Starting from childhood, we are deluged with impressions about technology. Cartoons, films, stories, and lessons portray technology as a powerful force, one often beyond most human abilities. How do these portrayals of technology shape young minds? The question deserves attention. After all, the engineers and designers spinning the world of tomorrow grew up on a diet of techno-fables, just like the rest of us.
This issue of Woz Way attends to the shaping of the technological imagination by focusing on two films and a museum children's program. Reg Lester, Grant Richards, and Shira Stone explore the imagination of technology presented by George Lucas and his Star Wars series. Rebecca Pasquinelli follows with a study of how the film, Tron, visualized technology in nearly religious terms. Heather Morgan, Shima Saini, Jessica Gonzalez conclude this issue with a more "down to earth" approach, examining the San Jose Tech Museum's strategies for presenting technology to the children of Silicon Valley. Each of these essays emerges from an Internet Communication course taught by Dr. Stephanie Coopman.
Reg Lester, Grant Richards, and Shira Stone How Technology is Represented in Star Wars
Rebecca Pasquinelli An Analysis of the Film TRON
Heather Morgan, Shima Saini, Jessica Gonzalez The San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation
