Summary
of Key Points
The first video, "Web 2.0: The Machine is Using
Us," was written by an anthropologist and the last line of the video
suggesting that the line between humans and machines and control over those
machines is narrowing is interesting.
This video shows that text has become much more fluid over time and
authorship more ubiquitous. Based upon
these points the video suggests we must rethink fundamental principles such as
authorship, copyright, privacy, etc. The
“Vision of Students Today” video discusses this same world in which technology
dominates students’ social lives, but has not necessarily penetrated the world
of university and school. The stark
contrast between the desks and chalkboard of the classroom and the laptops,
mobiles, and social media of students lives suggests that education must adapt
in order to be relevant to students’ digital lives.
Whereas the videos gave us an overview of authorship and
digital tools in our current culture, Meggs’ Chapters 1-3 gave us the origins
of writing. Chapter One discussed that
writing has always been visual-starting with pictographs and cuneiform and
leading to rebus writing. Such writing
was written on different mediums such as clay tablets and led to other
inventions such as libraries to house the newly recorded records of
history. Although we may currently take
writing for granted, writing was revolutionary, sparking not only intellectual
revolution, but also relating to religion and the ability to maintain a rule of
law. Chapter Two discussed the Asian
influence upon writing from calligraphy to using introducing print into
society’s daily life through using paper for money. Chapter Three discussed the system of writing
that is more familiar to our daily lives-the invention of the alphabet. This chapter discussed how writing was
influenced by such factors as geography and cultures needing to understand one
another based on their geographic location.
As writing developed and the tools to write with became more various, society
began to compete to house writing in libraries.
This chapter discussed Ptolemy placing embargoes on papyrus shipments
(Ch. 3, p. 37) in order to prevent other societies from competing with his
libraries. Writing also differed across
cultures exemplified by the discussion of the Korean alphabet, which was more
scientific than other cultures’ systems.
Finally, the Schmandt-Besserat chapter discussed that although much of
the history of writing suggests that writing started concrete and grew more
abstract, the Uruk society started with concrete symbols for writing. This chapter than postulates that although
most credit the Sumerians with being the first to write there is evidence in
the research of clay to suggest that writing may have originated as a system of
record keeping in western Asia and evolved into the invention of writing.
Examples
that Illustrate the Readings
My research interests are in the
area of education, specifically in literacy.
I focus upon how technology can be used to enhance writing
instruction. In this research, there is
much discussion of multimodality and multiliteracies, which is a theory
developed by the New London Group in 1996.
However, researchers of that group, such as Gunther Kress (2003), often
discuss that although our new media makes writing much more visual, and thus,
more multimodal, this is not a new concept.
Writing has been visual since the beginning of times when man was
creating drawings in caves to symbolize ideas.
The texts due today prove this point, writing originated as a concrete,
visual concept and slowly evolved to become more concrete and symbol-sound
oriented. It is interesting that the
idea that writing is visual, and not strictly a system of sound-letter
correspondence, seems like novel research since this is such a historic
idea.
Another idea that struck me as I was
reading is how writing is tied to our culture.
For example, Meggs Ch. 2 discussed Ptolemy placing embargoes in order to
protect the power libraries lent to his culture. This chapter also discussed how in Korean
culture the alphabet was much more scientifically oriented. I wonder if the cultural ties of writing
affect how that society then thinks. For
instance, in international educational tests, the United States often falls
behind other countries in our math and science scores. Does this lack of proclivity for science and
math have to do with the fact that our language is less scientific and more
focused upon sound-letter correspondence?
Critique
of the Readings
I enjoyed the Meggs chapters that
discussed the ties of writing to culture, such as the discussion of how the
Korean writing differs from other cultures’ writing. In education, I often apply my writing to
sociocultural theories, so this is a topic of interest to me. I also enjoyed the video “Vision of Students
Today” because my research focuses upon trying to get teachers to use
technology in the classroom in ways that allow students to create with
technology rather than the more typical use of teachers merely presenting to
students using technology. This video
seemed to validate this idea as these digital students seemed disconnected from
classrooms that remain stuck in more traditional forms of writing.
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