Relevant Readings

Suggested Readings

This page began as a simple list of books I have read pertaining to creativity, digital culture and teaching in higher education. I am developing it into an annotated bibliography.

Annotated Bibliography

Technology and Culture

Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York, NY. Vintage Books.

Everything I’ve ever read by Neil Postman caused me to think in new ways about our assumptions about education, technology and culture. Technopoly is a critique about our tendency to give a free pass to all things that seem technical and scientific. Postman argues that it is inappropriate to attempt to quantify everything. One example he offers is the I.Q. Test, arguing that intelligence is multifaceted and every individual is unique. Every technology we use such as an IQ test has embedded biases that we rarely acknowledge or question. The book discusses the history of and technological approaches to dealing with the information glut that began with the introduction of the printing press and has exploded in the digital age.

The Postman point of view supplements ideas offered by others such as Kevin Kelly and Sherry Turkle, who say that technology always has positive and negative effects but we rarely consider the negative side of things.

Amazon Page

Creativity and Curiosity

Grazer, B. (2015). A curious mind: The secret to a bigger life. New York, NY. Simon & Schuster. Amazon Page

Books I’ve Read

A Curious Mind Grazer, B.
A New Culture of Learning Thomas, D.
Academically Adrift Arum, R & Roksa, J.
Alone Together Turkle, S.
Chasing the Monster Idea Mumaw, S.
Cognitive Surplus Shirky, C.
Consent of the Networked MacKinnon, R.
For the Win Werbach, K.
Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Levinson, J.C.
Here Comes Everybody Shirky, C.
How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age Carnegie, D.
Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood Smith, C., et. al.
Net Smart Rheingold, H.
Now You See It Davidson, C.N.
Program or Be Programmed Rushkoff, D.
Radical Openness Tapscott, D & Williams, A.
Smarter Than You Think Thompson, C.
The App Generation Gardner, H
The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth Robbins, A.
The Mobile Mind Shift Schadler, T.
The Shallows Carr, N.
The Storytelling Animal Gottschall, J.
The Young and the Digital Watkins, S. C.
United Breaks Guitars Carroll, D.
UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed Borba, M.
What Technology Wants Kelly, K.
You Are Not So Smart McRaney, D.
Your Creative Brain Carson, S.

 

another list of books, Mark Mansfield’s list. https://markmanson.net/best-books