Abstract
The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) theory offers a useful conceptual framework for examining the social and cultural factors that may contribute to or detract from the successful integration of computer technology into educational environments. This theory, which grew out of studies in the history of technology and the sociology of science, suggests methods for studying the phenomenon of technological development, such as identifying the relevant social groups involved in the development process and the factors that either leave the technology in a state of interpretive flexibility or bring the interpretation of the technology to closure. This paper uses a SCOT approach to explore how personal and institutional beliefs can shape the ways in which technologies are used by teachers and students, and to identify the social, epistemological, cognitive and motivational factors that need to be considered as computer technology becomes an integral part of the educational experience.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barnes, B. and Edge, D. (1982).Science in Context: Readings in the Sociology of Science. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Barron, L. and Goldman, E. (1994). Integrating Technology with Teacher Preparation. In Means, B. (ed.)Technology and Education Reform: The Reality Behind the Promise. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 81–110.
Baxter-Magolda, M. (1992).Knowing and Reasoning in College: Gender-Related Patterns in Students' Intellectual Development. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Bijker, W. (1995).Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Bijker, W., Hughes, T. and Pinch, T. (1987).The Social Construction of Technological Systems. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Bijker, W. and Law, J. (1992).Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Bimber, B. (1990). Karl Marx and the Three Faces of Technological Determinism,Social Studies of Science.20, 33–351.
Bloor, D. (1976).Knowledge and Social Imagery. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Braun, L. (1993). Help for All the Students,Communications of the ACM.36(5). 66–69.
Brown, A., Ash, D., Rutherford, M., Nakagawa, K., Gordon, A. and Campione, J. (1993). Distributed Expertise in the Classroom. In Salomon, G. (ed.)Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 188–228.
Carlson, P.A. (1990). Square Books and Round Books: Cognitive Implications of Hypertext,Academic Computing, April, 16–46.
Carlson, W.B. (1992). Artifacts and Frames of Meaning: Thomas A. and Edison, his Managers, and the Cultural Construction of Motion Pictures. In Bijker, W. and Law, J. (eds)Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 175–200.
Case, R. (1992). Neo-Piagetian Theories of Intellectual Development. In Beilen, H. and Pufall, P. (eds), Piaget's Theory: Prospects and Possibilities. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 61–106.
Cockburn, C. and Ormrod, S. (1993).Gender and Technology in the Making. Sage, London.
Collins, A. (1990). The Role of Computer Technology in Restructuring Schools. In Sheingold, K. and Tucker, M. (eds) Restructuring for Learning with Technology. Center for Technology in Education and the National Center on Education and the Economy, New York, 29–46.
Collins, A., Brown, J.S. and Newman, S.E. (1989). Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the Craft of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics. In Resnick L. B. (ed)Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 78–91.
Cook, T. (1985). Postpositivist Critical Multiplism. In Shotland, R. and Mark, M. (eds)Social Science and Social Policy. Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 21–62
Cowan, R.S. (1985). The Industrial Revolution in the Home. In MacKenzie, D. and Wajcman, J. (eds)The Social Shaping of Technology: How the refrigerator got its hum. Open University Press, Milton Keynes, UK, 181–201.
Dewey, J. (1938).Experience and Education. Collier Books, New York.
Dwyer, D. (1994). Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow: What We've Learned,Educational Leadership. 51(7). 4–10.
Edwards, P. (1996).The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Eisner, E. (1990). The Meaning of Alternative Paradigms for Practice. In Guba, E. (ed.)The Paradigm Dialog. Sage, Newbury Park, CA.
Flanders, N. (1960). Diagnosing and Utilizing Social Structures in Classroom Learning. In N.S.S.Et Yearbook (ed.)Dynamics of Instructional Groups University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 187–217.
Garner, R. and Gillingham, M. (1996).Internet Communication in Six Classrooms: Conversations Across Time, Space, and Culture. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
Gore, A. (1998). Should Schools Be Wired to the Internet? Yes—It's Essential to the Way Kids Learn,Time. 25 May. 151.
Hughes, T. (1983).Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880–1930. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, MD.
King, P. and Kitchener, K.S. (1994).Developing Reflective Judgment: Understanding and Promoting Intellectual Growth and Critical Thinking in Adolescents and Adults. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Kirk, J. and Miller, M. (1986).Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research. Sage, Beverly Hills, CA.
Kline, R. and Pinch, T. (1996). Taking the Black Box off its Wheels: The Social Construction of the Automobile in Rural America,Technology and Culture.37, 76–795.
Kuhn, T. (1982). Normal Measurement and Reasonable Agreement. In Barnes, B. and Edge, D. (eds)Science in Context: Readings in the Sociology of Science. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 75–93
Latour, B. (1987).Science in Action. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Latour, B. (1996).Aramis or the Love of Technology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Latour, B. and Woolgar, S. (1979/86).Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Lave, J. (1991). Situating Learning in Communities of Practice. In Resnick, L.B., Levine, J.M. and Teasley S.D. (eds)Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition. American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.
Lazonick, W. (1985). The Self-Acting Mule and Social Relations in the Workplace. In MacKenzie, D. and Wajcman, J. (eds),The Social Shaping of Technology: How the Refrigerator Got its Hum. Open University Press, Milton Keynes, UK, 93–108
Longino, H. (1990).Science and Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
MacKenzie, D. (1987). Missile Accuracy: A Case Study in the Social Processes of Technological Change. In Bijker, W., Hughes, T. and Pinch, T. (eds)The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Morrison, D. and Goldberg, B. (1996). New Actors, New Connections: The Role of Local Information Infrastructures in School Reform. In Koschmann, T. (ed.)CSCL: Theory and Practice of an Emerging Paradigm. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ. 125–146.
Noble, D. (1985). Social Choice in Machine Design: The Case of Automatically Controlled Machine Tools. In MacKenzie, D. and Wajcman, J. (eds),The Social Shaping of Technology: How the Refrigerator Got its Hum. Open University Press, Milton Keynes, UK, 109–124
Orr, J. (1996).Talking about Machines. ILR Press, Ithaca, NY.
Pea, R. (1993). Practices of Distributed Intelligence and Designs for Education. In Salomon, G. (ed.),Distributed Cognitions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 47–48
Perry, W. (1968).Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 47–88
Pinch, T. (1996). The Social Construction of Technology: A Review. In Fox, R. (ed.)Technological change: methods and themes in the history of technology. Harwood Academic, NY.
Pinch, T. and Bijker, W. (1987). The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit Each Other. In Bijker, W., Hughes, T. and Pinch, T. (eds)The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 17–50
Pinch, T., Collins, H.M. and Carbone, L. (1996). Inside Knowledge: Second Order Measures of Skill,Sociological Review.44. 163–186.
Popper, K. (1968). The Logic of the Scientific Discovery. Harper & Row, New York.
Richardson, V. (1990). Significant and Worthwhile Change in Teaching Practice.Educational Researcher,19, 10–18.
Rosen, P. (1993). The Social Construction of Mountain Bikes: Technology and Postmodernity in the Cycle Industry.Social Studies of Science.23. 479–513.
Salomon, G. (1979/94). Interaction of Media, Cognition and Learning: An Exploration of How Symbolic Forms Cultivate Mental Skills and Affect Knowledge Acquisition (2nd edn). Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Saye, J. (1997). Technology and Educational Empowerment: Students' Perspectives,Educational Technology Research and Development.45(2). 5–25.
Schon, D. (1982). The Fear of Innovation. In Barnes, B. and Edge D. (eds),Science in Context: Readings in the Sociology of Science. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 290–302.
Soloway, E., Krajcik, J., Blumenfeld, P. and Marx, R. (1996). Technological Support for Teachers Transitioning to Project-Based Science Practices. In Koschmann, T. (ed.)CSCL: Theory and Practice of an Emerging Paradigm. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, 269–306
Spiro, R., Coulson, R., Feltovitch, P. and Anderson, D. (1988). Cognitive Flexibility Theory: Advanced Knowledge Acquisition in Ill-Structured Domains. InTenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
Vaughan, D. (1996).The Challenger Launch Decision. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Winner, L. (1993). Upon Opening the Black Box and Finding it Empty: Social Constructivism and the Philosophy of Technology,Science, Technology and Human Values.18, 362–378.
Wirth, A. (1992).Education and Work for the Year 2000: Choices We Face. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Youniss, J. and Damon, W. (1992). Social Construction in Piaget's Theory. In Beilen, H. and Pufall, P. (eds),Piaget's Theory: Prospects and Possibilities. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 267–286.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Martin, W. The social and cultural shaping of educational technology: Toward a social constructivist framework. AI & Soc 13, 402–420 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01205986
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01205986