ABSTRACT
This special issue, inspired by the spirit of Jan Hawkins, focuses on ways that our knowledge of technology, culture, and adaptive minds can be brought together to create new opportunities for learning and personal growth. Jan cared deeply about these issues and explored them in her own work and in her travels throughout the world. She was one of the first to call our attention to the social and equity issues around the design and uses of technologies (Spiro & Collins, 1999). Her research style included helping people from different disciplines connect with one another personally and electronically to solve common problems. The special issue will follow her lead by exploring in detail issues such as what roles technology plays in human learning and cultural change, how diverse cultural contexts interact with a new technology to produce varied outcomes, and ways in which human minds adapt themselves to technology as well as adapt technology to them.
