Book part: The Phenomenotechnical, Math education and the Experience of “Lived Number”
Abstract
Over the last half century, in considering possible directions for a future study of media, a sociology of science, or for phenomenology itself, theorists have invoked Bachelard's notion of “phenomenotechnics” (Latour & Woolgar 1980; Waldenfels 2004; Castelao-Lawless 1995). Phenomenotechnics refers to the study of “a reality [which] takes on the appearance of a phenomenon by virtue of its construction through material techniques” (Latour & Wolgar 1980). Whether these material techniques are laboratory instruments and practices, cinematic technologies, or online simulations, the effects of such “technologies of attention” as Waldenfels calls them, can be seen as “belong[ing] to the field of the phenomenotechnical, which is always already a part of the organization of experience” (2004; p. 120). In defining and undertaking a phenomenotechnical investigation, this study focuses on the use and history of one particular “technology of attention” (Waldenfels 2004), the famous “Tower of Hanoi” puzzle. Considered a classical problem in both programming and artificial intelligence, this simple “game” is widely available on the Web as a simulation, and is occasionally used in this and other forms for mathematics education. Through a careful examination of the experiential dimension of this particular “attentional technology,” this paper develops an understanding of its educational value specifically in terms of its phenomenotechnical and experiential characteristics, pointing towards the importance of affective and embodied experience of numerical magnitude and relationship – rather than more formalized knowledge – in mathematical understanding.
Preferred Citation
BibTex
Friesen, Norm; Francis-Poscente, Krista: The Phenomenotechnical, Math education and the Experience of “Lived Number”. In: Hug, Theo: Media, Knowledge & Education. Exploring new Spaces, Relations and Dynamics in Digital Media Ecologies. Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press 2008, S. 170-183. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19777.
@INCOLLECTION{Friesen2008,
author = {Friesen, Norm and Francis-Poscente, Krista},
title = {The Phenomenotechnical, Math education and the Experience of “Lived Number”},
year = 2008,
doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19777}",
editor = {Hug, Theo},
address = {Innsbruck},
booktitle = {Media, Knowledge & Education. Exploring new Spaces, Relations and Dynamics in Digital Media Ecologies},
pages = {170--183},
publisher = {Innsbruck University Press},
}
author = {Friesen, Norm and Francis-Poscente, Krista},
title = {The Phenomenotechnical, Math education and the Experience of “Lived Number”},
year = 2008,
doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19777}",
editor = {Hug, Theo},
address = {Innsbruck},
booktitle = {Media, Knowledge & Education. Exploring new Spaces, Relations and Dynamics in Digital Media Ecologies},
pages = {170--183},
publisher = {Innsbruck University Press},
}
Keywords
The item has been published with the following license: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz