Category Archives: Commentary 1

Commentary #1: Ong explains that oral cultures and literate cultures are completely opposed so an individual is either part of an oral culture or a literate culture and that if one were to shift from one culture to the next … Continue reading →

In “The Judgement of Thamus”, Postman states that the development of every new technology comes with costs and benefits, which is not distributed equally (Postman, 1992, p9). O’Donnell echoes Postman’s assertion in the broadcast “From Papyrus to Cyberspace”: new forms … Continue reading →

As cultures emerge, their needs evolve and transformations occur. This brings about a lot of changes. Evidently, this triggers schools of thought, promoters, antagonist, neutralists etcetera. Each school presents arguments or positions that matter to them. Ultimately, they each take … Continue reading →

How extraordinarily planted in the literate world we are as we sit at computers, as individuals, and meld our thoughts together with people around the world without a single auditory sound coming from our mouths.  How incredibly non-oral we are, … Continue reading →

This commentary will review the 2007 Anthony Grafton article, “Digitization and its discontents in the New Yorker on the issue of transferring books and other written material online as it is the case of Google Library Project. The ambitious Google … Continue reading →

Orality and Literacy Walter Ong’s book Orality and Literacy takes an in-depth look at the differences between oral and literate cultures. As a former kindergarten teacher, I chose to compare Ong’s examples of oral cultures with the pre-literate culture of … Continue reading →

In Biases of the Ear and Eye, Daniel Chandler looks at the issues behind the ‘Great Divide’ theories and provides alternate views.  The article provides evidence against the idea of a monumental division between literate and illiterate people, and highlights … Continue reading →