Essay – written october 2002 – Part 2

Teaching history and theory should be considered an essential ingredient in technology and design based subjects. As Kerka (1994, p.1) states, “If we expect our graduates to contribute to the quality of life through their individual creative work in family, jobs and society, we need to recognize that all of us are involved in and interact with a highly technological environment, and that education should develop capability for lifelong learning in all of the disciplines which contribute to that environment”. A key part of developing this capability for lifelong learning is to provide a historical basis for further developments to be built upon, which can be achieved at least partially by examining the history and theory behind technological practice.

By fostering the development of technological literacy educators can genuinely contribute to social reform in a meaningful way. “Design and technology offers learners a rich blend of knowledge, skills, strategies and dispositions to develop their identities as individuals, and to help them design shared, sustainable futures… Ultimately learners can detect and deconstruct dominant power structures which create inequities… It calls for deep, rather than shallow, understandings of technology. Thus the notion of a technologically literate learner is not a narrow one.” (SACSA 2002, p.2)

By enabling learners to become fluent in the language of technology and aware of the historical processes that have led to the shaping of modern society, in a very real sense we give them the power to make significant changes to the world in which they live. Rushkoff elaborates on the power that technologically and socially literate individuals wield in the information age. “People who lack traditional power but still seek to influence the direction of our culture do so by infusing new ideas… a black man is beaten by white cops in Los Angeles. The event is captured on a home camcorder and within hours the beating is replayed on the televisions of millions… what began as a thirty-second video clip emerges as the battle cry for full-scale urban looting.” (1994 p.8)

In design in particular it is extremely important to have an extensive understanding of the history of art and design. In practical terms this knowledge is essential in the process of design in terms of developing style, and in reference to ideas and concepts. Design is a discipline that must always be seen to be modern, up-to date, even ‘fashionable’. It could be argued that the only way for a designer to achieve this is to have knowledge of what has already been created, so that older styles and techniques can be ‘evolved’ to create something new.