 |
A Classical Perspective on Technology for Learning and Teaching about Politics
| |
| | Unformatted Document Text:
encourage effective learning. The question of interest here is to what degree might we employ the new technological advances to that end, while being conscious of efforts to avoid misusing them to settle for the shallow rather than to strive for the deep?
A strong indicator that indeed these technologies and their ability to help us build and experience images can be quite important tools in enhancing human understanding is to be found in the Republic itself. There Socrates describes himself as "greedy for images" (488a). He seeks to use images to lead to increasingly complex and accurate understanding. Interestingly, when it comes to the process of creating understanding, the dominant images are employed with the more thoughtful and philosophic of his principal discussants, in Glaucon. Accordingly, then, it may be worthwhile to spend some time and effort following Socrates' lead in thinking about images.
Socrates characterizes the relationship between the things at the two levels in the visible realm in this way: at the relatively higher level of the visible realm are the "artifacts" or the things themselves, the objects of sense experience. Below that, at the level of images, are "first shadows, then the appearances produced in water and in all close-grained, smooth, bright things and everything of the sort" (510a). These appearances can be very important, however, for it is through them that we can come to appreciate what the actual things look like, or seem to be. Images can exist as pictures, meaning photographs or paintings or drawings, but they can also be verbal or in the form of simulated experience. The image of the divided line and the image of the cave, for example, seems powerful and vivid, but are presented to us only in words. These images, whether in pictures or in words or in some other form, help us begin to appreciate what the things themselves seem to be. It is from appreciating what the things themselves seem to be that we begin to move to a higher, more conceptual level in the intelligible realm represented on the divided line.
As Socrates explains to Glaucon, there are times when sense experience seems adequate to account for some object or other. Looking at a finger, to use Socrates' example (and again we note that Plato makes Socrates use an image that is immediate and easily accessible to help his learner come to an understanding of what is represented by a yet more complex and difficult image), we are satisfied that what we experience is, unproblematically, a finger. But then, as that finger becomes one of three, some of what we experience about it becomes less plain. Is it large or is it small? It
9
|
| | Authors: Webking, Robert. |
|
| |
|
|
encourage effective learning. The question of interest here is to what
degree might we employ the new technological advances to that end,
while being conscious of efforts to avoid misusing them to settle for
the shallow rather than to strive for the deep?
A strong indicator that indeed these technologies and their ability to
help us build and experience images can be quite important tools in
enhancing human understanding is to be found in the Republic itself.
There Socrates describes himself as "greedy for images" (488a). He
seeks to use images to lead to increasingly complex and accurate
understanding. Interestingly, when it comes to the process of creating
understanding, the dominant images are employed with the more
thoughtful and philosophic of his principal discussants, in Glaucon.
Accordingly, then, it may be worthwhile to spend some time and effort
following Socrates' lead in thinking about images.
Socrates characterizes the relationship between the things at the two
levels in the visible realm in this way: at the relatively higher level of
the visible realm are the "artifacts" or the things themselves, the
objects of sense experience. Below that, at the level of images, are
"first shadows, then the appearances produced in water and in all
close-grained, smooth, bright things and everything of the sort"
(510a). These appearances can be very important, however, for it is
through them that we can come to appreciate what the actual things
look like, or seem to be. Images can exist as pictures, meaning
photographs or paintings or drawings, but they can also be verbal or in
the form of simulated experience. The image of the divided line and
the image of the cave, for example, seems powerful and vivid, but are
presented to us only in words. These images, whether in pictures or in
words or in some other form, help us begin to appreciate what the
things themselves seem to be. It is from appreciating what the things
themselves seem to be that we begin to move to a higher, more
conceptual level in the intelligible realm represented on the divided
line.
As Socrates explains to Glaucon, there are times when sense
experience seems adequate to account for some object or other.
Looking at a finger, to use Socrates' example (and again we note that
Plato makes Socrates use an image that is immediate and easily
accessible to help his learner come to an understanding of what is
represented by a yet more complex and difficult image), we are
satisfied that what we experience is, unproblematically, a finger. But
then, as that finger becomes one of three, some of what we
experience about it becomes less plain. Is it large or is it small? It
9
|
|
 Convention | | All Academic Convention is the premier solution for your association's abstract management solutions needs. | | Submission - Custom fields, multiple submission types, tracks, audio visual, multiple upload formats, automatic conversion to pdf. | | Review - Peer Review, Bulk reviewer assignment, bulk emails, ranking, z-score statistics, and multiple worksheets! | | Reports - Many standard and custom reports generated while you wait. Print programs with participant indexes, event grids, and more! | | Scheduling - Flexible and convenient grid scheduling within rooms and buildings. Conflict checking and advanced filtering. | | Communication - Bulk email tools to help your administrators send reminders and responses. Use form letters, a message center, and much more! | | Management - Search tools, duplicate people management, editing tools, submission transfers, many tools to manage a variety of conference management headaches! | | Click here for more information. |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
