Research Paper – Radio to Television

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Cindy Leach

Introduction

When first approaching the topic of radio and the subsequent advent of television I did a brief mental tally. How many radios do I have, it was quite surprising when I started counting. There’s the clock radio alarms (3), the iPods(2), the stereo system, the radio in the car and the satellite radio. Now how many televisions do we have: family room, basement, master bedroom, guest bedroom? Is one medium proliferating more than the other? With the rise of the television did ‘video kill the radio star’?
To give context and foundation to this paper we will start with an overview of the history of radio and television. We will briefly discuss whether television has replaced radio or merely supplemented this medium as my personal household tally would suggest. We will then move through to the cultural context and the impact that television has had on the people of North America touching on the concept of secondary orality. Lastly we will discuss the implications for this medium on education and literacy.

History of Radio

The earliest recorded radio broadcasting was during the 1800’s. The Telegraph, developed in 1877 was the stepping stone to the invention of the radio in 1895, “radio was to the printing press what the telephone had been to the letter” (Lewis, 1992) In the United States, KDKA was the first radio station, forming in 1920. By 1923 there were 556 stations scattered across the country. The radio was first mass medium and to the people, was more than just a communication tool. To quote E.B. White “I live in a strictly rural community, and people here speak of “The Radio” in the large sense, with an over-meaning. When they say “The Radio” they don’t mean a cabinet, an electrical phenomenon, or a man in a studio, they refer to a pervading and somewhat godlike presence which has come into their live and homes” (E.B. White, 1933). Radio allowed immediacy and it new no geographic boundaries. It broke down state lines by allowing Americans to share a common experience leading to a strong sense of national identity.
In 1929 during the great depression, the radio was integral to creating a sense of comfort and community amongst the American people. By 1934 65% of American households owned a radio and the Communication Act was formed. This was an important federal law bringing most telecommunications under one agency and board. In 1938 Orson Wells’ narration of War of the Worlds showed just how impactful radio could be to the masses. 1945 – 1960 ‘Golden Age’ of radio (Jones), by 1950 94% of households owned a radio and in 1955 the number of radio stations in the US had increased 9x. 1961 brought the approval for FM broadcasting followed by the Public Radio Act in 1967 – licensing radio stations. The 1980’s was marked by the phenomena of talk radio and now we have digital broadcasts, internet streaming and satellite radio.

The History of Television

The structuring of commercial radio broadcasting was the foundation for the establishment of television as a force in American culture (Schwoch, 1990). The television was invented back in the 1920’s, but its first practical use was in Germany in 1929 for regular broadcasts. The television was first introduced to the general public at the 1939 world fair. Unfortunately not long afterwards war broke out and things came to a halt, so the television was not manufactured on a large scale until after WWII at which point, there was no turning back. Today the average American watches 4 hours of TV per day and the TV is on in American household for 51hrs/week. 98.5% of households have 1 TV and 90% have 2 or more. The television has become pervasive in the American culture.

Did Video Kill The Radio Star?

With television now entrenched so deeply in American homes, what does that mean for radio?. TV has changed radio’s function, but did not ‘kill’ it, “Rarely does a new technology entirely eliminate an older one” (Lewis, 1992). For a time in the 1950’s radio was overshadowed by growing popularity of television (Rinker, 2007) but a very recent study by Rajars shows that is no longer the case. In 2010, decades after the invention of the television radio is pulling in 46 million listeners and channels are experiencing record audiences. 90.6 Britons over 15 yrs old tune in weekly (The Observer, 2010). It’s not time for Radio’s funeral just yet….

Cultural Context

When thinking about orality and the original oral communication tradition it is interesting to make linkage between the oral tradition and radio. Radio as a medium is also very oral, focusing on the auditory senses. As print impacted the oral tradition, television impacted radio, replacing a purely auditory medium with a medium that introduces a visual component.
Walter Ong referred to the mass media of radio and television as secondary orality. Secondary orality is dependant on print and the existence of writing as part of the post-literacy era. When speaking about electronic media including radio and television “Ong saw a double potential in “the electronic transformation of verbal expression”: on the one hand, it intensifies certain qualities of print cultures; but, on the other hand, it brings “consciousness to a new age of secondary orality” (South America Region, 2003). Mass media like radio and television is instantaneous, facilitates the building of community and encourages communal ownership of information (Innovate Online). Radio and television overcome spatial barriers in a way that print could not, reaching millions of people simultaneously and achieving globalization. “Television fosters an appreciation of the way writing and speaking merge, not only in the production of speech (the oral text), but also on the screen (in print), in genres ranging from weather and stock market reports to commercials and game shows.”(MBC).

Implications for Literacy and Education

Television has become an integral part of most family’s lives and requires a shift in cognitive processing. While radio listeners participate aurally, television engages the participant in a multi-sensory experience. Although television centralizes on our visual sense, it uniquely combines the visual with oral and written language bringing into harmony the senses of the ears and eyes while also calling on touch, smell and taste (MBC).

Research has shown that children who watch TV more than 10hrs/week suffer negative academic affects and avg American child watch 20hrs/week (CyberCollege, 2009) Although there can be negative effects, not all television is a deterrent to learning (Smetana, 1997). Television is a dynamic medium, and is therefore suited to stimulating learning. It has a tendency to rivet the student’s attention and its ‘immediacy’ heightens the impact of the message. The benefit and significance of mass media like radio and television for education are as follows: identical messages can be reproduced indefinitely (Tyler), Radio and television can communicate not only ideas but also emotions through their use of sound., as a visual medium television is beautifully appropriate where visual demonstrations are important, and it is also well suited for development of psychomotor skills
TVO conducted a study whereby they held workshops using educational TV programs to help families with literacy development during the transition to school. These families were from communities where 60% of the community speak a language other than English and some of the schools have more than 115 languages spoken within their walls (Pelletier). At the conclusion of the study overall benefits were shown in literacy gains for those children who participated over the control group who did not, illustrating that TV can be used as another conduit for children to become literate. The participants commented that the programs were interesting for both the children and the adults. In conclusion the study showed that there were benefits to viewing high-quality children’s TV programmer to assist with literacy.

Conclusion

To be honest we really have not gone from radio to television. The semantics of this statement makes it sound like radio has been left behind to twitch in the wind, which is not the case. Radio and television exist in symbiotic type relationship. Neither overshadows the other, both have their own merits and strengths. Television has merely added new sensory layers to mass media.
Although it can be argued that television causes harm to education and literacy I would argue that so can any media when used inappropriately. Text, print, radio, television, they are all tools. It is up to the craftsman how he chooses to use them and then ultimately it’s up to the consumer as to whether they find it suitable, “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it is nothing but wires and lights in a box.” (Edward R. Murrow).

References

Bates, A.W. Education Resources Information Centre. (1990). Literacy by radio: Lessons from around the world. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED329654.pdf
Collins, Richard. Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol 17, No3 (1992). Culture, communication and national identity: The case of Canadian television. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/viewArticle/689/595
Cyber College (2009). The Social Impact of Television. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://www.cybercollege.com/frtv/frtv030.htm.
Fowler, Robert M. (1994). How the secondary orality of the electronic age can awaken us to the primary orality of antiquity or what hypertext can teach us about the bible with reflection on the ethical and political issues of the electronic frontier. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://homepages.bw.edu/~rfowler/pubs/secondoral/
Innovate Online. Definition: Secondary orality. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.innovateonline.info/extra/definition980.htm
Jones, Matthew T. (2006). The history of radio and television (Part 1) from principles of electronic media (Davie & Upshaw, 2006). Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://mattsmediaresearch.com/lecturenotes/RTVlecturenotes1.ppt
Kear, Lynn. BNET. (1992). Radio days & nights – impact of radio programs before television. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n77/ai_12937777/
Kottke.Org. (2007). The new literacy of television. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://kottke.org/07/12/the-new-literacy-of-television
Lewis, Tom. Organization of American Historians (OAH) (1992). “A Godlike Presence”: The impact of radio on the 1920s and 1930s. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/communication/lewis.html.
Liu, B. Helen. (1996). The impact of television on literacy good or bad? Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://eserver.org/courses/fall96/76-100m/liu/
The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Language and television. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/L/htmlL/languageand/languangeand.htm
The Observer. (2010). Rajars show that television never killed off the radio star – or the big screen. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/08/radio-rajar-figures-comment
Ong, Walter J. (1978). Literacy and Orality in Our Times. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1980.tb01787.x/pdf
Pelletier, Janette, TVO. The effects of educational television viewing in an early childhood family literacy intervention. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.tvo.org/learnwithtvo/resources/PelletierTVO.pdf.
Rinker, Michelle (2007). The impact of radio and television on literacy. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://educ.ubc.ca/courses/etec540/Sept07/rinkerm/researchtopic/
Rintoul, Suzanna and Hewlett, Quinton Zachary. Jeunesse Journal. (2009). Negotiating Canadian culture through youth television: Discourse on degrassi. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://jeunessejournal.ca/index.php/yptc/article/viewFile/20/11
Schwoch, James. JSTOR: Cinema Journal, Vol. 30 No.1 (1990). Selling the sight/site of sound: Broadcast advertising and the transition from radio to television. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.jstor.org/pss/1224850
Smetana, Nick. (1997). Television and literacy. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://eserver.org/courses/spring97/76100o/contributions/smetana/
South America Region Resource Site.(2003). What is secondary orality? Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.wsaresourcesite.org/Files/SLACK%20AGM%202008/Secondary%20Orality%20-%20What%20is%20.doc
Tyler, I. Keith. Springer Link. (2007). Educational implications of the TV medium. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://www.springerlink.com/content/wk78940p632713g3/
Wikipedia. (2010). Secondary Orality. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_orality

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SHORTHAND – CAN YOU WRITE AS FAST AS YOU SPEAK?

Posted on November 3, 2010 by deedee

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hevva75/1890033773/

DEFINITION
“Shorthand, also called stenography, is a system for rapid writing that uses symbols or abbreviations for letters, words, or phrases.” (1)

Shorthand is any system of accelerated handwriting used for the transcription of the spoken word. Shorthand systems use a variety of techniques including simplifying existing letters or characters, and using special symbols to represent phonemes, words and phrases. A typical shorthand system provides symbols or abbreviations for words and common phrases, allowing someone well trained in the system to write as quickly as people speak. Typically, shorthand notes are intended either for immediate use or for later transcription to longhand and are therefore, temporary in nature.
Although a disadvantage of mastering shorthand is the learning curve involved to become proficient, it can increase the user’s speed of writing and ability to record the spoken word up to 200 words per minute depending on one’s command of the skill. The average person can only write at approximately 30 words per minute.
Knowledge of Shorthand aids in the development of skills related to listening, focus, organization, attention to detail and accuracy. It allows for efficiency and organization of thought in that the speaker can free flow their intended content while the person taking the dictation has only to record what is being said.

HISTORY
The history of shorthand is prodigious and dates as far back as Ancient Greece (the Akropolis stone) in the mid-4th Century BC while Hellenistic tachygraphy (shorthand of ancient scribes) dates back from at least the 2nd Century BC onwards. (2)
It has been documented that shorthand was invented in Ancient Rome by Marcos Tullius Tiro, a slave and later freedman of one of Rome’s greatest orators, Cicero. Tiro’s Latin shorthand system was the basis for his “Tironian Notes”, which were recordings of Cicero’s speeches. The original Tironian notes consisted of about 4,000 signs which over time increased to approximately 13,000. It was also during this period that teams of ancient scribes would record orations and later compare their notes for the purpose of co-developing written transcriptions. Another use for shorthand during this period was for dictation of journals as well as recording ‘secret’ information. Tiro’s system was considered so effective that it was taught in the Roman schools, learned by emperors, and remained in use for hundreds of years. (3)
In Imperial China clerks used shorthand to record court proceedings and criminal confessions, and these recordings were then used to create more formal transcripts. (4)

An example of 18th Century Shorthand

Among the most popular modern Shorthand systems before the invention of the computer were Pitman, Gregg, Teeline, and Speedwriting. These formal methods of Shorthand were referred to as stenography (close, little, or narrow writing), stachygraphy (swift writing) and brachygraphy (short writing).
Prior to the invention of recording machines (including typewriters) and ultimately computers, shorthand was the most widely used method for taking dictation and notes for business correspondence. Before recording devices, shorthand was vital to businesses, medical communities and the law. A good stenographer could make a decent living, and this skill improved the lives of thousands of men and women.
At the turn of the 20th C, the mechanization of shorthand became commercially feasible when American stenographer and court reporter Ward Stone Ireland introduced the Stenotype machine. Both the Stenograph and Stenotype machines have keyboards with 22 keys arranged so that the operator, using all fingers and both thumbs, is able to strike any number of keys simultaneously. The machines print roman letters on a strip of paper that folds automatically into the back of the machine. The operator controls the keys by touch and is thus able to watch the speaker. Although the machines were used in offices to some extent, they were primarily utilized for purposes of court reporting as well as for recording conferences.
There are over 40 shorthand systems in existence worldwide and at least 19 documented inventors of shorthand dating as far back as the late 16th C. (5)
Among the most noteworthy inventors:
1837 – Isaac Pitman – British, invented Pitman shorthand, a modern symbol system based on sounds. Words are written as they sound, not as they are spelled.
1888 – John Robert Gregg – Irish, invented Gregg Shorthand, a modern symbol system which superseded Pittman’s method as most predominantly used.
1924 – Emma Dearborn – Instructor at Columbia University, invented the Speedwriting Shorthand system. It requires the memorization of unique abbreviations to corresponding words.
1970 – James Hill – British, invented Teeline Shorthand.

USES

The primary use of shorthand has been to record oral dictation or discourse, and various methods were used for the demands of office administration (secretarial), journalism and court reporting.
The Industrial Revolution brought a demand for stenographers in business. The geometric system then in use was complicated and required a high level of training. Because of this, a need existed for a simplified method of shorthand and in 1817 German Franz Xaver Gabelsberger inspired a simple cursive system.
In 1893 John Robert Gregg introduced his system to the United States and found that shorthand was virtually unknown. It was during this time that high schools began teaching shorthand and Gregg traveled throughout the United States demonstrating his system, as well as his teaching methods, with tremendous success. Gregg Shorthand became the most predominant system taught and used in the United States, Canada and Britain.
Also during this period the United States’ flourishing economy, particularly on the East Coast, created a demand for schools that taught stenography and secretarial practices. This included courses in stenography, typing, proof reading and other commercial skills; all of which were considered valuable, particularly for women who were now entering the workforce.
After the mid-1880s, a substantial share (but never a majority) of female clerical workers were employed as stenographers and typists. It was viewed that these skills created an ideal opening for women who sought to make their own living. Up until that time it was their male counterparts who were employed in these clerical positions. However, the men began moving into other areas, primarily in management. From an economic viewpoint women were paid lower wages, which could translate into a more profitable bottom line for their employers.
In the late decades of the 19th C females accounted for more than half of high school graduates, while far more men than women graduated from college. “Thus a man who had enough education and literacy skills to obtain a job as a clerical worker was also probably educated enough in many cases to attain a managerial or professional position. As a consequence, the supply of men available for clerical work was considerably diminished.” (6)
Economists are now seeking to expand our understanding of the simultaneous increase in female clerical employment and adoption of new office technology in the late 19th C and early 20th C. Adshade (2004) and Adshade and Keay (2004) suggest that the key factor underlying both trends was an increase in secondary education, which not only increased the supply of female clerical workers but also encouraged organizational and technical innovations that increased the productivity of, and demand for, clerical workers.(7)

Although the primary use of shorthand has been to record oral dictation or discourse, some systems are used for compact expression. For example, health-care professionals may use shorthand notes in medical charts and correspondence.
Throughout the centuries shorthand was also used for cultural pursuits, and because of this was considered an art form. For example, George Bernard Shaw created his works using the Pitman Shorthand method. By the late 19th C shorthand was regarded as a clerical skill more than an art form, and by the late 20th C speech recognition devices were being developed, which greatly diminished the role of shorthand written with pen and paper.
The demise of shorthand can be seen as part of modernization with the invention of voice recording tools allowing speakers to talk directly into a recording device. A person can now speak into a tape recorder, enabling their assistant to transcribe word for word, directly into a typewriter or word processor. Increasingly, assistants now receive written drafts rather than oral communications and have only editing and proofreading to complete.

An Example of a Shorthand Typewriter

CONCLUSION
Shorthand was originally developed as a method for capturing the spoken word. It was authentic in terms of representing and accurately preserving orality. It allowed for spontaneity on the part of the orator and allowed thoughts to flow freely. Before the introduction of digital voice recorders, shorthand served to preserve the magic of an oral performance, incorporating knowledge, understanding, creative thought and insight into the material. The transcription provided written access to that performance, and along with it the ability to revisit and tap into both the wisdom delivered and wisdom gained.
Invented by men and later employed primarily by women, shorthand is considered a mechanical skill and it’s a difficult argument to defend its academic relevance. While it was never developed as a tool for literacy and education, it was used by those who were both literate and educated. Shorthand set the stage for the later development of more sophisticated recording technologies. Modernization and the advancement of voice recording technologies have diminished the value of shorthand as a writing technology. Although rarely used today, many people who know how to use it maintain that it provides the benefits of improved memory, multitasking of the brain, increased power of retention, improved organization and increased productivity.
Despite these benefits and Shorthand’s use throughout past centuries and across diverse cultures, it has now become virtually obsolete as a commercial skill, as a written method of preserving orality, and as an art form.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/neonglitter/2820904642/

REFERENCES

(1) Shorthand. Retrieved on October 26, 2010 from Encyclopaedia Britannica Web site: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/541788/shorthand
(2) The Lost Art of Shorthand. Retrieved on October 26, 2010 from The Daily Star Web site: http://www.thedailystar.net/campus/2008/02/01/feature_art.htm
(3) Who Invented Shorthand? Retrieved on October 26, 2010 from 4to40 Web site: http://www.4to40.com/qa/index.asp?p=Who_invented_shorthand
(4) Shorthand. Retrieved on October 26, 2010 from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorthand
(5) List of Inventors of Writing Systems. Retrieved on October 26, 2010 from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_of_writing_systems
(6) Gender & the Office. Retrieved on October 26, 2010 from Early Office Museum Web site: http://www.officemuseum.com/office_gender.htm
(7) Gender & the Office. Retrieved on October 26, 2010 from Early Office Museum Web site: http://www.officemuseum.com/office_gender.htm

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Nomenclature: The Influence of Systematic Naming

Posted on November 3, 2010 by gordhig

The development of nomenclature mirrors the development of ordered literary thought in the evolution from orality to literacy. General and diffuse names for common things have, over time, become specific and intricate, with names allowing collective understanding to be wrapped and packaged into tight bundles of meaning. The evolution and advancement of organized and systematic naming has had dramatic implications for literacy and education within areas of study and within communication generally.

Nomenclature is a term that describes the collection of named things within a focused area of interest. The nomenclature for a traditional classroom includes chalkboard, desks, pencils, textbooks, teacher. The nomenclature for music includes notes, scales, harmony, crescendo. The nomenclature for the brain includes the glossopharyngeal nerve, the anteromedial thalamic nucleus, and the parahippocampal-amygdaloid transition area (The Humans Brain.Info, 2010). When names are consistent and hold the same meaning regardless of culture, era, or language, there is a greater ability to share and preserve knowledge.

Naming has long been (has always been?) a part of human communication, evidenced in ancient texts such as the Old Testament and texts from ancient civilizations such as the Egypt and Babylon. Peoples from both oral and literate cultures created names. During the early exploration of present day New Zealand, for instance, an explorer recorded phonetic names for animals named by the Maori tribe, an entirely oral culture. The Maori name for a “paradise duck” was pooadugghiedugghie, and for “fantail,” diggowaghwagh (McKenzie, 1985). The ancient Greeks were particularly methodical in their early endeavours to systematically observe, name and record the natural world and shared experiences, from the stars and constellations, to early forays into describing and naming concepts and principles in mathematics and science, to naming of their gods.

Nomenclature is extraordinarily wide and varied, spanning cultures, languages and areas of thought. To bring focus to the implications of naming as a text technology, this article will follow the history of naming something that has co-existed with humans since the beginning of time – plants. The history of botanical nomenclature serves as a microcosm of how systematic recording of the properties of things, standardized language, scientific/ analytical thought, and acceptance of homogenized, authoritative standards has made nomenclature a vehicle for wide distribution of collective understanding.

History of Botanical Nomenclature

First peoples utilized plants for, among other things, food, shelter, and clothing. Given the lack of recording in early times, it is impossible to pinpoint when these cultures would have named a plant for its specific purpose or properties, but we can assume that dominant species of plants with central roles in survival or cultural practice would have been named, as with other common items within early cultures. A common plant such as papyrus was in use and presumably named in Egypt as early at 2,600 B.C.E. (Seid, 2004). The book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament was written sometime in the seventh century B.C.E. Deuteronomy Chapter 8:7-8 alludes to a number of named plants – wheat, barley, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees ( Wenham, 1985).

As Ong points out, all thought, including in primary oral cultures, is in some part analytic: it breaks its materials into various components (Ong, 2000). Naming can either compartmentalize and give singular meaning to parts of the whole (the parts of the body, for instance), or generalize and give meaning to a collection (the “World,” which is the sum of many parts). The ancient Greeks began to apply analytic naming to plants, identifying their common and distinguishing physical features, as well as their utility as food or medicines. One of the first botanists was Theophrastus (371-286 BC), a pupil of Aristotle. Theophrastus wrote two highly influential and enduring botanical works, “De historia plantarum (A History of Plants)” and “De causis plantarum (About the Reasons of Vegetable Growth),” in which he described over 500 different plants (Sengbusch, 2003). By modern standards this feat would appear satisfactory at best, but the impact of this kind of approach by the Greeks in particular had enormous impact on the advancement of literacy and education in general. This example of standardized and organized application of observation, recording, and authoritative publication of text and images (sketches) for the sake of information sharing in perpetuity would become the standard by which western cultures would preserve knowledge.

Theophrastus’ works maintained their status as central botanical texts for over a thousand years, due in part to the Roman domination of the western world. While the Romans appreciated and borrowed from the great works of the Greeks, they were more practical and utilitarian when it came to plants, describing ways of growing and preserving, but not spending significant time to develop the nomenclature beyond where Theophrastus had started. However, the Romans did contribute a key element that would later underpin just about all botanical (and more widely, scientific) nomenclature. This influence was the proliferation of Latin as the dominant world language. Never before had the world (taken in this context to mean the Roman dominated part of the world) had an instrument as widely distributed as Latin for common idea transmission and discourse. Though the Roman’s influence declined, Latin maintained its position as the language of broadly educated persons, especially within the natural sciences.

The Renaissance brought forth a renewed interest in plants, primarily in the pursuit of new medicines. By the 16^th Century the development of the letter press made botanical texts available to the masses. Books on flora from around the globe began to find their way into hands of scholars and lay people alike, catalyzed by European botanists who joined the empirical conquests of their homelands (Sengbusch, 2003). As the depth and volume of collected knowledge grew, the need for specific naming systems became more and more apparent to isolate and report on similarities and differences. In 1794, English botanist, Thomas Martyn translated Jean-Jacques Rousseau “Lettres sur la botanique,” in which Rousseau lamented, “ Such a chaos of nomenclature, that the Physicians and Herborists no longer understood each other” (Martyn, 1794).

The time was ripe for a confluence of ideas and practices to bring order to the nomenclature of botany. The Swedish botanist, Carl Linné (or in Latin, Linnaeus) is credited with developing the systematic naming of plants, as described in his 1753 work, Species Plantarum. His system, still in common used today, “firmly applied the binomial system, where a plant name has two parts: i) a Genus name e.g. Rubus and, ii) a Species name which is a kind of qualifier. So the full name is like a noun followed by an adjective as in Rubus parvifolius – literally, the bramble with the small leaves.” (Kemp, 2002). With this model in place, botanists around the world swiftly worked to apply a standardized system of naming plants that could be shared far and wide to ensure that shared knowledge was consistent and predictable for known plants, and fully transferrable to identifying and categorizing new discoveries.

Beyond Botany – Nomenclature Allowed (Allows) Discovery to “Go Deeper”

As analytical systems grew more complex in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries, and more and more specialized information was gained in all areas of study, generalists became specialists in the sciences and most every other form of academic pursuit. Academies and learned societies formed, as specialists began to share their highly specialized knowledge in journals and books devoted to more and more specialized areas of interest. Early examples were “The Italian Academy of the Lynx,” founded in Rome in 1603, and “The Academy of Experiments,” founded in Florence in 1657 (Sengbusch, 2003). Specialized nomenclature played a role in this transformation. Nomenclature gave specific names to objects and ideas already discovered, froze that understanding as a known entity, and allowed scientific and/or analytical thought to delve deeper and get more and more specific. Whether it was the naming of butterflies, the analysis of novels, or the design of building, nomenclature allowed students and practitioners of the arts and sciences to coin terminology and reference points that encapsulated rich packets of meaning or specific technical norms.

As a text technology, nomenclature has had a rich history, which is only now being fully realized as the digital age seeks to collate the world’s collective knowledge into digital forms that can be shared and interpreted widely. As a text technology, nomenclature’s importance will only grow, given the vast quantity of the world’s collective knowledge that is being woven together due to advancements in translation of the world’s languages and continued collection of information. Nomenclature will continue to be used to systematically wrap our collective knowledge into bundles that can be unwrapped and repackaged with more bows and ribbons (more facts and details) by future generations.

References

Kemp, B.: Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants (2002): History of botanical nomenclature. Retrieved from http://anpsa.org.au/APOL26/jun02-1.html

Martyn, T. (1794). Rousseau’s (J. J.) Letters on the elements of botany tr. 1785. Retrieved from Oxford English Dictionary Online.

McKenzie, D.F. (1985). Oral culture, literacy & print in early New Zealand: the Treaty of Waitangi. Victoria University of Wellington. Victoria University Press.

Ong, W. J. (2000). Orality and Literacy. New York, NY: Routledge.

Sengbusch, P. (2003). Botany: The History of a Science. Retrieved from http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/e01/01a.htm

The Humans Brain.Info (2010) http://www.thehumanbrain.info/database/nomenclature.php

Seid, T.W. (2004). Interpreting ancient manuscripts. Retrieved from http://www.earlham.edu/~seidti/iam/papyrus.html

Wenham, G. (1985). The date of Deuteronomy: linch-pin of Old Testament criticism. part two. Retrieved from http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_deut2_wenham.html

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Assignment 3 – The Telephone

Posted on November 1, 2010 by rs1327

INTRODUCTION:

Just last month, I was at my sister’s house to celebrate my niece’s 12th birthday. A cousin of mine was also in attendance and his Blackberry kept buzzing all through dinner, so we got on the subject of cellular phones. In the midst of the discussion, I applauded my sister and brother-in-law for defying the current trend of giving kids cell phones and how unnecessary I felt it was for children to have cell phones. My sister remarked that their kids would be given cell phones when they (her and her husband) needed the kids to have phones. I probed her on her meaning, and she said that undoubtedly the time will come when it will benefit her and her husband for their kids to have cell phones. I challenged this point quite fervently. About 10 minutes later, 12 year old Alex was opening her presents, and low and behold – she got a Blackberry from her parents. My sister said, “I guess it’s that time!” I felt defeated. I still can’t believe that we’ve reached a point in our society where kids in their pre-teens need to be equipped with Blackberries. Apparently I’m behind the curve though.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the development of the telephone throughout history and its’ impact on social structures and the way in which the telephone has met the needs of the culture it produced.

ANALYSIS:

I can’t imagine Alexander Graham Bell had any idea of he had begun when he uttered the words, “Come here Watson, I want to see you!” That was in March, 1876 – 134 years ago. Since that fateful day, the telephone has had a dramatic impact on the lives of most people on the planet.

“Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals” (Bush 2010). This is true in the case of the telephone. From Graham Bell’s humble beginnings over a century ago – we have reached a point in most societies, where communication has become a culture. Postman (1992) asserted that it is “inescapable that every culture must negotiate with technology, where it does so intelligently or not.” Given today’s reality, where hundreds of millions of people have cellular phones as well as home phones – I have to wonder how much negotiation there was regarding this technology, or has the technology become the culture? I posit that the technology has become the culture.

To support this contention, we need to travel back in time, before Blackberries and iPhones, and even before the age of the computer. The advent of the telephone created a “radical break with the past” (Bolter and Grusin 1999). The phone was a precursor to the social media of today.

It is hard to imagine a world without telephone. In workplaces, people had to meet face to face to make everyday decisions. Plans were made well in advance to ensure that things got done. Socially, people sent telegraphs, wrote letters and notes to communicate. They “called in” on one another for visits – often times unannounced. Most communicative interactions required people to be face to face. What a pain!

It’s easy to understand why the telephone became so popular, even though it took about 10 years after its creation, for the telephone to take flight. Early adopters were primarily businessmen who could afford to pay for its service (this could also be argued with the early days of Blackberry technology). The early days of the phone also had a major economic impact in that it created a multitude of jobs for women as switchboard operators. The telephone also made it possible for businesses to operate in office towers, instead of smaller stores and manufacturing operations. Party lines permitted “conference calls” which allowed groups to discuss business issues, farming issues and other community related issues.

Although the telegraph and train travel made the world a smaller place, the telephone truly shrunk distances. Compared to the telephone, the train was merely a mode of transport and the telegraph was just a note – even though it could be delivered much faster. The telephone allowed two people to be at the same place at the same time.

So, how did the telephone become the culture? Postman contended that, “the changes wrought by technology are subtle if not downright mysterious, one might even say wildly unpredictable.” (pp. 12) The unpredictable aspect of the telephone was how this technology for which there was no clear direction on what it would be used for could revolutionalize the world. In 1969, Americans participated in over 300 million telephone calls a day. Between 1950 and 1970, the number of long-distance and overseas calls more than tripled to 150 million in the US. This increase in long-distance and overseas calls effectively joined communities as well as individuals and helped create national and international communities. Worthy of note is also the increase in unwanted contacts that the telephone facilitated, such as advertising, crank and obscene phone calls, and calls from politicians and charities. It also created a grapevine for scandal and bad news.

As an educational tool, the telephone increased the ability for people to seek out and source information. As a news reporting tool, it made national and international news more accessible and timelier. The phone allowed for important information on the spread of disease and illness to be disseminated throughout a community faster.

Marshall McLuhan (1964) asserted that, “the telephone is a participant form of communication that demands a partner with all the ‘intensity of electric polarity’.” This electric polarity has bound society to the telephone making it inconceivable to be without it. The telephone binds people together. It facilitates social contacts between friends, relatives and neighbours. It also link people to services such as medical, police and the fire department and helps reassure shut-ins and agoraphobes. It helps newcomers to a place connect with their community and people living alone.

McLuhan further stated, “When new media enter society, be it the wheel or the telephone, patterns of perception shift according to the effect of the new technology on our sensual antennae.” It’s interesting that McLuhan uses talks about sensual antennae as it support my contention that our love affair with the telephone has come to the point that we could not continue without it.

Ong (1982) talks about a concept called ‘Secondary Orality’ and asserts that “telephone technologies encourage relaxed, informal, immediate conversations and foster a sense of a close-knit community.” (pp. 133-134) Ong champions the telephone for being integral in promoting literacy as it facilitated the manufacture and sale of print material as well as providing a medium for verbal interaction. The telephone’s synchronous nature allows for students to collaborate on projects, even if they are some distance apart. Ong asserts quite convincingly that orality and literacy are intertwined and inseparable and that each fuel one another. In this way, any and all telephone conversations are actually contributing to the participant’s literacy.

CONCLUSION:

The telephone is ubiquitous in all corners of the world. It is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. The few societies that live without it will fall under it’s spell in time. The telephone has developed into it’s own culture – for business and socializing, for the elderly and the young, for the disabled and people in emergencies, for virtually every aspect of our lives.

The telephone doesn’t allow us to keep up with the pace of modern society – it created the pace. While I’m still behind the curve regarding Blackberry’s for pre-teens – I do have a fond appreciation for the telephone.

REFERENCES:

Bush, V, As We May Think, retrieved on October 25, 2010 from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/3881/

Postman, Neil. (1992). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York, NY: New York

Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin (1999). Remediation: Understanding the New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press

McLuhan, Marshall (1964), Understanding Media, New York: McGraw Hill

Ong, Walter (1982). Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuen

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Phenomenolgy of Writing: Handwriting to Typewriting

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Cathy Jung

Introduction

The following is a discussion of the phenomenolgy of writing and examines the transition from handwriting to typewriting. The focus of this discussion is how a technological innovation, the typewriter, modified the look and feel of writing as well as the modifications it brought to social structures in a society rooted in handwriting.

Writing

The first script or writing known was developed by Sumerians in Mesopotamia around the year 3500 BC (Ong 1982, pp. 82-83). Since its inception, writing has served as a form of communication. Writing is a technology (Bolter, 2001, Ong, 1982) and Ong (1982) notes that while we may find this notion difficult, it is a technology in that it utilizes tools and equipment, such as the stylus, brush, pen and paper (p. 80-81). Writing is a momentous human technological invention; it is more than a mere appendage to speech as it moves speech from the oral-aural to a sensory visual world (Ong, 1982).

The Typewriter

The introduction of the typewriter presented an alternative technology by which to communicate and write. The public debut of the typewriter in 1874 is attributed to Christopher Latham Sholes, the father of the Remington typewriter (Monaco, 1988). The Remington typewriter was the prototype of the modern day typewriter. The invention of the typewriter resulted in an artificial machine whereby the writing was “so neat and exact as not to be distinguishable from print” (Monaco, 1988).

Modifying the Look and Feel of Writing

Bolter (2001) notes that “each writing space is a material and visual field, whose properties are determined by a writing technology and the uses to which that technology is put …moreover, each space depends for its meaning on previous spaces or on contemporary spaces against which it competes” (p. 12). The typewriter modified the look and feel of writing. Typewriting can be equated with depersonalization as each letter of the alphabet is systematically formed on the page in the exact same shape and size. Each letter is identical and uniform, whereas handwriting allowed for variation in shape and size denoting human creation.

The major advantages of the typewriter technology were that of “legibility, compactness, and neatness in print, uniform size and body” (Monaco, 1988). However, this also led to the impersonal feel or sterile appearance of typewritten work. Chandler (1992) cites the philosopher Martin Heidegger, who in the 1940s expressed distain at the proliferation of the use of the typewriter, “the word no longer passes through the hand as it writes and acts authentically but through the mechanized pressure of the hand”. This lamenting is also discussed by Connor (1999) who notes that “in writing by hand, it must attend to the creation of each written line, must measure, direct, and, in short, guide the hand through each movement…by contrast, after one presses down briefly on a key, the typewriter creates in the proper position on the paper a complete letter”.

Typing changes the aesthetics of the text. The look and feel of typewriting became standardized, with one inch margins, double line-spacing, five spaces to indent a paragraph being distinctive characteristics of this approach (Mason, 2001). Not only was the look and feel of writing with a typewriting different than handwriting, but it also added the element of technological noise (Johnson, 2003, Acocella, 2007). The rapid staccato of the typewriter was an authoritative sound, serving as a constant reminder of the writing process. The technology of the typewriter altered the tactile relationship with the writing process. Connor (1999) notes that typing is characterized by the suppleness of the fingers to hit the keys and notes a significant difference in typing over handwriting is that it involves two hands.

Modification of Social Structures

Handwriting is intricately linked with association of personal identity, intelligence, social status and virtue (Trubeck, 2009), making it more than simply a fine-motor skill and form of communication. As such, handwriting comes into play in regards to social structures; consider the following quotations:

“During the colonial period, cursive writing occurred as ‘self representation but not self-expression’. Male handwriting indicated a gentleman’s integrity while for women it was a form of artistry” (Thornton, 1996, p.41),

“In American colonies a ‘good hand’ became a sign of class and intelligence as well as moral righteousness” (Trubek, 2009), and

“Good penmanship was a sign of virtue, character, discipline, and proper training…sloppy penmanship revealed an undisciplined education” (Porter, 2002).

From such quotations, it is evident the role that handwriting played in social structures and social status. Similarly, with the introduction and proliferation of the typewriter, this writing process also had an impact on the social structure and social status of individuals. During the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the typewriter replaced handwriting for business communications (Bolter, 2001). It was also during this time that American society began admitting women into the work force, a change that “created secretarial jobs for young women who took the place of male clerks” (Bolter, 2001, p. 22). The typewriter was the ‘quintessential tool’ for women’s entry into the workforce (Bernard, 1984). While the introduction of women into the business world of men altered social structures, the positions held by women as secretaries and members of typing pools did not provide them with equal status to men or afford them independence. While employment for women did not equate to empowerment, the notion of a woman “having a job outside the home was part of the humble beginnings of the twentieth-century feminism” (Acocella, 2007).

Conclusion

The technology of writing extends our ability to communicate with others whether the tools employed are a pen or typewriter. Handwriting and typewriting are examples of technology whose impact extends beyond the way words are put onto paper; aside from changing the look and feel of writing it also altered social structures and social status. Bolter (2001) notes that “when in history a new technology appears, it may supplement an established technology or replace it” (p.22). As the technological landscape of writing continues to change, the introduction of the computer builds upon the technology of the typewriter and as such has made the typewriter a rare technology when it comes writing. The advent of new ways of writing has emerged and whether new technologies will replace and make handwriting obsolete remains to be seen. While the phenomenology of writing will undoubtedly continue to change and evolve, it is critical to remember Postman’s assertion that “every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either or, but this-or that” (Postman, 1992, pp. 4-5).

References

Acocella, J. (2007), The typing life: How writers used to write. The New Yorker. April 9, 2007. Retrieved on October 18, 2010 from http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/…/070409crbo_books_acocella

Bernard, E. (1984). Science, technology, and progress: Lessons from the history of the typewriter. Canadian Woman Studies Journal, Fall 1984. Retrieved October 17, 2010 from http://www.pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/cws/article/view/13176/12296

Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Chandler, D. (1992). The phenomenology of writing by hand. Retrieved October 15, 2010 from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/phenom.html

Connor, S. (1999). Modernism and the writing hand. Retrieved October 15, 2010 from http://www.bbk.ac.uk/english/skc/modhand.htm

Haas, Christina. (1996). Writing technology: Materiality of literacy. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Johnson, Bruce. (2003). Writing noise; noisy writing: The eyes no longer have to do their work. Proceedings of the International Conference of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, Melbourne, March 19-23 2003. Retrieved on October 18, 2010 from http://www.acousticecologyaustralia.org/symposium2003/…/papers/bJohnson.pdf

Mason, P. (2001). Graphical literacy: The unconsidered question of format. Literacy across Culture. Vol. 5, 2001. Retrieved on October 15, 2010 from http://www2.aasa.ac.jp/~dcdycus/LAC2001/mason_lac2001.pdf

Ong, W. (2002). Orality and literacy. New York: Routledge.

Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York: Vintage Books. Retrieved on September 11, 2010 from https://www.vista.ubc.ca/webct/RelativeResourceManager/Template/Imported_Resources/etec540demo_det_course_20070517151759/pdfs/postman-thamus.pdf

Porter, J. (2003). Why technology matters to writing: A cyberwriter’s tale. Computers and Composition, 20 (2002), 375-394. Retrieved on October 16, 2010 from http://www.rhetcomp.gsu.edu/~bgu/8121/Reading-Porter.pdf

Thornton, Christina. (1996). Writing technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Turbeck, Anne. (2009). Handwriting is history. Miller-McCune, December 2009. Retrieved on October 17, 2010 from http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture…/handwriting-is-history-6540/

Posted in Research Paper | Tagged handwriting, Jung, technology, typewriting, writing | 3 Comments

Textbook Influence

Posted on October 31, 2010 by danny

Hi everybody,

My assignment 3 Project: The rise of the textbook in education is located at the following site:

http://members.shaw.ca/danborges/Etec540/Welcome.html

I pretty much spent Halloween (yes, it was scary) trying to fix all the formatting issues with the website. At some point, I had to cut my losses. Hope it doesn’t look too bad. Any feedback is very welcome.

Thanks.

Danny

Tagged Assignment 3, Major Project | 6 Comments

Complexity or Simplicity: A History of Japanese Orthography

Posted on October 31, 2010 by ashleyross

The Japanese writing system, with its origins in Chinese, is among the most complicated writing systems in the world (Hallen, 1999). It is this complexity however that makes it so fascinating, as Japanese writing combines the use of four writing systems. These are: kanji, hiragana, katakana and romaji. Kanji, which was adopted from Chinese has symbols that have one or more meanings (Hallen, 1999). One of the first kanji that is taught is the single symbol that represents sun, moon, fire and water (Hallen, 1999). There are under two-thousand kanji being used in Japan today, as each unique idea requires a symbol and they must all be different from one another which only adds to the complexity as some symbols differ by a simple stroke direction (Hallen, 1999). The next two systems, which are commonly known as kana, are easier to learn and understand because they are syllabic. The first is katakana, which is identified by the angular shape of its characters is used for transcribing foreign works like erebētā (elevator). The second kana, which is much more cursive, is hiragana, and it is used to write words that have no kanji associated with them. The last system of writing is romaji, which uses the Western alphabet to write Japanese (Hallen, 1999).

The combination of these four writing systems makes Japanese writing among the most difficult to learn. There were actually numerous attempts throughout Japanese history to either adopt a western-style alphabet or abolish the Chinese kanji completely, but none of these attempts ever came to fruition. Japanese children are required to learn all three writing systems, including up to one-hundred kanji each year starting in elementary school.

The origin of Japanese orthography can be traced back to the 6^th century A.D. It was during this period that the diplomatic relationship between the the Chinese Han Dynasty and the Japanese Yamato rulers resulted in an influx of Chinese culture into Japan, including: religious beliefs, art, practices for governing and manufacturing, and most importantly the Chinese writing system (Accredited, 2010). The introduction of Chinese characters allowed the Japanese to write their first books, the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) (Accredited, 2010). However, it was the limitations of the Chinese writing system that had the greatest impact.

The 9th century brought about the emergence of syllabic writing in Japan with two sets of characters: hiragana and katakana. While both of these systems are based on Chinese characters, they are much less visually complex, and are easier to memorize as each system is made up of approximately fifty syllables in comparison to the nearly two-thousand kanji characters (known as Jōyō kanji hyō) required by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Today Translations, 2010).

It was Buddhist monks who developed the script that would eventually become katakana. While reading and translating Chinese scriptures, the priests would use a shorthand script of characters that they would write beside the original kanji to help them represent the Japanese intonations that were not native to Chinese. These symbols, which are recognized by their angular appearance, were commonly used by men in combination with kanji before the 10^th century when hiragana became more widely used among the Japanese population (Accredited, 2010). Hiragana, which translates to “ordinary syllabic script” was developed by women who desired a more elegant script for writing (Accredited, 2010). It is because of its origins that hiragana is also known as onna-de (“women’s hand”). It is almost completely phonetic and is used for words that are either native to Japan or those that were inherited from Chinese.

In addition to the Chinese, Japanese orthography was heavily influenced by the Portugese who arrived in the 16^th century in hope of establishing trade relations between Japan and Europe. While initially developed by Yajiro (a Japanese Catholic), it was the Portugese missionaries who initially printed the romanized system of writing Japanese (JNT.com, 2010). In additional to helping promote and refine the romaji writing system, the Portugese introduced moveable type and printing technology to the Japanese and were also responsible for the first Japanese (to Portugese) dictionary called Nippo Jisho, which contained the over thirty-thousand Japanese words (Foreign Translations, 2010).

In modern Japan, each of the four writing styles has a unique role in Japanese orthography. Kanji, which was historically considered the language of the educated is still very commonly used as approximately 40% of Japanese words originated in Chinese (Accredited, 2010). The ease with which words and phrases can be identified using this ideographic writing system allows it to remain popular. Katakana, which was used in combination with kanji by men in Japan until the 10^th century is now used mostly for foreign words, advertising in magazines and television and the transliteration of names. Hiragana is used for linguistic elements such as adverbs, nouns and adjectives and is also the writing style of choice for children’s books, textbooks, and in print to help with pronunciation. The term for the hiragana used for the latter is furigana. It is actually illegal for newspapers to be published without furigana in instances where kanji are used that are not in the official list of kanji provided by the Japanese government (Ager, 2010).

There are three modern systems of romaji: Hepburn, Nippon-siki, and Kunrei-shiki. The most popular of the three systems is Hepburn, which is named after Rev. James Curtis Hepburn who transcribed it in his dictionary (Breen, 2004). Since World War II, the reading and writing of romaji has been taught to all Japanese students when they are introduced to English as part of the junior high school curriculum. Romaji is also used in Japanese passports, menus, educational materials for foreigners, and on the majority of street signs so that those people who do not understand Japanese may still visit the country without being completely overwhelmed. Romaji is also used on electronic devices that are unable to display Japanese characters, although the localization of software programs into Japanese is quite common (WordIQ.com, 2010).

To the uninformed, it would be easy to regard Japanese orthography as complex and overwhelming. The reality is that it is a very logical combination of writing systems that blend the past and present while preparing for the future through the initiative of the Japanese government who understands the importance of writing and vocabulary as part of an education. And what better way to prepare students for the future then to teach them a writing system that was developed with the help of countries throughout the world.

References

Accredited. (2010). Japanese. Retrieved from
http://www.alsintl .com/resources/languages/Japanese/.

Ager, S. (2010). Omniglot: Writing systems and language of the world. Retrieved from
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_hiragana.htm.

Breen, J. (2004). Japanese Writing. Retrieved from
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/jwriting.html.

Foreign Translations. (2010). Japanese Language History. Retrieved from
http://www.foreigntranslations.com/page-content.cfm/page/japanese-language.

Hallen, C. L. (1999). An Overview of the history of the Japanese language. Retrieved from http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/japanese.htm.

JNT.com. (2010).Romaji. Retrieved from
http://www.japanese-name-translation.com/site/romaji_article.html.

Today Translations. (2010). Japanese Language History. Retrieved from
http://www.todaytranslations.com/our-language-his.tory/japanese-language-history.php.

WordIQ.com.(2010). Romaji. Retrieved from
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Romaji

Posted in Research Paper | Tagged history, Japanese, orthography | 8 Comments

THE INVENTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Posted on October 31, 2010 by ifeoma

OVERVIEW

Invention

The invention of the early camera,-the Camera obscura whose image recording process was based on the optical structure of the eye heralded a new way of recording visual image. Thus the early camera mimicked the eye in registering image. In its primitive stages it was intended to be an effort to “extend” the human eye and was perceived as a more superior “eye” of sorts. The idea must have been to capture more information or data that the human eye could not through the “more sophisticated” eye – the Camera obscura. In the initial stages, a “film less” version was used by artists for sketches. By the first half of the 19th century, photography was rapidly gaining ground as a communication tool whose power and significance could be likened to the impact of the advent of the printing press. Both painters and photographers were collaborating to discover a better way of representing images. The industrial revolution of this era facilitated general acceptance.

Development

In the mid 19th century, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, a French painter built on his previous collaborative and experimental work with Niepce and in 1839 his work morphed into making direct positive image on a silver plate called the Daguerreotype process. This resulted in the possibility of multiplicity of photographs accessibility and availability was born. The French government played a key role in publicising photography by buying the patent from Daguerre. Prior to this development, only the middle class had access to photography and it was largely through portraiture and because the traditional artists could not meet with the demands. Photography was in a vantage position to fill in the gaps. The invention of Calotype process by William Henry Fox Talbot in the early 19th century (1840) enabled the negative-positive process of photography and made it possible to produce multiple copies of images. This was a landmark invention in photography; availability was taken out of the privileged reach of the middle class and placed in the public domain. The Calotype process solved the need for reproducibility and made mass production of photographs a possibility. During this era, the first illustrated book with photograph emerged printed by Talbot one of the inventors of the photographic printing process. This book- The Pencil of Nature (1844–46) brought a new dimension to how literacy will be viewed. Photography had started influencing print.

By the mid 19th century (1851) the Colloidion process solved a problem plaguing the photographic processes by merging the advantages of the previous processes. This resulted in a universal acceptance aided by the industrial revolution of the era. The Colloidion process merged advantages of its predecessors building on that to solve the need for durability. The late 19th century saw another shift in photography with the launch of the Kodak camera in 1884. General use of the camera was being marketed and ease-of –use created more appeal as photographers no longer had to carry plates and chemicals, cameras were easier to move around. In the early 20th century (1901) the first mass-produced camera debuted. From the early 19th century photography has been undergoing a remediation from one form to another. Art and technology have had been progressively influential in the development of photography from inception leading to the portable camera which solved the problem of mobility and ease of use and further influenced the influx of ore enthusiasts into the burgeoning profession.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Western Society’s ideological shift from the influence of the Renaissance period to a more Scientific approach in the 1830s marked a society that was ready for a change in representation of their reality. The first permanent image created by the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce of his surroundings in 1826 (National Geographic Society, 2010) set forth a pursuit of chemical and optical processes to capture reality beyond what the hand could. The scientific approach to the investigation of plants, animals, landscape and objects influenced by the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution signaled a change in the worldview of society at the time. From a significant change from spiritual perspectives to one focused on “reason and evidence based on proof”, it was an era of the middle class as well to encourage the flourishing of the invention of photography (Hackett, 1992). With the development of the photograph through Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre’s daguerrotype it began a new process of creating permanent images.

Heliography by Niepce

Impact on Society and People

As Kestenbaum observes, “Millions of daguerreotypes, mostly portraits, were made before the process became obsolete in the early 1850s and was replaced by other forms of the photograph” but this signals how photography impacted people and their sense of actual mortality. With the ability of photography to document changes in time and the reality of the physical experience of being human, people were able to be recorded. Representations of figures of authority were no different than the average citizen. The invention of photograph changed the way people perceived their reality. From a time when paintings had an element of the imagination to photographs which captured objects in an objective manner through light and chemicals, it was a change of how people knew themselves and those around them. Pose, gesture, costume and lighting could alter this sense of reality but nonetheless it captured things as they were physically existent. The human body and the physical experience of being human became magnified through the lens of a camera.

From this moment in history, photography became ways to capture natural phenomenon, wars, action photos, exploration and colonialism to the mundane everyday life. Seeing and documenting life and death through a lens allowed for the world to record reality beyond the printed word or the words of others.

Impact on Society and People

Accessibility, Availability and Affordability

As Rosenblum discusses the development in chemical and dye industries at the end of the 19th century, it created the availability of more sensitive materials to heighten and popularize the photography process. With the industrial focus of countries to standardize products and processes, it led to more efficient ways of capturing the moment. Simultaneously, the advance and interest in “flying machines” also influenced photography to be used to depict the world from different perspectives. Knowledge of the universe was no longer restricted to what the common person could see but it was also beginning to be able to document phenomenons beyond the human eye. Images of the world from an aerial perspective to images of the moon, photography became a way for people to record the physical universe from an alternative perspective.

Boston from the Air

Acceptance and Integration

With the advance of photographic technology by George Eastman in 1892 and the creation of the Eastman Kodak Company, it changed the way people had access to the camera. With user-friendly cameras in convenient forms and the development of film, it simplified the process of photography to “the press of a button” (George Eastman House, 2010). The development of handheld cameras brought the technology by 1888 to the price of 25 dollars. This allowed people to capture images and process them by sending them back to Kodak. The further development of photographic technology brought the cost down in 1900 to 1 dollar with affordable film. This allowed for people from all ages to be a photographer.

George Eastman

Almost 100 years later since the creation of Eastman Kodak’s company in 1991, Kodak again advances the notion of photography by producing the first digital camera available on the commercial market (National Geographic, 2010). The idea of photography underwent a massive change in society and people were able to go beyond the financial and physical limitations of exposures in a roll of film. The advance into using computer technology combined with photography allowed accessibility and portability into a matter of seconds. Photographers no longer have to send their film into professional studios and the average person could become Eastman Kodak in the comforts of their own home and their own computer. Photographing the mundane became even more common once the cost of film was literally and figuratively “out of the picture”. Recording, documenting and seeing the world through a screen became as routine and simple as breathing.

IMPLICATIONS

The colloidion process opened a new doorway to the spread of still photography. At this stage we can assume that society began to see photography as something that had come to stay. Distribution spread further and accessibility and availability became easier and thus more people could afford and had access to the affordances of photography. There was a clamour for more as people consumed the visual stories told by the images through the eyes of the photographer.

More people had experienced and could use photography effectively and this brought about a recording of events such as wars and cultures of other parts of the world. Photography was beginning to break geographical frontiers and bringing a new twist to the way exploits were recorded. These exploits were exposed with graphic evidence that had never before been seen, with precision and great detail. The photographer at this point could be seen as a story teller of sorts who only existed in the location of the story but not in the location of re-telling the story. The images, retold the stories of peoples, events, and places. Much like when the printed book was experienced by the priest in the Notre-Dame cathedral, photography changed the way people saw the world. Imagery had moved from the stone walls of the cathedral to paper, becoming more portable.

The evolution of visual literacy:

By the end of the 19th century, photography had become a new language of learning. As more and more people explored the new frontiers of the world, their photographic records were a still documentary of wars, social realities, different locations, cultures and people. These documentation of the experiences in other parts of the world- projected photography to emerge as a teacher of geography and cultures of different locations and people. People all over the world were beginning to learn about each other in a picturesque form. Photography become a powerful recording tool of the era which enabled the learning of the events of an era

A revolution of the art:

Photography brought about an unprecedented revolutionalization of the conventional art. It removed art form being just “in the imagination” of the artist and brought reality into the art and changed the way people perceived art particularly in portraiture, landscapes and nature. It was no wonder that the early adopters of the technology were people who had artistic skills. Photography allowed them to make bold realistic statements with this new form of art, thus photography became a renaissance form for the artists of the mid 19th century probably influencing the Realism movement of that era.

Remediation:

Photography existed as both an art form and a technology which underwent various modifications creating a clamour for more as more and more people consumed the product as a form of artwork, documentation and visual record keeping. It became a form of techne which involved both artistic and technical skills and aroused the interests of governments, royals and ordinary people alike. Seeing the possibilities of photography ignited even greater desire for more, improvement and documentation-hence the remediation was a long but continuous process spanning over centuries.

CONCLUSION

The invention of photography has a certain place in history and has changed the way people perceive, document and understand their realities. Before the onset of photography, the world could only be recorded in painted, drawings, words and the voices of others. Once photography literacy became a part of society, the way the world could be realistically represented in an image, in a frame, on a piece of paper gave an alternative way to understand the world. Photographic literacy and communication changed the way people communicated represented and understood their physical universe. Authority, authenticity and history have been deeply impacted by the development of photography. The way people can express themselves have been changed by the scientific advances of the times and this has resulted in an explosion of visual representations. Photography has placed a significant role in influencing education, science, politics, culture, tradition, history, communication, literacy, memory, authority and all other aspects of society. It has made it’s way into each aspect of life, living and even death. Furthermore, the power of the still image and the power of the frame has been further contested, manipulated, developed and changed through the advance of computer technology.

REFERENCES

Daguerre (1787–1851) and the Invention of Photography: Accessed online October 30, 2010 from: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dagu/hd_dagu.htm

George Eastman House: The International Museum of Photography and Film. (2010). The George Eastman Legacy. Retrieved October 31, 2010, from http://www.eastmanhouse.org/collections/eastman/biography.php

Hackett, L. (1992). The Age of Enlightenment: The European Dream of Progress and Enlightenment. Available from: http://history-orld.org/age_of_enlightenment.htm

Infoplease encyclopedia-still photography. Accessed October 30, 2010 online at: still photography: The Invention of Photography — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0860364.html#ixzz13o2Bc8Tb

Kestenbaum, J. The Photograph: A New “Frontier” in Cultural History. Journal of American Culture [Internet]. 1981; 4:43-46. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1542-734X.1981.0401_43.x/abstract

Miller Linda (submitted 2010-03-09). Impact of photography on artists in late nineteenth century. Accessed October 30, 2010 online at: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2660604

National Geographic Society. (2010). History of Photography. Retrieved October 31, 2010 from http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photographers/photography-timeline.html

Rosenblum, Naomi. (2009, November 25). The World History of Photography. Retrieved October 31, 2010, from http://www.all-art.org/history658_photography1.html

Şahin Tekinalp, Pelin(2010).Links between Painting and Photography in Nineteenth-Century Turkey. History of Photography, 34: 3, 291 — 299. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03087291003630154

The American Museum of photography: A primer on processes. Accessed online at http://www.photographymuseum.com/primer.html

“The history of photography” Wikipedia. October 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 29 October, 2010. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photogra

Posted in Research Paper, Uncategorized | Tagged art, creation, ETEC540, Ifeoma, images, information, Invention, Iris, media, photography, print | 4 Comments

Shifting Economies of Book Production

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Camille Maydonik

Books were created to document information and communicate thoughts and ideas. The books we are familiar with today are much different than the beginnings of written documentation. As with any technology, the book has gone through many evolutions and variations and will continue to do so in the future with the advent of digital technologies. As Bolter (2001) states, “We might call each such shift a ‘remediation,’ in the sense that a newer medium takes the place of an older one, borrowing and reorganizing the characteristics of writing in the older medium and reforming its cultural space” (p. 23).

The first record of writing known to man is the clay tablet of Mesopotamia and the papyrus roll of Egypt. These examples date back to 3000 B.C.

Elsewhere in the world, around 1300 B.C., written documentation was also occurring, namely in China, where books were made of wood or bamboo strips bound together with cords. The Chinese were also involved in printmaking; however, the invention of the printing press is attributed to Johannes Gutenberg (1398 – 1468) of Germany.

Gutenberg used movable type that was designed to look like hand lettering to produce a Latin Bible around 1456. Gutenberg’s printing press was actually a combination of three existing technologies: paper, the winepress and oil-based ink. Therefore, his invention was not singular, but conceived of technologies that were known before Gutenberg was born. As Gutenberg refined his invention, other inventions were brought forward by Gutenberg, including the adaptation of the olive or wine oil in the screw-type press, the implementation of block-print technology and the development of certain paper techniques that could be used for mass production. In addition, Gutenberg developed a punch and mould system that allowed for the mass production of the movable type by bringing together letters in a type tray that was used to reproduce pages of text. Robert Logan (2004) writes that, “With the printing press we finally encounter a technology whose impact on the use of the alphabet is so great that it must be ranked in importance with the alphabet itself. For not only did the printing press greatly multiply access to alphabetic texts, it also, through the regularity it introduced, transformed the way in which the alphabetic text was placed on the page and was perceived by its readers” (p. 177).

Gutenberg’s printing press had an impact on society that has created a large facet of the world we know today. Although in the beginning, there was very little printing of new ideas taking place, the printing press enabled access to such texts as the Bible, which was the precursor to the preservation and dissemination of knowledge in a standardized form. This was a crucial turning point in the advancement of scholarship and critical thinking. Just as the Internet of today provides unlimited access to knowledge, the printing press truly started the “Information Revolution”. Although more and more people were literate in the fourteenth century and children of wealthy families were being taught to read, major collections of books were rare outside of the church. That being said, print put more books into circulation and as result, the regularity of spelling and conventions of punctuation enabled rapid silent reading. Harold Innis (in Logan, 2004) states, “the discovery of printing in the middle of the fifteenth century implied the beginning of a return to a type of civilization dominated by the eye rather than the ear” (p. 186).

As shown in the following video, the printing press can be credited for changes in literacy, access to knowledge, schools, the spread of science, standardizing languages, nationalism, questioning of authority, individualism and democracy. As more and more books became available because of the technology of the printing press, the demand for books increased. This demand could not be met by using movable type, as that process was all done by hand and was very laborious. Therefore, during the mid 1800s, improvements were made by the invention of larger presses that could accommodate continuous rolls of paper, made by another new invention, the paper making machine. In the later decades of the 1800s, the linotype was invented which sped the up the process further as line rather than individual letters input type.

As a literate society, it is extremely difficult to imagine what Ong (1982) describes as a primary oral culture, “a culture with no knowledge whatsoever of writing or even the possibility of writing” (p. 31), as we have become so accustomed to having access to the knowledge contained in books. Just as written communication has been remediated, so too has literacy, specifically reading and writing. Before the invention of the printing press and the mass distribution of books, the education to read and write was limited to a select few, usually the upper class. At this time, literacy was a special skill and was not necessary to be a productive member of society. As with any new technology there are natural consequences. In the case of the printing press, the ability to teach the masses how to read was made possible, and as a result, literacy (being able to read and write) became a necessary skill to be a more successful member of society. This holds true today.

Book production, as a technology, has advanced progress towards mass literacy. Overtime, the cost of books has decreased with the production of paperback books as opposed to hard cover books, which has enabled more people to access knowledge contained in books. However, as Eisenstein (1979) states, “efforts to summarize changes wrought by printing in any one statement or neat formula are likely to lead us astray” (p. 70). Furthermore, “the fact that printed picture books were newly designed by educational reformers for the purpose of instructing children and that drawing was considered an increasingly useful accomplishment by pedagogues also points to the need to think beyond the simple formula: image to word” (Eisenstein, 1979, p. 70). The point that Eisenstein (1979) is making here is that we must be cautious about “assuming that the spoken word was gradually silenced as printed words multiplied or that the faculty of hearing was increasingly neglected in favor of that of sight” (p. 70).

I would argue that as educators, in our culture, in our times, we highly value books and the information contained in them. That being said, we must also continue to value the knowledge that can be disseminated and shared from within. Just as the printing press was an agent for change in the 14^th century, the remediation of technology has lead us to the Internet being our agent for change in the 21^st century.

References

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Eisenstein, E. L. (1997). The printing press as an agent of change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [first published 1979].

Logan, Robert K. (2004). The alphabet effect: a media ecology understanding of the making of Western civilization. Hampton Press.

Ong, Walter. (1982). Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd

Posted in Research Paper | Tagged economics, literacy | 3 Comments

The Technological Development of Early PECS: A Communication Technology

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Barrie Carter

Rationale

I decided to research Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) because there is a lack of sufficient information, documentation, and studies about PECS before the introduction of computers in the mainstream. In other words, the evolution of PECS was very slow until the use of computers. In turn, I was intrigued by this gap in research and compelled to explore as much as possible on PECS before this type of communication system became known and widespread by way of computers.

Introduction

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a form of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) that is used to assist individuals with autism or other special needs communicate their needs and wants, for these individuals have severe communication challenges (Ganz & Simpson, 2004, p. 395). PECS are used by individuals of all ages and they are supported by evidence-based practices, which are affirmed in related publications that are available for reading. Today, PECS are used worldwide because they offer individuals a form of communication that, until 1985, was undeveloped and unavailable (Wikipedia).

PECS is designed to assist individuals communicate at a functional level with the aid and the support of trained and experienced persons. PECS are used in schools, at home, and in the community. Here, these individuals have access to their PECS at the time so that they can, not only communicate, but also navigate within certain a social context (i.e. user and trained person), a setting (e.g. a specific activity/task), and an environment (e.g. a classroom) (Bondy & Frost, 1993, p. 123).

PECS begins with teaching an individual to exchange a picture of a mand (i.e. a desired item) with a trained/experienced person who immediately fulfills to the request (ibid, p. 124). In all, PECS consists of five stages (Supported Inclusion, pp. 1-2), which are outlined as follows:
Phase I: Teaches students to initiate communication right from the start by exchanging a single picture for a highly desired item.
Phase II: Teaches students to be persistent communicators; that is, to seek out their pictures and to bring it to someone to make a request.
Phase III: Teaches students to discriminate pictures and to select the picture that represents the item they want.
Phase IV: Teaches students to use sentence structure to make a request in the form of “I want”.
Phase V: Teaches students to respond to the question “What do you want?”
Phase VI: Teaches students to comment about things in their environment both spontaneously and in response to a question.

Contextualizing the Technological Development Historically

Andy Bondy (PhD) and Lori Frost (SLP) developed PECS in 1985 so that individuals with communication challenges and disabilities can initiate communication (raising children network, 2010).

PECS is based on applied behaviour analysis (ABA) techniques whereby functional communication is systematically taught using prompting and reinforcement strategies that lead to independent communication (Texas Statewide Leadership for Autism, 2010) And, the training protocol for PECS is based on B.F. Skinner’s work (Wikipedia).

PECS were first used at the Delaware Autism Program and have since received worldwide recognition for focusing on functional communication. It is stated that PECS were developed with educators, resident care providers, and families with individuals with special needs in mind (raising children network, 2010).

Contextualizing the Technological Development Culturally

Before the use of computers, PECS relied upon pictures and photographs coupled with words, sign language, and gestures. At the time, this was challenging because building a vocabulary bank took a lot of time and effort to compile, finding people who could sign was difficult, and having people trained in student support services was uncommon. In turn, most students with special needs were not with their peer group in the classroom; that is, integration and inclusion had yet to become best practice.

Indeed, at the time, the development of PECS pushed the boundaries of communication beyond what most people thought was possible. In other words, most people thought that individuals who could not communicate verbally would not be able to navigate properly and effectively in any social setting including at school or in the classroom. Certainly, PECS revolutionized the way that individuals with a communication disability or disorder can communicate with others who are trained to recognize what these individuals are trying to ‘say’.

During the 1980s, the culture of exclusion was the ‘sign of the times’. Upon reflection, I do not recall any student with special needs attending school or partaking in any of my classes. However, I do recall students with behavioral challenges attending school, but they were placed in special behavior support classes rather than academic classes, for they were not academically driven, academically inclined, or academically talented. These students were considered ‘special needs’.

The Implications for Literacy

The use of PECS has given students who have no form of functional communication a ‘voice’ by way of teaching these students to communicate using gestures, sign language, pictures, and photographs – all of which are forms of visual communication. Here, a student and a trained person, for example, would engage in communication by gesturing or signing (Image 1) and exchanging a picture (Images 2 and 3) or a photograph (Image 4). Once initial communication has been learned, some students are able to develop more complex communication using one or two word prompts as well as functional sentences. Here, a set of vocabulary would be taught and the student would organize the words into sentences using cue cards with a picture and a word. For example, functional sentences might be “I hungry”, “You go”, or “I mad”. As a result, the implications for literacy are that schools are required to provide student support services around assisting in the teaching of students with special needs to develop functional communication by using specific words and pictures to form recognizable sentence-type cluster of words.

Certainly, with intensive training, PECS has allowed students to develop better forms of communication, whether for learning to string words together to form a functional sentence or for sounding out consonant or vowel sounds to parrot or to read basic words. PECS have placed educators in the position of having to reevaluate what is meant by literacy and how it should be taught to students who have a nonverbal communication disability or disorder. In other words, the culture of literacy has changed significantly in the public education system in that, with the right tools, resources, setting, and personnel, many students are able to communicate through words and pictures.

Lastly, preparing students with or without special needs to communicate functionally and effectively requires a change in attitudes, perspectives, and opinions. Antiquated forms of teaching literacy are ineffective because no student learns at the same rate, pace, or level.

The Implications for Education

The use of PECS allows students with no functional communication skills the opportunity to attend school. Here, these students are not only integrated into the classroom, but also included in some of the activities and tasks. Because of PECS, the level of inclusion for students with autism and other communication disabilities has increased over the years because the students can now be more functional in the classroom. As a result, the implications for public education are that schools are required to provide student support services around assisting in the teaching of students with special needs. Because inclusion for students with special needs is an educational mandate, modified programs outlined in Individual Education Plans (IEPs) work to ensure that students with communication disabilities, for example, are members of their classroom community.

Indeed, a new set of language has also emerged because of PECS, for this augmentative and alternative communication system has placed the education system in a position of having to provide some type of education for all students. As well, new teams such as the school-based team (SBT) have been formed to support teachers, to direct special education assistants (SEAs), to develop IEPs, and to work with parents, and new teaching support personnel like resource teachers and learning support team teachers have been created to work with teachers, parents, students, district support staff, and outside agencies.

Finally, the use of PECS has brought a completely new set of rules, protocols, initiatives, and mandates. Today, the education system is required to support and to accommodate all learners, regardless of disability or learning needs or styles.

Conclusion

Today, with the integration and the inclusion of computer and assistive technologies in schools and in classrooms, students with autism, a non-verbal learning disorder or disability (NLD or NVLD), or other forms of communication disabilities can now communicate their needs and wants using computer generated PECS, which are more effective and accessible. However, in special education, gestures, sign language, pictures, and photographs are still used, but rather than drawing or sketching visual representations, they are now done on the computer using software programs like, but not limited to, Boardmaker.

Since 1985, PECS has continued to evolve into a communication system that works to keep up with the pace of students working to start, to improve, or to increase their functional communication abilities. With the development of PECS, the stage was set for students with communication disabilities or disorders, who otherwise might not have attended school, to be among their peers. In other words, PECS has helped made integration and inclusion a greater reality for students with communication needs.

Overall, in terms of the implications of literacy and education, PECS has created a culture in which all students have a greater probability of success in, at least, reading and writing because using PECS supports student learning, which is, in part, best practice. In a world in which differentiated instruction and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) are key to the teaching and learning process, PECS complements any typical classroom, which now includes all students with or without special needs.

References

Bondy, A. S. & Frost, L. A. (1993). Mands across the water: A report on the application of the Picture-Exchange Communication System in Peru. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2733579/

Ganz, J. B. & Simpson, R. L. (2004). Effects on communicative requesting and speech development of the Picture Exchange Communication System in children with characteristics of autism. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from http://www.springerlink.com/content/j58k7568706r5l81/

PECS. (no date). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_Exchange_Communication_System

Raising children network (Australia) limited. (2010). Retrieved October 29, 2010, from http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/pecs_th.html

Supported Inclusion: Tip sheet. (No date). Retrieved October 29, 2010, from http://www.connectability.ca/connectability/pages/si_tipsheets/picture-exchange-com-system.pdf

Texas Statewide leadership for autism website. (2010). Retrieved October 29, 2010, from http://www.txautism.net/manual.html#Intervention

Google Images (Retrieved October 29, 2010, from)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Picture-Exchange-Communication-System-Powerpoint

http://www.specializedautismtutoring.com/ratesservices.htm

http://www.silverliningmm.com/augcomm.htm

http://depts.washington.edu/augcomm/original_modules/module_customizing/selecting_symbols.htm

http://autisme.aveyron.free.fr/?lang=fr

http://www.talkaboutcuringautism.org/learning/tantrum.htm

Links (in order of appearance)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PECS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmentative_and_alternative_communication

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_needs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_practice

http://www.pecsusa.com/research.php

http://www.pecs.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_and_language_pathology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mand_(psychology)

http://www.autismtoday.com/experts/experts_bio.asp?exp_id=43

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individualized_Education_Program

http://www.sd28.bc.ca/district/departments/studentservices/manual/2-2-1.pdf

http://www.capilanou.ca/programs/special-ed.html

http://www.insightmediacentre.com/images/promos/files/IdeaBook_Spring09.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_verbal_learning_disorder

http://www.setbc.org/setinfo/setequip.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BF_Skinner

Posted in Research Paper | 2 Comments

ETEC540: Text Technologies

Research Paper – Radio to Television

SHORTHAND – CAN YOU WRITE AS FAST AS YOU SPEAK?

Nomenclature: The Influence of Systematic Naming

Ong, W. J. (2000). Orality and Literacy. New York, NY: Routledge.

Assignment 3 – The Telephone

The Phenomenolgy of Writing: Handwriting to Typewriting

Textbook Influence

Complexity or Simplicity: A History of Japanese Orthography

THE INVENTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Shifting Economies of Book Production

The Technological Development of Early PECS: A Communication Technology

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Ong, W. J. (2000). Orality and Literacy. New York, NY: Routledge.

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