Share Paper: Democracy and Computerized Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities

  1. Dan Krier, Iowa State University, United States
  2. William Woodman, Iowa State University, United States
Friday, July 4 3:10-3:30 PM Main 15 (3rd Fl)

Abstract: Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between computerized higher education and democracy. Such reflection is especially relevant given the approaching 150th anniversary of public land-grant universities that made higher education broadly available to those of modest means. We first review the historic role land grant universities in American democracy and their alignment with John Dewey’s influential writings about participative democracy. We consider how participative democracy is challenged by omnipresent information technology and the passive “society of spectacle” (De Bord 1967) that it creates. We examine how computers can reinforce or undermine student passivity. We demonstrate our own computer-enhanced inquiry into ...