Canadian E-Learning Conference June 17-20 2008

From Chalk to ‘Blackboard’: Technically a Good Move?

This presentation explores the true meaning of the word technology, its relationship to life in general, and in particular, technology’s continuing impact on the field of education and schooling. This investigation is designed to challenge the overall value of technology and to pose some relevant questions designed to meaningfully assess whether technology actually enhances or detracts from the goals of teaching and learning, especially those that are directly related to schooling.

Dr. M. Stefan Sikora, an educational theorist and philosopher and a sometimes outspoken critic of public schooling, has a broad-based background which includes a B.A. in History, a B.Ed. (with distinction) in Social Studies, an M.A. in Native Education, and a Ph.D. in Aboriginal Philosophy. After having done much of his early graduate work studying both Experimental Psychology and Educational Psychology at various universities, he was invited to do post-doctoral studies in Educational Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in the UK. Currently he instructs in a wide variety of educational subjects here at Mount Royal College. Dr. Sikora’s relatively unique and multifaceted teaching career began as a professional tennis instructor. His experience now includes considerable time spent working in the public system, in a private school, heading up a free university, and teaching at various colleges and universities.

Dr. Sikora also spent a considerable number of years in the isolated B.C. ‘bush country’ as the principal, teacher, and education advisor for the Kluskus Indian Band, an experience which has continued to shape much of his thinking in the field of general education. Throughout his career Dr. Sikora has spent time studying education and related subjects within a variety of other cultural contexts, including those of Canada and the U.S., as well as Great Britain, Poland, Greece, Spain, and Japan. He has been the author and editor of and contributor to academic texts and papers and has also found the time to write a few novels, some books of poetry, and two plays, one of which was nominated for a Governor General’s Award. Over the past twenty years he has presented at numerous conferences and workshops on a number of topics related to schooling and general education.