In this week\u2019s reading we see the enthusiasm of John Willinsky\u2019s views on embracing \u2018this new communication technology\u201d (Willinsky, 2006) to encourage educational researchers to do \u201cmore to foster open, better organized scholarly communication in the name of democracy and education, rather than setting out technical solutions for achieving this organized openness\u201d (Willinsky, 2006) pitted against the cautionary views of Neil Postman as he writes \u201cevery technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either \u2013or, but this-and- that\u201d (Postman, 1992). Postman goes on to say \u201cthat the benefits and deficits of a new technology are not distributed equally. There are \u2026 winners and losers (Postman, 1992).\u201d We have been placed in the midst of a global competition for dominance over access to the growth of \u2018open access\u2019 knowledge when our energies and focus should be on the cooperative and sharing aspects of these communication technologies. In most competitions, there are also those who finish second, third and fourteenth and those who do just finish the race; a personal accomplishment. We must look past the top winner to the needs of the others in this race. Yes, we should be cautious when approaching new technology especially when surrounded by the propaganda of the \u2018inventor\u2019s\u2019 marketing in what Willinsky sees as a social \u2018experiment\u2019. \u201cThe discoverer of an art is not the best judge\u201d (Postman, 1992). \u201d Our attention should most definitively also include the \u2018technical solutions\u2019 required to bring about a viable open information resource if the transition forward is to result in an inclusive democratic society. \u201cEvery technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that\u201d (Postman, 1999). Even in today\u2019s world, depending on which way the wind blows an umbrella can become a hindrance rather than a helpful tool.
\nPostman tells us \u201cthat radical technologies create new definitions of old terms, and that this process takes place without our being fully conscious of it.\u201d We may unknowingly be witnessing this taking place in online communities. The Internet seems to possess its own \u2018code of conduct\u2019 in defining its own meanings. With the increased dependence on these digital resources, could we be eroding our own human instinct? Is our intuition reliable when it comes to reacting wisely? Are we willing to trust it or Google?<\/p>\n
Terry<\/p>\n
Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York: Vintage Books.
\nWillinsky, J. (2006). The access principle: The case for open access to research and scholarship. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this week\u2019s reading we see the enthusiasm of John Willinsky\u2019s views on embracing \u2018this new communication technology\u201d (Willinsky, 2006) to encourage educational researchers to do \u201cmore to foster open, better organized scholarly communication in the name of democracy and education, rather than setting out technical solutions for achieving this organized openness\u201d (Willinsky, 2006) pitted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1041005,1231374],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts-assignment-1","category-re-module-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20006"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2700,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions\/2700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540summer15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}