From papyrus to cyberspace: response
Parchment Scroll-manuscript
Parchment Scroll- Manuscript [2012.2.1]: Decorated Esther Scroll (Salonika, 18th cent.) (Source: The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
In the radio broadcast “From Papyrus to Cyberspace” (1999, Cambridge Forum, Harvard University), Professors O’Donnell and Engell discuss a broad range of ideas relating to how the internet is helping to shape language as well as how technology has influenced the balance of power throughout history.
One of the key ideas from O’Donnell that stood out for me is that we, as educators and technology leaders, all have a stake in understanding how technology impacts us, and we should be alert to the seductive qualities that tech has to offer. By maintaining a strong ideal of who we are culturally, along with clarity about which societal values we hold dear, only then can we begin to understand the full impact of technological change. We can use that knowledge to make good choices about how we will implement technology within our daily lives as well as within our own pedagogical practice.
O’Donnell tells us that developments in technology always come at a price, with inherent costs as well as benefits. As we adopt new technologies, gradually we make changes that make them safer with more positive effects to society. One of the key benefits to technology referenced in this 1999 broadcast was the broadened reach of words to a wider audience. In 2015, this prediction has truly changed the way we access information, from higher educational contexts to day-to-day interactions with friends and family. However, broadened access to a wider world wide audience does, in fact, increase risk to individuals as well as to institutions. The rapid pace of change makes safety a high priority, and it can be difficult to keep up with how quickly the technology changes. Key stakeholders need to consider safety as individual access to information increases, just as others’ access to our personal information also grows. Student safety and personal privacy are key concerns within today’s schools.
Engell describes the losses and gains achieved with technology as an “onion-layered” situation, with transformational changes already occurring. He points to the modern library with enormous gains in information accessible in a multitude of text types, from e-catalogues, to print materials and graphic arts collections. The challenges faced in the management of vast material collections he predicted, would be immense, and he asks us to consider just how long our text products will last and how will we be able to access them? History shows that papyrus manuscripts lasted thousands of years, microfilm for 500 years, but electronic information is yet to withstand the test of time. Information archiving and retrieval is somewhat limited while questions of copyright, ownership and access are gradually shifting to further increase an open environment. Ownership and authorship will continue to be a key issue, especially in education.
A third key idea outlined within this broadcast stems from how technology impacts institutional control of power. Engell discusses the role of student and teacher and how technology changes the balance of power. If students are more tech-literate than their professors, the knowledge that students bring to education forces a change in the teacher-student relationship. Extending that idea further, if media has traditionally communicated through a “monologue”, then as individuals increase access to information along with authoring and publishing ability to a worldwide audience, technology will have the power to topple traditional political and societal power structures.
Although this broadcast stemmed from the year 1999, many of the ideas presented within still are worth consideration and thoughtful discussion today.
I look forward to hearing others’ ideas about the broadcast.
~Sandra
Hi Sandra,
I see from your introduction that you are an elementary teacher. I teach grade 2 myself and think it is such a wonderful age. In your very well-written response above 🙂 you spoke about the change in the teacher-student relationship as students become more tech-literate than their professors. Do you think this is something that we will feel when working with younger students or is it more of a higher level “issue”? I say “issue” as I’m not sure if it actually is an issue or not! I think that the shift may be beneficial in that learning could be more meaningful to students if they have this level of involvement. However, I can see some teachers having issues with it and feeling insecure about having students in that role. In my own classroom, allowing my students to teach me something is very motivating for them. They think it is great if I pretend not to know something and they have to explain it to me. Any thoughts?
Jennifer
Jennifer,
Thank you for the compliment. I do think we are beginning to feel this with younger and younger students. I was on the top of Burnaby mountain at a local university during a snowstorm and an elementary school bus stopped to let a group of young children off. It was Christmas and their normal waiting area was a cafeteria, which happened to be closed because of the holiday. My mom/teacher instinct was to rush to their aid to help them find shelter, but never fear, this group of 6-8 year olds was so tech savvy, they pulled out their cell phones and made contact to parents etc, and problem-solved the situation themselves. My point being that kids are using technology in incredible and powerful ways, and if we don’t consider this aspect of daily life for these kids as their teachers, we won’t be teaching them what they need to learn as their world rapidly changes! I love it when my students bring their knowledge into the classroom, and they love it too, just like you have mentioned!
Great story! I always ask my own children and students for help in certain aspects of the iPad I haven’t yet mastered! Makes them feel good! 😉
Sandra, great read! I think with every advancement in oral and text technology comes with a societal moving revolution.
Before any text technology (hard to believe), oral societies relied on story telling and rote memorization. I remember reading somewhere in Ong’s book that it was with the aid of metrics, rhymes, song and poems that aided pre-text societies. The first attempts to record text came in the form of hieroglyphs or picture writing. That in itself caused a revolution in that information can now be “stored” in a different medium.
After that came the alpha-numeric system (Ong had a word for it, I forgot). Perfected in Greece and by the Romans, this alphabetic textual form remains in popular use today. The revolution is that it brought literacy to the masses, rich and poor. Infants and children were able to learn this rather simply method of text communication. I believe Ong states somewhere that this could be traced to one of the earliest known instances of a public system for education. (I have not read Ong’s materials too closely yet, mostly scanned it).
Now we move into Internet, World Wife Web and generally Cyberspace. Some seem to call it a nail in the coffin to the written word (hardly) where others like Willinsky welcome and encourage the open nature of open source and ubiquitous information.
Personally, I’m glad to have the option. I love the feel of reading a good book. I love it when the pages wrinkle and curl over as I read it. But at the same time, I love that my $220 tablet can access nearly any book I want at the touch of a fingertip. I am endless fascinated by that.
Daniel,
Thank you for visiting my post. I also love the contrast between being able to delve into a wonderful book, the tactile sensation of turning pages, examining the fonts used, and pouring over illustrations and the book bindings. I love my technology, too, but am a die-hard when it comes to reading, sometimes I (gasp!) print out my articles to read and use multi-coloured highlighters. Other times, Adobe Acrobat is my buddy, efficiently storing my highlights and notes. We’re so lucky to have these choices. I just sat in on a First Nations Elder giving a story talk to a group of 4th graders and they were entranced experiencing first-hand this oral storytelling tradition. I was too. I just don’t think that experience could have been replicated by a TED talk, much as I love TED talks.
Sandra, you are not alone;
I, too, print off many of the articles. As there is so much reading material to cover and I try to read everything (bigger gasp!) I will take my lunch outside and read away. I have a handful of highlighters, pencils and pens, and Post-its within arms reach. If I split anything there is no need to worry of a short circuit.
Oral storytelling is a beautiful art form. Do children learn this anymore?
Terry
“A third key idea outlined within this broadcast stems from how technology impacts institutional control of power. Engell discusses the role of student and teacher and how technology changes the balance of power. If students are more tech-literate than their professors, the knowledge that students bring to education forces a change in the teacher-student relationship.”
Hi Sandra!
I appreciate your mention of this shift in the roles of students and teachers and the notion of balance of power. I recently found an article that can be analyzed as a follow up for these arguments. Among several contentions, the article reads:
“The relatively recent emergence of the Internet, and the ever-increasing ease of access to web, has unmistakably usurped the teacher from the former role as dictator of subject content.”
I guess the question is whether we educators are ONLY “dictators of subject content” and if we are not: What is digital technology not accounting for in the modern classroom?
What do you think?
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/the-deconstruction-of-the-k-12-teacher/388631/
“Dictators” is a strong word but I think that was what education looked like only 30 years go or so. Before the internet, what was the source of all correctness? It was the teacher and textbook. And before the printing press it was the teacher. If your teacher said that the world was flat and you fall off the edge if you travelled too far then it was true.
As Willinsky stated, it is the free access to education that helps to foster all kinds of democratic action. He gives the example that we are all searching our symptoms on the internet before visiting the doctor.
I think that MET may be a picture of what education looks like in our knowledge society. I think we’re moving away from “cookie-cutter” education which was probably more suited to an industrialization time period. Now that manufacturing has for the most part left North America, education needs to change too. So at the mid point of my MET experience, I see the instructor is more of a guide rather than the source of all that is correct. This is quite a different vision when I was an undergrad in 1990 sitting in a lecture hall with 300 other students listening to the instructor. Now, it seems that it is OK that not all students are at the same place at the same time. Its OK that everyone has a different take-away from the lesson and course. I think it started with the printed book. I believe the open nature of the internet pushed this even further.
This follow up article has some interesting points. Thank you for sharing it. I appreciate where author Michael Godsey says “There is a profound difference between a local expert teacher using the Internet and all its resources to supplement and improve his or her lessons, and a teacher facilitating the educational plans of massive organizations.”
But excellent teaching goes further than that. In my estimation, the best teachers have never been simply “dictators of subject content”, but rather curators of subject matter whose passion for their area of expertise is only surpassed by their love of teaching and ability to inspire their learners to explore and learn themselves. It is only when we interact with the material and mull it around in our own minds that we truly learn. Additionally, we need to interact with others, both teachers and students, to facilitate the learning process. Whether it is a person standing in front of a room and dictating content, or a machine dictating similar content really makes no difference—a one-way directionality of knowledge stops when it reaches a target. Deep learning requires a two-way stream of communication. A gifted teacher does more than impart content, but instead stirs the imagination, in essence coaching students as they learn, providing constructive feedback and assessment along the way.
Digital technology in the modern classroom opens up the world to a wider range of source materials, but it takes the human element to teach. Teachers are also skilled in the art of being diagnosticians; finding the areas where students have weaknesses and helping them learn and overcome troublesome spots. Technology in the classroom invites student engagement and interest, and provides unparalleled assistive tools, and yet it falls short of replacing a true teacher. My best lessons utilize tech to provide access, but the real learning begins when my students are sparked into discussions and have the opportunity to play with the concepts and create their own understanding.
One example of where technology is lauded and yet falls short, the Khan Academy is becoming well known for demonstrating math concepts or techniques online, while this same approach falls short in when used for teaching history. A student can access short chunks of information via Khan, but without context and placement a gifted teacher could provide, the Khan Academy lessons fall short of how a true teacher would guide students with an overall understanding of where each piece of information fits into the big picture. A computerized lecture simply is not able to diagnose the student’s errors of assumption, provide context, support their individual learning needs, and challenge them to new levels of understanding. It is missing the solid pedagogical skills that a good teacher possesses.
Hi Sandra;
‘ but rather curators of subject matter whose passion for their area of expertise is only surpassed by their love of teaching and ability to inspire their learners to explore and learn themselves.” I think the key word is Passion. Sorry Ernesto but a teacher’s passion doesn’t come across on a computer screen. The interactivity between student and teacher is only authentic in real time in the f2f encounters. Neither would holograms be a worthy replacement. I’d like to see a study or two that shows whether students would prefer a professional video or one amateur version produced by their own teacher. Our students tend to pay more attention to the personality they know.
“… the real learning begins when my students are sparked into discussions and have the opportunity to play with the concepts and create their own understanding.”
Play is another key word. No longer will children be pinned down to their seats. Physical activities will encompass the whole child in the learning experience. we have a history instructor who has his students re-enact moments, conversations from the past. The teaching opportunity is there to go off script.
Here we sit as adults watching videos and reading from screens for more hours than we care but with a directed focus and specific personal goal in mind. Can we expect K-12 students to be doing the same.?
Terry
Ha! I was going to pull the same quote as Terry:
:”curators of subject matter whose passion for their area of expertise is only surpassed by their love of teaching and ability to inspire their learners to explore and learn themselves. ” I absolutely love how you summed up the role of the teacher. I think you are completely right that teachers need to be passionate and they need meaningful tools to provide a space for learning to occur. This can be papyrus technology and digital technology!
However- I do believe you can sense Passion for a subject through dialogue with a prof online – and that it doesn’t have to come from the classroom experience, face to face. I think that is one of the great things about being connected through these blog posts – we get to share our oral feedback in a written sense. I almost feel as though blogs are half way between texting and writing. We are “arguing/sharing/reflecting” our opinions, much like we would in a classroom discussion.
Hi Sandra;
As for the student/ teacher relationship and technology use, I have found at the college level that many students come to us with specific tech skills that require tweaking to participate. It is then up to the faculty to expand on these skill sets.
“… questions of copyright, ownership and access are gradually shifting to further increase an open environment. Ownership and authorship will continue to be a key issue, especially in education.” I’m encouraged to see the number of open source materials for education growing but I wonder if accessibility will be the key hurdle to overcome. Providing all levels of society with reliable hardware to access that knowledge may be the last frontier. Maybe a recycling program is needed.
Terry