Monday, October 26, 2009
An interview with Andrew Feenberg
View the entire article here
Andrew Feenberg, the author of widely cited books like Alternative Modernity: The Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory(1995),Questioning Technology(1999), and Transforming Technology(2002) was interviewed by Mark Zachry in February 2007. Feenbergs' books on the subject illuminate numerous aspects of technology's ever-increasing influence that are so often overlooked. For Feenberg, technology is the most important issue of our era. It is a major constituent of our society and is intimately connected with politics, economics, culture and all forms of social and personal life.
Feenberg started computer work during 1980's when he was at the Western Behavioural Science Institute (WBSI). During his time there, he and few of his colleagues created the first online education Program. For the first question asked by Zachry (how did you come to be interested in computers?), Feenberg says that his interest started while he was working on the online education program and also during his time in France where he studied computer-mediated communication. He states that user agency is an important theme in technology studies. Users play an important role in re-design of any technology. Feenberg gives an example of internet which was initially designed for information exchange, not communication. The users changed the purpose of the internet.
Towards the end of the interview, Zachry asks questions on Online Communities and education. After few years of leaving WBSI, there was a lot of hype about online education and Feenberg always found himself in the middle of the controversy surrounding the topic. A lot of people like David Noble didn't really like the idea and called it a 'Digital Diploma Mills'. Regardless of the controversy, Feenberg was provided the fund to create the software by the US Department of Education. His first effort resulted to produce the software called TextWeaver which didn’t have much impact as expected. But the newest version, called Marginalia which is web based, has received a lot of attention.
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