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User Error explodes the myth of computer
technology as juggernaut. Multimedia educator Ellen
Rose shows that there is no bandwagon, no
out-of-control dynamo, no titanic conspiracy to
overwhelm us. Instead, there is our own desire to
join the fraternity of users, a fraternity that
confers legitimacy and power on those who enter the
brave new world.
Rose exposes how we surrender decision-making power
in personal and workplace computing situations. As
users we willingly grant authority to the creators
of software, support materials, and the seductive
infrastructure of technocracy.
"Smart" users are rewarded; reluctant users are
pathologized. User identity is deliberately
constructed at the crossroads of industry, consumer
demand, and complicity. User Error sounds a
timely alarm, calling on all of us who use the new
technologies to recognize how we are being
co-opted. With awareness we can reassert our own
responsibility and power in this increasingly
important interaction.
Savvy, accessible, and up-to-date, User
Error offers insight, inspiration, and
strategies of resistance to general readers,
technology professionals, students, and scholars
alike.
Ellen
Rose holds the McCain/Aliant-Telecom Chair in
Education and Multimedia at the University of New
Brunswick. She directs a graduate programme in
instructional design. In addition to numerous
journal articles on media, technology, and
pedagogy, she has published Hyper Texts: The
Language and Culture of Educational
Computing.
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