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Orality, Literacy, and Education

It is difficult if not impossible for a person living in a literate culture to truly understand what living in a primary oral culture would be like. A primary oral culture is defined by Walter J. Ong (1982, p.11) as … Continue reading

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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

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Riding on the Waves of Power Shift

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

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Orality and literacy: Supremacy or convergence?

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

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Commentary #1: Where Does Orality Fit into On-Line Learning?

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

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Commentary # 1: Digitization and its discontents

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

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Orality and Literacy – Commentary #1

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

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Commentary #1: Biases of the ‘Great Divide’

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

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Commentary 1: Information Madness or Madly Informed?

As I read “The Virtual Library: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed”, the notion of impermanence in the Buddhist sense kept coming to mind. While librarians and libraries have worked to store and catalogue countless books and publications over the … Continue reading

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Of Chandler, Ong and Plato; or, Of Carts and Horses and Who’s to Blame

Plato has been widely cited for his fear-mongering proclamation in the Phaedrus declaring the newest technology – writing – as the demise of memory (e.g.: Ong, 2002, p. 78). I must admit having often been of same mind, relating fully … Continue reading

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