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Imagine a Computer Imagine...
Speaker: Gadi Alexander, Ben Gurion University, Israel. (Visiting Scholar at SFU in 2005/6)
Computers challenge our perceptions of what representations, thinking, social presence, and many other so called "uniquely human" qualities entail. Our special interest in imagination at IERG leads us to the current thought experiment attempting to find out if common computer applications could change our perception of what imagination could be while scaffolding or hindering our ability to imagine. The presentation (which is intended to begin a collaborative effort to think together about these issues) will zoom-in on four representative categories of computer applications.
We will begin by looking at examples from the less familiar cases in which computer programs are expected to be "imaginative" and autonomously create new types of literary, musical, artistic, and scientific works.
From there we will move to the more popular domain of video games in order to deliberate if the sort of imagination and engagement that is commonly attributed to this type of activity corresponds to what educators are looking for in their quest for imaginative learning.
The short tour will than stop at the workshops in which creators and artists and student-designers harness digital productivity tools to design, scaffold, and activate new types of creative imagination.
Our final stop will bring us to the land of CMC, (or computer mediated communication) in which issues of social absence and presence, the real and the imagined community, and the socio-cultural rather than the idiosyncratic nature of imagination and creativity immerges.
We will attempt to develop a model of the types of interaction and imagination that are afforded in each category. The question is what this interplay entails for educators who are concerned about the engagement of the imagination of their students.