Misconceptions about a new technology leads to misunderstandings about its use.
McLuhan (1964, p.158) writes of the Renaissance man who is so impressed with a book he has purchased that was printed with moveable type that he immediately takes it out to the scribe to have it copied. Often lab teaching assistants will be asked to publish a document on the internet and then asked by a professor, still mired in the old technology, to print out 40 copies for a meeting. It can be very difficult for people to see what the new technology actually is and not to judge it by standards that are inappropriate for the technology.
Dreyfus’ descriptions of uses for the internet fall along similar misconceptions and misapplications; he tries to evaluate the internet as a learning tool in terms of print encyclopedias. Naturally the internet fails this test because it is neither “print” nor an “encyclopedia.” Dreyfus makes the following claims;
- that information is difficult to find on the web,
- that distance learning is not useful beyond basic skills teaching,
- that a "disembodied telepresence" is not the same as actually being in the same room with someone.
I classify these arguments much along the same lines as an argument that criticizes a bus for not being a taxicab.
Dreyfus claims to draw on the philosophy Merleau-Ponty among others. My reading of Merleau-Ponty contrasts Dreyfus’ reading to a significant degree. Merleau-Ponty (p.273) says that the “body is the seat or rather the very actuality of the phenomena of expression (Ausdruk), and therefore visual and auditory experiences.” This would presumably include ALL visual experience including computers the internet. He goes on to say (p.273) that the “body is the fabric into which all objects are woven…” and defines “objects” as not only natural objects but also cultural objects like words.