For information regarding the Faculty Seminar on Technology and Society at Monmouth College (materials, consultants, agenda, membership, syllabi, future outcomes, etc) contact Dr. Saliba Sarsar, the seminar leader, at Department of Political Science, Monmouth College, West Long Branch, NJ 07764.The $50,000 grant from the Department of Higher Education in New Jersey that supported the entire project was conceived and written by the Provost of the College, Dr. Eugene Rosi.
2.
MumfordLewisThe Myth of the Machine- The Pentnpon of Power. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1964, p. 185. Cf. Peter Drucker, who urges that our most pressing difficulty is seeing that technological change and its supporting institutions embody the values and purposes we want and promote human freedom and dignity. “The First Technological Revolution and Its Lessons,” Technology and Culture 7, 2 (Spring 1966).
3.
See LisenskyRobertPfnisterAllan and SweetSharonThe New Liberal Learning: Technology and the Liberal Arts. The Council of Independent Colleges, 1985, pp. 12–19. On the inclination to identify technology with computers and computer literacy, see Theodore Roszack, who points out that advances in computer technology make “literacy” less and less necessary because of user friendliness, and that teaching computer skills is ambiguous, because “there is no clear idea as to whether schools are to teach about computers, or through computers, or by way of computers.” The Cult of Information: The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986, p. 50.
4.
Most of these distinctions turned up in the presentations of our consultants, notably Dr. TruxalJohn of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Dr. BillingtonDavid of Princeton University, and Dr. Ronald Todd of New York University.
5.
For a problem solving, or engineering, approach to technological education, see the handbook EST/AMS: 194 Problem-Solving Techniques of the Engineer. State University of New York at Stony Brook, Department of Technology and Society, n.d. I am indebted to Dr. John Truxal of Stony Brook for this useful volume.
6.
See ToddRonaldUnderstanding and Using Technology. Worcester Massachusetts: Davis Publications, 1985, chapter 1; Ronald Todd, “A Conceptual Basis for a Technology Education Curriculum”, (unpublished, n.d.); E.S. Quade, Analysis for Public Decisions, New York: Elsevier, 1975, Chapter 3; and Draper Kauffman, Systems One; An Introduction to Systems Thinking. St. Paul, Minnesota: Future Systems, Inc./TLH Associates, Inc., n.d.
7.
Billington David argues that a proper understanding of technology must take into account three dimensions–scientific, social, and symbolic. “Technology and the Structuring of Cities,” in Small Comforts for Hard Times: Humanists on Public Policy, New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, p. 18. The importance of historical analysis to an understanding of technology and its relations to society can be sampled in Robert Heilbroner's “Do Machines Make History?”, Technology and Culture 8, 3 (July 1967).
8.
This discussion was inspired and led by Dr. GuyOakes, Professor of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Policy at Monmouth College. See FrederickFerre, Philosophy of Technology, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1988, pp. 80–87 on the relationship of technology to ethics.
9.
BillingtonDavidStructures and the Urban Environment. Catalogue and Commentary of the Slides, Princeton University: Department of Civil Engineering, 1984; and David Billington and Robert Mark, Structural Studies. Princeton University: Department of Civil Engineering, 1983.
