Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
“Technological accomplishments characterize and transform cultures, yet their importance is undervalued. Their place remains obscure in today’s learning institutions, in government policy, and in the public mind.” (from the Call for Papers at TL&T 2010) The technological learning and thinking conference sponsored by UNESCO in 2010 invited over 100 scholars and practitioners to address this obscurity. The main question in 2010 was – what social mechanisms work for, or against, the integration of TL&T in societies and institutions? Thanks to a range of contributions associated with four themes (culture, design, sustainability, human ingenuity) we now have a better understanding of the social mechanisms (the strengths and limitations of institutionalized learning, the association or lack of it between different social strata and human productivity/life, the agency felt, or not felt, by people and families in their search for self-esteem and place). In short, we have a basis for tackling the relation between TL&T and human ingenuity. We also know that the human tendency to be technical/practical is linked to a natural or experiential way of knowing/learning. Finally, human beings are by nature, inquisitive, curious, and creative. The purpose of the 2014 symposium is to build on the scholarship from 2010 and expand on it, in particular, to clarify the roots of our learning and creativity.
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Notes
Symposium program for "Technological Learning and Thinking: Clarifying the Roots of our Learning and Creativity," held July 13-14, 2014 at the University of British Columbia. Coordinated by UBC Faculty of Education and the Human Ingenuity Research Group, UWO Faculty of Education.