Conference To Examine Technology's Impact On Society

9-11-97
University Park, Pa. -- An international conference on the expansion of technology and its effect on personal and social life will be held Sept. 17-20 at the Penn State Conference Center Hotel.

Conference participants will address these and other questions:
-- How has education affected the growth of a technological society, and what are the benefits and costs of that growth?

-- How is technology transforming the educational process, and what are the costs and benefits of that transformation?

The conference, called "Education and Technology: Asking the Right Questions," will center on the work of the late Jacques Ellul, author of many books about ethics and theology, and Ivan Illich, historian/philosopher and author of a dozen critical studies of modern society.

Ellul did much of the early work on how to make moral choices in a technological society. His 43 books include "The Technological Society," published in the United States in 1964, which was later expanded into "The Technological Bluff."

Illich's books overturn assumptions in a range of areas. His works include: "Deschooling Society," "Tools for Conviviality," "Toward a History of Needs," "Energy and Equity," "Medical Nemesis," "Shadow Work," "Gender" and "In the Vineyard of the Text."

Illich is one of the principal speakers at the conference, which will be covered by the Canadian Broadcasting Company. More than 150 participants, representing 30 states and 10 nations, are signed up for the conference.

Other conference speakers are Daniel Cerezuelle, Clifford Christians, David Gill, Joyce Hanks, Carl Mitcham, Seyyed Nasr, Neil Postman, Willem Vanderburg, Leonard Waks, and Langdon Winner. While attending the conference, Postman -- chair of the Department of Culture and Communications at New York University and author of "Technopoly" and "The End of Education," will be a guest on "Take Note," the WPSX-TV show hosted by Patty Satalia.

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For information regarding the conference program, please contact Henry C. Johnson Jr., chair of the conference steering committee, at (814) 865-1488. For information about registration, costs, and accommodations, contact Chris Dufour, conference planner, at (814) 863-5110.