Publications

Books - Taming the Beast

What the critics say:

"I think it is a wonderful book and quite ground-breaking... Of all the books now appearing on what to do about media in the education of our youth, Jason Ohler's is, in my opinion, the best. It is the best because he knows what questions need to be addressed, puts them in a meaningful context, and does not presume to know all the answers."

Neil Postman - Technopoly; End of Education; Amusing Ourselves to Death

"In a world dominated by technology, we desperately need what Jason Ohler provides -- practical ways to learn, teach, and think about technology literacy. We need to get beyond the soundbite, black and white, view of technological impacts. Ohler gives us a clear view of the landscape, complete with shades of gray, practicalities, and complexities. If it were up to me, every teacher in the world would receive a copy."

Howard Rheingold - Virtual Communities; Virtual Reality; Tools for Thought

"(Jason Ohler believes)...that humans have options -- meaning we, not our technologies, are ultimately in control. This understanding and its application make Taming the Beast a crucial manual for the new millennium, a sourcebook not only of good ideas -- of which there are many in this book -- but even more significantly of an attitude that will help us make the most of the new technological, fundamentally more human, world we are almost daily bringing into greater being."

Paul Levinson - Digital McLuhan; The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution

"Anyone interested in technology will be interested in reading Taming the Beast. Ohler, an authority on educational technology, takes the reader through a systematic exploration of how to think about technology in today's world. Each chapter presents a series of questions for the reader to ponder on issues ranging from how technology extends people's senses and capabilities to the affect of technology on temporal and special relationships? The author manages to steer a middle course between those who lament with gloom and doom technological determinism and those who blindly worship at the altar of hi-tech progress. Taming the Beast is an important book. Ohler's style and language are accessible to the laymen and scholar alike. In the end, he makes a compelling case for an expanded concept of literacy which includes a critical stanch towards technology. He suggests that we need to look at technology with a new pair of eyes. Only by doing this and critically evaluating what we see can we hope to control technology. In Taming the Beast Ohler has written a valuable book that helps us do just that."

John Davies - Educating Students in a Media-Saturated Culture; DOA: Schools in the Information Age Culture

"With so many pundits praising or excoriating the new technologies, it is timely to have a book that presents the pros and cons of various media and stimulates readers to reach their own conclusions."

Dr. Howard Gardner - Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences; Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century

"We know that many other animals use technology; people are the only ones who can talk about it. The level of that discussion still needs improvement, and Taming the Beast is a significant contribution, a readable text for high school students, a great resource for teachers, and a provocative survey for all. Taming the Beast shows how technology assessment can and should be everybody's business."

Dr. Edward Tenner - Why Things Bite Back

"Jason Ohler gets it. Twenty years and 100 billion dollars into the computer and information revolution, most people are still consumed with cards and cables, hardware and software, input and output, RAM and ROM. In Taming the Beast, Jason Ohler moves well beyond technolust and technodrool to take a hard look at the critical issues that confront us. He shows us that only by getting beyond the tool to the context of the tool and its application to the task can we ever hope to understand and control the Beast. This book is an absolute required read for anyone and everyone who wants to really understand what technology is and how we can and must use it. Jason Ohler gets it."

Ian Jukes - Windows on the Futurde; Netsavvy- Information Literacy for the Communication Age