FREE PUBLIC EVENT: The Hamilton Science & Faith Forum and the CSCA present a lecture by Dirk Windhorst, Department of Education (retired), Redeemer University College.
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Is Technology a Threat to Education? George Grant in the Light of John Dewey
In this presentation, the views of George Parkin Grant (1918-1988) will be examined regarding the relationship between technology and education. How did he define technology? What did he mean by education? If we accept his understanding of those terms, to what extent does technology threaten education? After his definitions are compared to those of John Dewey (1859-1952), Grant and Dewey will be found to agree substantially on the nature of modern technology but to disagree profoundly on the meaning of an educative experience.
Dirk Windhorst taught elementary school for 22 years and worked as a teacher-educator at Redeemer University College for 15. He retired from full-time work in 2016 but continues to supervise teacher-candidates from time to time on behalf of Redeemer. His abiding interest in George Grant was ignited in 1972 when he read Lament for a Nation, one of the required texts for an undergraduate course. He holds a BA (Honours Political Science) from McMaster, a M Ed and PhD from Brock. For this session, Windhorst draws on the work he did for his 1995 master’s thesis, Is Technology a Threat to Education? The Contribution of George Parkin Grant. Grant’s lodestar, Simone Weil, figures prominently in his 2009 doctoral dissertation, Educating for a Love of Wisdom: John Dewey and Simone Weil.