September 2009 Archives

 Oral traditions play an important part in many cultures - especially those found in underdeveloped african countries(Mbathio Sall).  It is in these poor countries, where Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child(OLPC), is sending thousands of personal computers for the betterment of their education.  It is known that personal computers are very powerful tools in acquiring information in a plethora of topics - but would this disrupt the oral traditions found in the cultures OLPC is giving to?   

How are oral traditions being effected by new communications technology? Ivan Illych notes in his paper "Silence is a Commons" that new technologies have shaped our world into a much different place.  Born in Vienna in 1929, Ivan Illych was taken back to his ancestral home in the Dalmatian islands.  At the same time, the islands first loudspeaker was delivered.  Before the loudspeaker, everyone was heard equally- and this privilege was commonly shared. After the loudspeaker however, the only people who were heard were those with access to the microphone.

The effect of the modern technology today may be just the same as the loudspeaker in 1929.  Digital and electronic technologies are progressing extremely fast.  Since Illych's description of the loudspeaker, we now have the personalized and portable computer.  Theodor Nelson described the computer in his visionary book "Computer lib/ Dream Machine" (1974) as a powerful educational tool with vast potential.  With this tool, students would have the answers to almost every question.  What would be the point of continuing oral traditions when this sudden change in technology occurs to these poor communities?  Make a power point presentation, write a report. The need for oral traditions would dissapear with the ability to maintain a history(Mbathio Sall).

  So how are these computers going to alter the oral traditions of these cultures?  No longer will there be a font of wisdom in the community - experience is a valuble thing- but when answers to questions can be found on these laptops within seconds, the power found in medicine men, parents, and the like, will be outsourced to a new definitive power - the internet.

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries-classification.htm - ranks of countries GNI

http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=13163&version=3634&pageID=8960 - Foley, Navigating Pathways: Oral Tradition and the Internet

Title: Disadvantages in technology: Disrupting the silence with good intentions

question(s):

Will giving laptops to every child(ref- 1 laptop per child)  disrupt the oral traditions found within their culture? 

Background articles:

computer lib/Dream machine-ted Nelson

Silence is a commons - Ivan Illich

1 laptop per Child

http://ifla.queenslibrary.org/IV/ifla65/65mb-e.htm

http://www.blackandchristian.com/articles/academy/swilson-09-03.shtml

http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/12ii/5_gejin.pdf

Outline:

1: Silence is the commons. oral tradition threatened by technology- example the island he grew up on

2.The benefits of technology, and the possibilities - ted Nelson. paraphrase the personal computer as an educational tool

3. One laptop per child.  paraphrase/quote the mission statement. note the capabilities of environmental creativity in XO laptop.

4. show the oral traditions found in these impoverished countries (last three references) 

5. Conclusion/discussion synthesis of all of  these ideas.

title?

Disadvantages in technology: Disrupting the silence with good intentions

question(s):

Will giving laptops to everychild(ref- 1 laptop per child)  disrupt the commons found there?  What is the cost/benefit ratio of commons vs being technologically updated? 

i chose section 7 as my source for a synthesis paragraph, and three summary sentences.

Article 1. Nelson, Ted. Computer Lib/Dream Machines.

This article explains the power struggle between professional computer people and those who know nothing about computers.

Article 2. One Laptop Per Child.
This website showcases the idea of giving a laptop to every child as an educational tool. 

Article 3. Illych, Ivan. Silence is a Commons.

Ivan Illych describes the true commons as the ability to speak and be heard equally, and how it is being taken away by the changes in technology.

All three of these articles aim at a very broad topic, and that is the way technology is changing society. More specifically, Ivan Illych believes that technology is encroaching upon the the commons(defined as a resource used by everyone that isn't a scarcity) of speech, being heard equally.  In a way, one laptop per child is a method to help prevent this inbalance of power between those with enough money to buy the technology, and those who do not.  Ted Nelson also observed this imbalance of power between those who know how to use computers and those who don't(and the unwillingness of the people who do know to teach others).  While i don't think anyone of the originators behind any of these ideas thinks that technology is a bad thing - they also realize that the change in communication medium has a whole level of repercussions that many never thought of. 

this article (by Anthony Grafton) basically goes over the many advances of the digital world on libraries; how we store our information, and how we retreive it.  From Google to microsoft, every major digital service provider has their hands on a project dealing with the electronic versions of books.  Some are even trying to get every book ever written on the web- with the help of the average joe, his books, and a scanner.

Some Robert Townsend took it upon himself to give the negative aspects of this new digital library.  He noted that there is poor scan quality, poor metadata (so that you can't tell when the book was published, its correct title, etc.), and even the legality of it - due to copy right.

All in all, it has definately been noted that this new digital technology has changed the way we get and use information.  Anthony Grafton wrote that we no longer suffer from the lack of information, but from information overload.  One of the main problems he says is "sifting the gold from the pyrites".

So where will this all lead us too? I believe that the authors are right in saying that we have an information overload problem - but i see the digital library as it is - its still in its infancy.  Perhaps in five more years, there will be less complaints. 

This reading was an interview with dialog(from npr "All Things Considered"), explaining the generation gaps in cell phone usage.  It is typical of a family these days- the youngest daughter (in her teens) texts and talks on her phone constantly.  This girl describes the rules for correctly choosing the type of communication used as " Like if you're shy about talking to them on the phone, you only type message. It's like an e-mail, but it's faster."  Whether she is in the movie theater, or at the dinner table - she is always communicating with her peers about the smallest daily tidbits.

Her mother, has a cell phone as well. her daughter says she uses it differently than her though- "She just uses her phone to talk. That's it. On her phone, there's only more like details to it, with text messaging, getting music, getting ringtones. She just uses it to call people."  So here is the first gap - the mother can appreciate the convenience of the cell phone for making the occasional call, but doesn't feel the need to communicate every detail.

And finally, the grandmother.  who was given her phone for the same reasons that the other two got their phones - for security and protection when they need to make a phone call.  And of course, she doesn't use it. according to the mother/daughter, the cell phone hasn't even "seen the light of day".  

So what is the bottom line? why are these different generations not using the technology the same?  My opinion would be because its what they grew up with. the grandmother is used to not having a phone, so became independent and resourceful in other ways.  Like they say a blind persons senses are intensified.  The grandmother doesn't use the cell phone because she doesn't need it.  Growing  up with this technology has made the youngest generation dependent upon it.

In summary, this reading was about the change in technology, and its effect on everyday people.  The article/pdf itself incuded a small introduction to the book titled "Computer Lib/ Dream Machine" written in 1974 by Ted Nelson.  The reason, the author said, for writting this book was to allow the everday layman (who at the time was surronded by this new computer technology)  to be able to cope, use, (and to some degree) understand, computers.  The idea is that "computer programers" and other professionals were like a cold, condescending, tight lipped bunch who didn't like to share information about this new technology that was rapidly approaching, leaving non-computer professionals totally dependent upon them.  This book was written(in part), to take away the mystery of computer technology.

The book is divided into two seperate parts: "Computer Lib", which explains some of the technical details of the computer, and "Dream Machine" which goes into quite some detail about one main topic: making computers work for us.  Rather, that computers seemed inapproachable by the average person.  Nelson seemed irritated that this was happening, and noted that computers will have much more distributed usage in the future than they did at the time.  He also mentioned that computers would allow the creation of new media, and that this media should be shaped to the needs of those who use it, not just those that create the technology. "We live in media as fish live in water" - (305)  

Hypertext, was one of his answers to the problem of computer personalization.  And with this answer, Nelson described the mundane and counter-productive educational system - and how to fix it.  With personalized computers, students would be more involved than ever before, and with the ability to connect the students to this network of information, only their imaginations would be stopping them from what they could learn. 

questions for further inquiry:

Many of the ideas that Nelson brings to play are so novel that i wonder if he himself thought that this technology would be possible.  It was so ridiculous, this utopian world of the personalized computer, that the majority of the critics laughed at the idea. Is his dream realized today? personalized computers are very useful tools with many applications, but is the computer used as he envisioned it for students? Like McLuhan, he didn't seem to find many negative aspects to this situation. would he say that now?  

We are becoming primitive in our orientation

-"Electric circuitry is recreating in us the multidimensional space orientation of the "primitive"" (page 57)

Justin Williams

I found this to be very intriguing, to say that people in todays society will have a similar way of observation as, say, cavemen did 20,000 years ago.  Just as the invention of the written word created a "fixed idea" individual based public, so will this new media create a mass audience with more emphasis on what we know, rather than what we see.

The disconnect between the young and the electronic 

-"the young live today mythically and in depth"(page 100)

Justin Williams

I was very confused after reading this. Mythically? in depth? Bold statement for a guy who was no spring chicken when he wrote this book.  I think i understand - the young create their own environment in which they learn in.  Although i think that his argument is a little outdated.  I don't think that the educational system is shutting out the mythical world of  electronically processed data.  In fact, i think that in a lot of instances schools today have embraced electrical technology to the benefit of both the student and the teachers.  I can see how it would be different 40 years ago, though.

Catching up with technology

-"Formerly, the problem was to invent new forms of labor-saving. Today, the reverse is the problem.  Now we have to adjust, not to invent."(page 124)

Justin Williams

Again,  i find that this statement is perhaps a little outdated.  Not in that we need to adjust to the new technologies and gadgets that are created every year, but that we should stop inventing in the meanwhile.  It seems that in the past, it was a shock to society to have this sudden new medium at its disposal.  With that in mind, i think that we have learned that invention will never stop, and society will have to adapt at its own pace. 

The medium, process of our time according to McLuhan, seems to be all of "electric technology", but more specifically, the effects of the electronic/ digital breakthroughs on the media.  McLuhan mentions that this technology is all but breaking society apart with its new applications.  Its because of this technology that allows McLuhan to differentiate between old thinking, and new thinking; the idea of the "individual" is being reshaped into something far different than it used to.  Childhood is no longer as clearly defined as it once was, and schools are having a difficult time adjusting to this new flurry of information provided by advances in technology.  Businesses (employees/employer) are finding that conformation to this technology is a requirement, not just a passing fad.  The media reshapes how we think of our community, from local to global- and the overbearing availability of the many types of media are the "massage".