I find some sad ironies in some of the listed links to this post. The first link is all about the potentially terrifying change to a (read: real) post-literate society…from the standpoint of a hard working (almost undoubtedly very capable) English teacher. This article presents some reasonable arguments and opinions…as far as it goes. But (with great respect to the interviewed educator) I have never seen anything other than a Cassandra-like preview of doom about this possibly ongoing situation.
What does being post-literate really mean?
And to me, since we may be in the beginning of a transitional period (between literate and post-literate)…what will all of this finally resolve into? Does our culture work without a cadre of educated (literate) elites? Does this then simply allude to a growing social stratification which we seem to be inexorably moving towards?
None of these questions are being addressed. We aren’t even (seriously) looking at what may be the superficial culprits in this transition…
I suppose that I should look at what we consider literacy to consider these questions…
This is a topic which is not as concrete as you may think. A look at most ancient cultures (especially at the beginning of the historical epoch) shows that literacy was the private reserve of scribes. The powerful didn’t necessarily know how to read and write (scribes worded as proxies for them), but things got done.
Imagine at some point of the near future…we now have computer technology to provide us with entertainment, amusements, occasionally some news. Is it that much of a stretch of us to see that we might end up using this sort of technology to (in effect) become our scribes?
We have already relinquished so much knowledge… for instance, how well do you understand the technology you use on a daily basis… We may have been on this road for decades…
As a final addendum to this, I do find it interesting and ironic to see English teachers trying to do something about maintaining standards, while I see so many progressive math teachers bemoaning why they have to teach the multiplication tables (the reason being that calculators are ubiquitous…).
Can Reading Be Saved?
http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2011/04/04/02gallagher.h04.html
In your 25 years as a teacher, have you noticed a change in students’ reading habits or abilities? If so, what do you think accounts for it?
I’ve noticed a very large change, especially in the last 10 years. Students are reading a lot less. And here’s the compounding problem: That lack of reading has created a gaping hole in students’ prior knowledge and background, which is very, very important to bring to the page. A lot of times my kids can read the words on the page, but they can’t comprehend the text because they don’t have requisite prior knowledge and background information.
I think our kids are much more likely nowadays to find other things to do rather than read. They sort of encapsulate themselves in an entertainment bubble when they go home; a lot of Facebook, a lot of texting, instant messaging, and so on. They do a lot of entertaining themselves, but I’m not sure they do a whole lot of informing themselves.
Kids today really struggle with difficult texts. They don’t do a very good job of monitoring their comprehension. They don’t know how to fix their comprehension when it falters. And I’ve found that their ability to really focus in on their reading seems to lessen with each year.
Are We Headed Toward a Post-Literate World?
http://somanybooksblog.com/2009/03/16/are-we-headed-toward-a-post-literate-world
Ridley’s presentation was called “Are Reading and Writing Doomed?” His slides are available as a pdf if you are interested and I am going to bet you will be interested. Because, you see, Ridley thinks we are heading toward a post-literate world, one in which reading and writing are no longer necessary and no longer done. His view is that reading and writing are tools and technology is going to reach a stage where we don’t need those tools any longer.
There are lots of candidates for what a post-literate world might look like. At this point it is only speculation. Ridley lists a few in his slides but if you want a little more detail, he has a website. Ridley teaches a class on the topic and on the Resources page you can find two articles written by two of his classes.
Orality and the Post-Literate West
http://orvillejenkins.com/orality/postliterate.html
Pre-literate and Post-literate Orality
We are in a period of history and technology where much of the world’s population, perhaps a majority, are still in the pre-literate oral communication era, while the west, and particularly the US and Canada, are in the post-literate information age. In the post-literate world, learners have a base of literacy, but their primary means of learning have shifted back to oral and aural media (if in fact they were ever fully indoctrinated into literate forms of learning), but the media are new.
The current western generation learns and processes in terms of media such as television (drama, news, music, interactive graphics or text), radio (music, news, discussion), telephone (often in conjunction with TV or radio), computer (which involves basic literacy, but more visuals, graphics and click-skills), visual and aural media, often multiplexed, as all the media merge. In this post-literate society, writing and reading are still of value, but only as they facilitate manipulation for the other media.
Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?
http://www.tidbits.com/article/10493
