"Inventing" A Writing Technology
According to Walter Ong, an influential scholar of the relationship between technology and media, "Literacy is imperious. It tends to arrogate to itself supreme power by taking itself as normative for human expression and thought. This is particularly true in high-technology cultures, which are built on literacy of necessity and which encourage the impression that literacy is an always to be expected and even natural state of affairs" (316). Ong would probably agree that literacy is so embedded in our current technological culture that it has become part of the standard of living, a necessary requirement for functioning in this highly professionalized world. However, the point of Ong’s prior statement
…show more content…
Portability was described as the extent to which the text could be moved or carried. Nature referred to the extent to which the materials used in creating the text and/or writing surface were found in nature and not manufactured or highly processed. During this experiment, I tried to consider what completely natural materials I could find. I resorted to using materials found in my backyard including rocks, dirt, sand, sticks, grass, and leaves. The permanence criterion of the assignment narrowed my choices by eliminating writing in the dirt, sand, or mud or with grass or leaves. Wind or rain would erase any writing created using these materials. The issue of portability further narrowed my decision to use a small, hand-held, sharp rock to scrape or chisel words into a larger stone which was able to be carried. The stone needed to have a writing surface large enough to chisel words but not so large that it could not be easily transported. All in all, inventing a technology which was creative was somewhat of a problem when considering permanence and portability and was overlooked as a criterion.
Although the solution to the assignment may sound easy, the creation process was actually very challenging. One reason may be that "Oral speech is fully natural to human beings in the sense that every human being in every culture who is not physiologically or psychologically impaired learns to talk" (Ong, 322). In U.S. culture, oral speech and writing are
Throughout this article, Gioia discusses that literacy is declining with people from “ages 18-24.” This is found mostly with younger adults in america. Dana includes that with the decline of literacy “It signifies deep transformations in contemporary life.” This evidence gives us the idea that without reading, the lives of many will take a turn for the worst. It persuades his
In the New Atlantis, Christine Rosen wrote an article, “People of the Screen.” The article talks about old books that are no longer being printed, that if the books are no longer printed, if we choose to replace the book-what will become of reading and the print culture it fostered? Rosen states, “We have already taken the first steps on our journey to a new form of literacy— “digital literacy.”
c.h. Knoblauch in the essay titled ;literacy and the politics of education conveys literacy or rather the idea of it is highly subjective to differing aguements and its percieved importance varies from person to person. Litteracy is enforced by those who you use it and altho its not all languages have used it, it is agrgued that humanity cannot progress without it. Today literacy is commonly associated with social reality and forms thereof.
Kofi Annan once said, “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life...and a building block of development”. Without literacy, it is clear that people end up living a miserable life. Similarly, the book, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is about a futuristic society that does not value literacy. Therefore, they end up having books banned from their households. As a result, people start to be addicted to various forms of technology, which they end up living empty and emotionless lives. Censoring literacy causes an individual to be more dependent on technology, which leads to unhappiness. Today, in my speech, I am going to talk about the ideas of technology, literacy, censorship, and unhappiness, and how all these
In American society, literacy, or the ability to read and write, is taken for granted. In many areas around the world, and even America before public schooling, the power you carried with literacy was priceless. Deborah Brandt, an English professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said “Literacy like land, is a valued commodity in this economy, a key resource in gaining profit and edge. This value helps to explain, of course, the lengths people will go to secure literacy for them- selves or their children. But it also explains why the powerful work so persistently to conscript and ration the powers of literacy” (Brandt 169). This quote from her publication, Sponsors of Literacy, shows how literacy is power and the people who are in control of it need to influence, or as Brandt would say “Sponsor” (167) those who are illiterate.
Lack of literacy in those of young age could end up leading to lacking of people skills, brain development and mental skills. Dana tells us about the ones that use literacy to their advantage and how they end up markedly more civically engaged when reading and that they are more likely to “perform charity work, visit a museum or attend a sporting event.” The author persuades us with evidence that is likely true, she proves to us that the knowledge that comes along with literacy reading, is not one that is up for grabs in a lot of places. A single person's lack of not wanting to read changes in to many thousands quickly, it spreads like wildfire and that's only because of the high advantage of technology now a days, this causes tremendos declining rates on society which leads to “ serious long term social
Neil Postman; cultural critic, author, and teacher extraordinaire, spent his career warning and educating about the role technology was beginning to play in society. He wrote all of his books, articles, and speeches by hand and reportedly never met a computer or typewriter that he liked. He also never published an academic journal article due to his belief that his ideas were meant to be read by all, not exclusively a handful of scholars. In today's age of technological overload, just thirty years after his most well-known book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," Neil Postman is revered as a prophet as more and more of our media consumption becomes purely for entertainment purposes.
Whoever reads Sven Birkerts’ Into the Electronic Millennium, can see how much the author hates technology and states that people will become dumb. Birkerts states,” The complexity and distinctiveness of spoken and written expression, which are deeply bound to traditions of print literacy, will gradually be replaced by a more telegraphic sort of plainspeak." He also assumes that technology will make people dull and boring which I totally disagree on.
Mankind has come a long way, from reading the traces left by animals in the soil to reading the scratches and scrawls across a white surface, (or the printed letters on a page). However, printed records are hardly ever hand-written anymore since the impact of electronic (and digital) environments are so prevalent in our lives. With the exception of those who still write out their notes for school or send heartfelt cards during the holidays, most people don 't hand-write anything anymore. The “technology” of the alphabet has been used to create printed records, which has proceeded to produce electronic records.
Using technology in the classroom is a sensitive issue. It is the teacher?s responsibility to
The article, “Digital Literacy Is the Key to the Future, But We Still Don’t Know What It Means,” is written by Marcus Wohlsen. He writes his article, to explain to the public what digital literacy is. Wohlsen knows that the increasing there is an increasing usage of technology in the public life, and to adapt to this they are going to need to be literate is using it. In his article, he explains to the public what this literacy is, and how much one needs to be literate in technology. Wohlsen effectively uses multiple viewpoints of experts and relatability to engage the reader and explain to them what digital literacy is all about.
The growth of technology and the media are playing an important role in sensitizing and educating the
In today’s world it is a requirement to be digitally literate in order to be able to function in a capacity that enables one to be more successful whether it is at home, school, at our jobs or even looking for a job. Over the last few decades our environment has evolved into a digital environment. Being or becoming digitally literate is essential in being successful in this digital environment. Almost everything we do today requires some sort of digital knowledge or literacy. From surfing the internet to searching for a job to being able to perform our jobs, we are required to have some sort of digital
There is a growing trend in the use of technology in the classroom. As a teacher, I am always looking for ways to use manipulatives in my lessons to increase meaning and authenticity for students. I would love to keep my students engaged, motivated and interactive in the classroom and still be able to get through the content each day. In order to achieve this, I need to have an arsenal of tools to draw from. That is why I agree with (Tataroglu & Erduran, 2010) as stated in the International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education (IEJEE) that “The use of technologies like IWBs in the classroom can provide teachers and students convenience and variety. “
Communication is the exchange of information and feeling or ideas, which allow the majority of people to get the news of all sides. In addition, we are used the communication every day to let people know what we are doing or thinking even feeling which people are received that by voice, picture or chat. Moreover, communication technologies have made it simple to communicate to friends in the other side of the world by calling them using mobile phone, e-mailing them and writing in our web pages using social networks, such as Face book, Twitter or Messenger. Additionally, many other recourses are used by the majority of people to keep in touch with the world, which they can watch television or listen to the radio