Relating Dewey to Educational Technology

I don't have much to say regarding the article on Wikipedia and Google other than to say it was really informative to me in terms of not only understanding better how they function, but also in understanding them from a more philosophical standpoint. The concept of "the wisdom of crowds" is a new one to me, but does not seem to be new to mankind. This seems to have been the model for human scholarly discourse since the beginning of time; sites, such as Wikipedia, enable the wisdom of the crowds to be shared more efficiently.

The Rich and Reeves article strives to tie the implementation of modern technology in education back to the philosophies of John Dewey. They state that Dewey saw the need for a linking science to bridge theory and practice in education. At this point in time, I'm not totally sure how to use technology to create this bridge, but I can see that this could be a very useful role for education technology. In the course, I believe we'll see how we can use technology in the classroom to emphasize the "dynamic interplay between society and the individual".

"My Pedagogic Creed" by John Dewey was a very interesting read. I always enjoy strong statements of philosophy and values, whether I wholly agree with the content or not. It really resonated with me in Article Three where he says that "science is of value because it gives the ability to interpret and control the experience already had". In teaching physics, I would like to help students see how its concepts can help describe the world they already recognize around them. However, it does seem to me that Dewey misses that, while science can be a powerful descriptive tool, the teacher also needs to help students see it as a powerful creative tool.

There are some concepts of Dewey's philosophy that I didn't understand, such as what is meant by "social life of the child" and "primitive unconscious unity of social life". He seems to be advocating for close integration of the individual child's education with their social reality outside of school. However, this reality differs greatly amongst different kids. And in the increasingly multi-cultural society that is the reality of today's America what challenges does a teacher face in trying to identify with the variety of "social lives" of children. My final thought on Dewey is that I wish more communities would take to heart that "the community's duty to education is its paramount moral duty".