EVALUATING TECHNOLOGY IN A U. S. HISTORY CURRICULUM

Thomas P. Ryan

Trenton, NJ

Preface

The National Endowment for the Humanities seminar held at Princeton University in the summer of 1985 provided an opportunity for me and fourteen other secondary educators to examine the effect of technology on humans in a variety of ways.  The purpose of this project is to convey to secondary students an understanding of technology and its interaction with humans in a number of ways.  A list of those ways is provided later in this document.  The seminar was highly successful in blending two essential ingredients to an understanding of the issues at hand.  Those two ingredients were: an understanding of the manner in which technology developed historically through a craftsman-engineering and/or scientific framework; and, an understanding of the human "defaults" which were incorporated into discoveries and/or inventions along with the consequences of their use.  Frequently there were consequences of these inventions or discoveries which were not foreseen by those who lived through these events.  We have our own "Catch-22."  On the one hand, we had the advantage of 20-20 hindsight in examining technological artifacts of an earlier time.  That was beneficial to understanding what changes were wrought by particular inventions or discoveries.  On the other hand, it is highly speculative for us to try to get into the psyche of those who lived through these changes not knowing where they would lead.  In talking about the computer the situation was exactly the reverse.  What I have attempted to do in this project is to compile a set of understandings which resulted from the discussions of the four artifacts(medieval cathedral, 19th century factory, Model T Ford, and computer) especially as they appear to be recognizable as universals associated with the development of technology.  In a typical "preface disclaimer" I would like to state at the outset that these perceptions of mine may not be the perceptions of others present at the seminar. [I am hoping that our discussion of these projects will afford an opportunity to comment on these understandings and add, modify or delete as seems appropriate.}  One of the cautions here is a concern which might be considered a corollary to the "problem of self-reference."  Bolter in Turing's Man states "...philosophers or poets used contemporary technology to aid their flights of imagination."(p. 16) In seeking a way to convey to secondary students the more elaborate explanation which Bolter gives to this topic, that is, the effect that technological development has on how we view our world, I selected a chart or matrix which in itself is a reflection of the technological state we are presently in.  (See Bolter chart below.)

In its present state this document is a broad outline of the concepts which I believe are important to convey.  It is based upon certain assumptions about the knowledge that students will typically bring to this topic.  First, technology will be narrowly defined to be concrete objects of the modern era.  Second, students will not have a thorough understanding of either prime movers or the periods of time between the development of changing sources of power which become prime movers.  Third, students will not have considered the effects of technology on the way we think about our world.

Some of what I might have done I did not do because it would have meant reinventing the wheel.  In the 1984 NEH seminar on this same topic, Catherine Robertson developed an extensive set of questions to use in reading a machine.  Those questions will be considered a highly valuable checklist in carrying out what follows.

"Civilizations proceed at their own pace and with their own inner logic, and each possesses a characteristic set of materials, techniques, and devices that help to shape its cultural outlook. (Bolter, "Defining Technologies," p. 16)"

Overview

Perceptions of technology can be garnered from a class discussion of what technology means to a group of students in a class.  To assist students in discussing the issue at hand a select group of definitions should be supplied to allow students to identify themselves with one of the definitions or more.  Students need not be told that these are "authoritative" definitions.  It would be better to act as if they had "come off the top of somebody's head."  Alternately, a group of students who are more confident in their verbal abilities could quite simply be asked to give their own definition of technology.

What do we want students to learn about the human element in the creation of technology?

1. Technology is not limited to the creation or discovery of concrete objects.(See Lynn White, Medieval Technology and Social Change, Chapter 1, Stirrup, Mounted Shock Combat, Feudalism, and Chivalry, and Chapter 2, The Agricultural Revolution of the Early Middle Ages.)
2. Technology and the inventions and innovations which flow from it are not the result of one linear path.  That is, other paths could have been taken but were not.
3. The consequences of technology and its effects on humans are frequently not considered in its development.
4. Technological advances or inventions become the assumptions upon which new inventions or problem-solving devices are based.  What passes for a new invention or innovation is frequently the grafting of elements of an older invention or innovation together.  (Look for icons in inventions.  Also see Henry Ford:  My Life and Work, Chapters 2-4.)
5. There is a point at which technological advancement jumps beyond mimicking what humans do in the manner in which they do it.  For example, a circular saw does not cut a piece of wood with the same motion as a human.
6. Technology and the development of new technology changed dramatically as a result of the amount of capital necessary to do testing and research significantly increasing.
7. In large measure the history of technology is a history of the harnessing of prime movers.(See Lynn White, Chapter 3, The Medieval Exploration of Mechanical Power and Devices and in John Purcell, From Hand Ax to Laser, Chapter 9, "Water Power, Wind Power, Animal Power and Man Power."
8. Technology may bring with it the need for a network of supply both in terms of human expertise to keep the "technology functioning and replacement capability to allow for the extended use of the technology.
9. The explanation and teaching of skills has been largely oral and mechanical until relatively recently.
10. In the 19th century technological development drove science to explain why inventions worked.
11. Precision machine tools were essential to the application of the American system of manufactures.

Activities

The following is a list of preliminary activities to be used in developing the preceding list of understandings.  It is expected that this list of activities will be part of an ongoing study of technology during the course of the year.  The third quarter of the year will be the time period during which these ideas will be drawn together for an analysis and evaluation. 

Phase I

The reader is referred here to Catherine Robertson's work for the 1984 NEH seminar where she developed a list of questions to be asked in reading a machine as a result of her observations while studying with Michael S. Mahoney.

Phase II

Students will research the lives of inventors and/or discoverers in the following areas:

1. training/education
2. other inventions/discoveries by the same person
   1. successful
   2. unsuccessful
3. need for the invention or discovery
4. changes brought about by the discovery
5. supporting network or technology required
6. Is it still in existence?  Was it replaced?  If so, why and by what?  What made the replacement possible?

Phase III

These questions are intended to raise issues regarding the impact of technology. 

1. What was the motivation to search for the discovery or invention?
2. Did it create any observable change in the way its users perceived themselves and their lives? 
3. Did it create any observable change in the way we perceive them and their lives?
4. Initially, did people embrace it, reject it, or was its use limited to a small handful of people?
5. Is it a tool or a machine, i. e., do humans have to interact with it to make it function?  How does this influence the way in which its users or attendants perceive it and themselves?