial University of Newfoundland , 2022, Vol. 39, p. 20-27Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
In recent years, digital technology, programming, and computational thinking have been incorporated as curriculum components in technology education in many countries across the globe. This development has been cheered on by politicians, industrialists, teachers, and software companies, but it has also met with resistance. Yet, few would deny that digital technologies are indeed technologies, and, as such, they should be included in technology education. The aim of this paper is to discuss how a unified theory of digital and analogue technology could be forged philosophically, and suggest some implications for technology education. A post-phenomenological model of human-technology relations was employed as analytical tool. It is concluded that both digital and analogue technologies could be seen as technical artefacts with a dual nature and technologies of representation. The dual nature of technical artefacts, that is, their functional/intentional and physical dimensions, can be mirrored in the abstract programming language that on its own has a mathematical semantics, but once we include a specification/intention, this changes the program into a technical artefact. Representational technologies could include everything from simple control systems to computers to AI systems, and it would be possible to conceive of the analogue and digital parts of these technologies as different components of their representational capacity; a component could either be seen as representing (concrete, analogue) or represented (abstract, digital), but part of the same representational system that makes up the technology. In both these “dual” perspectives on technology, artefacts and systems could be viewed from a common point of view, and may consist of digital/abstract and analogue/concrete components that together make up the technology. One important implication for technology education is that teaching needs to involve both abstract and concrete technological components. When programming, for instance, students need to learn not only about the code or software in itself, but also about what digital technology does in terms of solving problems and achieving technical purposes.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada: Memorial University of Newfoundland , 2022. Vol. 39, p. 20-27
Keywords [en]
Digital Technology; Analogue Technology; Programming; Philosophy of Technology; Post-Phenomenology; Technology Education
National Category
Didactics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-186618ISBN: 9780889015050 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-186618DiVA, id: diva2:1678277
Conference
PATT 39: PATT on the Edge Technology, Innovation and Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada June 21st-24th, 2022
2022-06-292022-06-292024-09-14