Monty Neill (b. 1948) has written widely on education and assessment issues. He is a member of the Midnight Notes Collective, a group that publishes books about political economy, including Midnight Oil (Autonomedia, 1992). This essay appeared originally in Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information, (edited by Iain A. Boal and James Brooks; City Lights, 1995), a collection of essays offering a critical view of technology for an educated audience.
"Computers, Thinking, and Schools in the 'New Economic Order'" (Composing Cyberspace p. 415) is not available online.
1. What ideas about the international capitalist system lie behind Neill's criticism of the educational use of computers? For example, why does he think that working-class power and wages are being reduced or that "the savage inequalities of the past will extend into the wired savagery of the future" (¶ 13)?
2. What is the purpose of our educational system, according to Neill? How does this compare or contrast with other goals of education you have heard or considered?
3. In what ways does Neill argue that school computers are being used to produce "thinking machinesÓ instead of critically thinking human beings? To what extent are you persuaded that computer technology increases physical isolation and social alienation?
4. Neill writes that "the important issues are not ones of technology but of politics" (¶ 23) and "liberation is not a matter of technology but of social relations" (¶ 44). How would you describe Neill's politics, his values, and his definition of liberation? How sympathetic are you with this set of values?
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