Chapter 1
edge and capabilities may be most readily available. It is difficult to imagine that potential on-line learners around the world face fewer obstacles as they attempt to learn English on-line from their homes. The technology presents a new set of issues for an English teacher. How does the teacher respond to a student in Chile who did not contribute to the required on-line discussion because his Internet service provider (ISP) changed the requirements for the modem the student needed, and even though the student bought the new modem, it did not work, and the ISP referred the student to the modem company in the United States? Such a scenario would include an e-mail to the teacher from the student’s friend explaining that the student had called the modem company repeatedly, but only got an answering machine that presented him with so many options that it was unclear how to proceed with the phone call. The pragmatic reality of day-to-day technology use offers a contrasting balance to the vision of the technologist. The social pragmatist points out that the latter has captured the imagination of those in the media who forecast sweeping social consequences of the technologist’s predictions, such as the end of such institutions as companies, universities, and governments at the municipal, state, and national levels. Brown and Duguid expose the pro-technology discourse that glorifies the “information” as both the impetus for ending social institutions and the solution to all problems. They argue not against change in general, but suggest “that envisioned change will not happen or will not be fruitful until people look beyond the simplicities of information and individuals to the complexities of learning, knowledge, judgment, communities, organizations, and institutions” (p. 213). Their critique is intended as a moderating voice in what they see as the under-informed and misguided discourse on technology. In this sense, their message resonates with that of the critical analyst.
The critical analyst’s perspective Unlike the technologist or social pragmatist, the critical analyst does not accept the idea that the development and use of technology constitutes the natural evolution of society, but instead questions the underlying assumptions that technology is inevitable, positive, and culturally neutral. Like the social pragmatists, critical analysts seek alternatives to the mainstream images that glorify access to information. One critical analyst’s reinterpretation of the mediagenerated positive images of the Internet illustrates the alternative-seeking mission of the critical analyst: