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Potter Meets Popper: How to Collaborate for Better Deaf Education?
- Gallaudet University Press
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147 Strand6:TechnologyinEducation PotterMeetsPopper HowtoCollaborateforBetterDeafEducation? Antti Raike The new—or, more, precisely ever-evolving—tools for social media are an essential part of efforts to develop inclusive education by following the principles of inclusive design. This chapter introduces several tools and practices of social media and computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) that have the potential to increase the accessibility and flexibility of learning in deaf education. Here I rely on the assumption that learning is more a collaborative and social process than an individual and mental one; human learning presupposes a specific social nature and a process by which children grow into the intellectual life of those around them. Humans develop within a unique sociocultural-technological environment, where technology is inseparable from everything else; we keep on making clever innovations all the time for survival (and for fun). Thus, learning awakens a variety of processes when the child is interacting and collaborating with other people and peers in a given situation and environment. Technology-enhanced learning environments and social media provide tools and practices that facilitate the inclusive processes of collaborative learning in a variety of educational contexts that serve diverse populations (Raike & Hakkarainen, 2009). Technological innovations for learning resonate with the political agreement that all students should have equal rights to complete their academic degrees regardless 148 Antti Raike of the communities to which they belong. Moreover, the needs and requirements of inclusive education are currently under theoretical examination, and information and communication technology (ICT) needed for its practical implementation is available. As Tim Berners-Lee put it, “The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect” (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee). Therefore, technologically we already live in a society where the concept of “disability” is highly questionable and difficult to activate for societal and educational purposes. Karl Popper (1945) and Vannevar Bush (1945) have contributed to our knowledge and culture by formulating conceptual tools for understanding our existence with technology and science. The Open Society and Its Enemies (Popper, 1945) was published in 1945, as was Vannevar Bush’s article “As We May Think,” in which he described a “memex” as a device “in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.” This memex was the conceptual ancestor of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), which in turn has evolved into the modern Internet, with technologies and protocols necessary for social media or “web 2.0.” However, Bush’s vision works only for people in an open society such as that formulated by Popper; a totalitarian society would use a memex more likely as illustrated in the dystopia of 1984, by George Orwell (1949). According to Popper, science consists mainly of problem solving, like any other human activity. Scientists are “problem solvers” who begin with problems rather than with observations or facts, and the growth of human knowledge proceeds from our attempts to solve problems. These attempts involve the formulation of new theories that must go beyond existing knowledge and therefore require a leap of the imagination. Creative imagination is essential in the formulation of any theory, and philosophy as an activity challenges our free thinking and collaboration even in today’s modern, highly specialized information society. However, educational practices tend to rely more on tradition than science despite the cumulated knowledge of human learning and dramatic advancements in technology. Copying information from lectures by taking notes and reading textbooks topass exams is a process that dates back tothe times before [3.236.138.253] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 07:16 GMT) Potter Meets Popper 149 Gutenberg; even universities still have difficulties in providing a decent learning environment for deaf students. Youth everywhere need supportive adults and peers. Lev Vygotsky (1978) explained how the child follows the adult’s example and gradually develops the ability to do certain tasks without assistance. He called the difference between what a child can do with and without help the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD). It is the distance between the actual developmental level and the level of potential development, both of which are determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. However, socialization scientists, parents, and educators may have placed too heavy an emphasis on the family as the bearer of culture, believing that a...