Our Vanishing Society? From Papyrus to Cyberspace
Over the years I have had thoughts about how records our contemporary digital society will vanish. How it will be a vacuum of nothingness. How people in the future may refer to us as the “Seminal Digital Age” but unfortunately they had no way of converting their records into our contemporary “Aqua Splats” or whatever will be used in the future to record human activity, perceptions of the world, and communal knowledge or records.
I’ve also considered ideas of those in human history who left no records, which would be the majority of people who have lived on Earth so far. Which brings me to considering how much we value ourselves and our thoughts, and ultimately, our records. If we can leave a mark, we may fear death less? I’m not sure why we want to leave records, but that in itself is worth exploring.
After listening to the podcast “From Papyrus to Cyberspace”, I felt that the evolution of education, in its best result will be in its humanity. In its “milk of human kindness”. In questioning how we can foster societies that care for the disadvantaged in whatever form. In how we can be critical thinkers and help students become effective critical thinkers to make our world a better place. In a democratic and equitable education of young people. How?
It also makes me think about the man whom I am replacing at the moment at in a teaching position that I am grateful to have. He is a Luddite, yet he is an effective teacher despite his own fight against the machine. I think his students would all say they benefited from being taught by him. And, in thinking about him, I think about practical skills. Should we be teaching children more practical skills along with critical thinking skills and best practices in using digital technologies? There are so many questions that arise from listening this from the podcast.
How can we best guide children and teens through the world of learning. What other ideas do we need to address besides those being addressed in our new curriculum (BC)?
My questions may seem simple, naive, or bland, but I will plunge further into them, and try to get down into the mud and mire of future education practices, and questions of disconnections between digital natives, and non-digital natives.
Pamela
Hi Pamela! I don’t think your questions are simple, naive or bland, just big. And we can definitely tackle them one bite at a time. I would say that as a father I believe that the best skill to have is to ask questions. It is easy to learn and master and once you learn it really well, is really hard to forget. I know, it seems too simple, naive or bland, but it is a very very good start, don’t you think?
Great questions 🙂
“Aqua Splats” – Love it!
I do not think you are alone in wondering what’s next? and how will future societies look back at us? There are certainly a lot of books and movies all speculating on the future, people are definitely curious. In fact it sometimes really bugs me that I am not going to get to find out.
It seems to me that throughout most of human history people have been trying to tell their stories to the future (some societies much more successful than others). Another trend across history that stands out to me (maybe because I visited several museums in Ottawa over the summer) is that it is the stories of the rich that are much more likely to last the span time. I had thought that this might be changing as our digital technology makes record keeping easier and more accessible to the masses. However, as you pointed out our technology may not last the test of time. Also, if it does it is still the people or more accurately the companies with lots of money that have the most control of the stories we tell. Google books is a good example, while they may chose to share all kinds of stories by digitizing books, they may not, or the may omit certain types of stories. I personally quite like google books, but it does make me wonder how much control one company has over what information lasts and what does not.
I enjoyed reading your post ?Vanishing Society?. I have often wondered about how our history – past, present, and future is being recorded and interpreted. Historical records have evolved from oral tradition, to text, through to video and now a variety of digital sources. Students today have great opportunities to learn and study history. Today?s students are able to access a wide range of information sources. They are not limited to one or two classroom textbooks. This broader range of information sources as helped to widen the historical landscape of the past. Access to more information has helped to reveal that there are many stories and viewpoints, and biases that exist in historical records.
One important documentation source of history is recorded news. Phil Graham former Washington Post President and Publisher, popularized the quote ?Journalism is the first rough draft of history?. Journalist are similar to historians in that they research and share information about events, geographical regions, and social phenomenon. In the world of journalism, the way in which news is reported has also been evolving. My sister who is a reporter for the Toronto Star has often commented about the drastic changes in the field of journalism. She has reflected on how her job as a reporter is no longer limited newsprint. In addition to writing hard copies of news events she is also provides digital narratives of events of the day. One of the benefits to this evolution of information sharing is that news stories can be accessed anywhere, anytime, and by anyone.
Alongside traditional reporting is the growing field of citizen journalism. This is where everyday citizens collect report and disseminate news. This type of reporting can exists outside of mainstream media institutions on social networking sites and alongside mainstream media. It is not uncommon today for citizens to contribute news stories to mainstream media especially when they have eye-witness first person account of news events.
I think that overall there has been an important shift in how we access events of historical significance. The sources and opportunities to access information have broadened. However, this also means that consumers who access information will benefit from being able to critique and analyze the sources and the content. This is where I think that teachers have a strong role to play. Teachers can be instrumental in helping students learn the skills of collecting, consuming and evaluating the information in order to glean a clear and accurate account of events.
References
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Citizen journalism. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Phil Graham. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Graham
I enjoyed reading your post “Vanishing Society”. I have often wondered about how our history – past, present, and future is being recorded and interpreted. Historical records have evolved from oral tradition, to text, through to video and now a variety of digital sources. Students today have great opportunities to learn and study history. Today’s students are able to access a wide range of information sources. They are not limited to one or two classroom textbooks. This broader range of information sources as helped to widen the historical landscape of the past. Access to more information has helped to reveal that there are many stories and viewpoints, and biases that exist in historical records.
One important documentation source of history is recorded news. Phil Graham former Washington Post President and Publisher, popularized the quote “Journalism is the first rough draft of history”. Journalist are similar to historians in that they research and share information about events, geographical regions, and social phenomenon. In the world of journalism, the way in which news is reported has also been evolving. My sister who is a reporter for the Toronto Star has often commented about the drastic changes in the field of journalism. She has reflected on how her job as a reporter is no longer limited newsprint. In addition to writing hard copies of news events she is also provides digital narratives of events of the day. One of the benefits to this evolution of information sharing is that news stories can be accessed anywhere, anytime, and by anyone.
Alongside traditional reporting is the growing field of citizen journalism. This is where everyday citizens collect report and disseminate news. This type of reporting can exists outside of mainstream media institutions on social networking sites and alongside mainstream media. It is not uncommon today for citizens to contribute news stories to mainstream media especially when they have eye-witness first person account of news events.
I think that overall there has been an important shift in how we access events of historical significance. The sources and opportunities to access information have broadened. However, this also means that consumers who access information will benefit from being able to critique and analyze the sources and the content. This is where I think that teachers have a strong role to play. Teachers can be instrumental in helping students learn the skills of collecting, consuming and evaluating the information in order to glean a clear and accurate account of events.
References
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Citizen journalism. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Phil Graham. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Graham