Dourish ends chapter one with general introductions to the themes that he promises to develop in the rest of the book. I found his description of the trends in “tangible computing” (p. 15) both exciting and a bit disturbing. Do we want to wear tags that introduce us to each other? On the other hand the idea of interacting with the computer with actual objects instead of just with a mouse—which is two-dimensional—is exciting to imagine!

As I was reading the pages where Dourish introduces the philosophy of Embodied Interaction, I had two thoughts. One was that one of the things that I have always liked about working with computers is how physical the work has seemed to me. Planning a course, for example, is an abstract process, but building a Web site for the same course is physical, real. So I it’s because of this work that I think I understand what Dourish means when he says that “we act in the world by exploring its physical affordances.” Second, for me teaching in general has always been about embedding thought in everyday action. So I think this helps me to understand the notion of “embodiment” too.

I kept seeing parallels to teaching and recent trends in educational research as I was reading further about the philosophical foundations of Dourish’s book. I think teachers who see themselves as intellectuals are natural phenomenoligists because our thinking must quickly face “Monday morning with students.” It’s about as real as you can get.

Dourish mentions that some of the implications of a Phenomenological approach to studying computing and interaction is that anthropological looking and case studies are important. This is true in education too, with ethnographic research, for example.

I really like—and again can see lots of parallels to artifacts in teaching—Dourish’s example of how “the artifact of daily interaction can play many different roles” (p. 20). Medical record cards contain important information because of how they are written on and this can’t be easily replaced technologically! This is a wonderful reminder of what computers can and can’t do—And how computer applications need to be studied in real situations.

The story about medical record cards helped Dourish flesh out this introduction. I was happy to see him mention toward the end of this section that the material the he was presenting “has all been presented so far in very broad strokes” (p. 22). I look forward to more stories like the one about the medical record cards as Dourish embodies the philosophical models he sets out in chapter one.