I am working on a practice study of second graders using computers in
their classroom and am using the activity system triad of
object/subject/tool. But the computer is in some ways the object and also
the tool.
At this point, this seems distinct to the computer. Other tools require
that I learn about them (how to swing a hammer, say) but that stage
quickly becomes automatic, unconscious, periphral to the activity. But the
computer somehow holds my attention, it evokes an intersubjective response
(as the second grade girl calls the the computer "he" and "a friend"). I
am wondering if it always, inescapably, mediates between people. That it
represents to me the programmer, or her beliefs and assumptions about the
world, that are incorporated into the design of the software, the GUI, and
even the hardware.
Why one mouse? Why two shift keys and only one return?
Someone, somewhere decided that was the way it should be and that distant
decision constrains my behavior in a way that I usually associate with
other people.
This is all off the tip of my fingers, so I hope to hear more about what
others are thinking.
Kathie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Life's backwards,
Life's backwards,
People, turn around.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Sinead O'Connor and John Reynolds
Fire on Babylon: Universal Mother^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~kegoff/index.html