INTRODUCTION This chapter examines the ever more salient, consequential, and complicated relationship of computers and computing to theoretical and methodological aspects of education. As will become apparent, even defining ‘com- puters’ and ‘computing’ is, and should be, a highly complex, inherently problematic undertaking; nonetheless, as necessarily rough-hewn definitional prototypes, my ten- tative proposals are as follows. With the term ‘computer’, I refer for the present to all elec- tronic devices invented and used for purposes of numerical and logical calculation; informa- tion storage and retrieval; digitally mediated communication; modeling of and interaction with systems and structures providing simu- lated experience of various kinds; and regula- tion or automation of so-called ‘real-world’ or ‘offline’ systems and structures. My baseline definition of ‘computing’ will be direct par- ticipation in any or all of these computer- mediated activities, along with engagement and development of the physical, intellectual, and emotional capacities and competences 1 for employing these tools and functions to productive, creative and fulfilling effects. I would emphasize once more, though, that the seeming tidiness of these definitions is decep- tive, belying the difficulty of answering the most fundamental, as yet unsettled questions of what, how and why these necessary capaci- ties, competences and desired effects might be, now and into the future. Obviously, these questions, however bedeviling, are of utmost pedagogical concern. This chapter, therefore, is focused less on accounting for the practical and functional potentials of computing in education than on clarifying the pedagogical import of knowing what computers and com- puting can and do mean, i.e. their personal and social significances, their values, within contemporary human lives. Ultimately, I will recommend that the most useful disposition toward integrating digital technologies and practices into education – as tools, content, and contexts for learning – is to prioritize awareness on the parts of students and all other stakeholders of the underlying 24 The ‘Value’ of Computers and Computing: Toward a New Axiology of Educational Technology Mark Evan Nelson BK-SAGE-WYSE_ET_AL-150337-Chp24.indd 374 9/9/2015 7:39:17 PM