Thinking Deeply about the Shallows

THINKING DEEPLY ABOUT THE SHALLOWS.....

Michael CoghlanMobilizethis22/10/21010

BASED ON REFLECTIONS ABOUT:• THE SHALLOWS: What the Internet is doing to

our brains – Nicholas Carr

• Individual Knowledge in the Internet Age – Larry Sanger1. Memorisation unnecessary2. Collaboration v Individual Learning3. Books (Deep Reading) v Network Constructed

Knowledge

NEW TECHNOLOGY ROUTINELY INSPIRES FEAR OF CHANGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

THE MEDIEVAL HELPDESK

HISTORY

Socrates feared the end of the oral tradition and consequent decrease of intellectual capacity

Bishop of Milan (380): silent reading considered unnatural

Samuel Johnson (18th c) – 2 kinds of knowledge:

The knowledge you keep in your head

The knowledge that you need to know how to locate

NEUROPLASTICITY

INTELLECTUAL ETHIC

“the message that a tool or medium transmits into the minds and culture of its users”

Internet: “a culture of distraction”

DEEP READING; A Poem:

The house was quiet and the world was calm.

The reader became the book; and summer night

Was like the conscious being of the book.

The house was quiet and the world was calm.

.......

The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:

The access of perfection to the page.

(Wallace Stevens)

Horizontal Learning (multitasking)

Instant Messaging

Assignment

SMS

iPod

Surfing

Watching video/TV

HORIZONTAL V

VERTICAL LEARNING

Vertical Learning (single focus)

Assignment: What were the

principal factors that led

to the Indonesian coup in 1965

and the eventual downfall of

President Sukarno?(5000 words)

TO CONSIDER:

Are we becoming a distracted society? Are you finding it harder to concentrate on

one thing for long periods? Are you seeing evidence of this in others? Does this matter?

Is the 'age of the book', and the age of enlightenment characterised by deep reading and contemplative thinking coming to an end? If so, does this matter?

REFLECTIONS ON:

• Individual Knowledge in the Internet Age – Larry Sanger1. Memorisation unnecessary2. Collaboration v Individual Learning3. Books (Deep Reading) v Network Constructed

Knowledge

MEMORISATION

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanpopo-himawari/2487759975/

Collaboration

THE INDIVIDUAL WITHOUT A NETWORK

CC Licensed Image by Courosa - http://www.flickr.com/photos/courosa/3863055058/

THE FUTURE OF THE BOOK? AND THEREFORE OF READING?

http://flickr.com/photos/32912387@N00/171506548/

SLOW LEARNING

"It is going to become very fashionable at some point to be disconnected," Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo predicts. "There are going to be people who wear their disconnectivity like a badge.“http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070111/1a_tech-noxx.art.htm

SLOW LEARNING: A Dangerous but Powerful Idea - Counter Acceleration and Speed with Slowness and Wholeness

• Geetha Narayanan is Principal Investigator with Project Vision at the Centre for Education Research Training and Development (CERTAD) within the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore, India.

Geetha Narayanan - Slowness as a pedagogy

consciously embrace the core value of slowness – both as way of being and as a way of learning

culture of immediacy values fast knowledge which in turn runs counter to the development of both the self and the mind.

The thoughtless and widespread use of technology as the universal solution to the rising need for fast knowledge is wrong and must be questioned. Often in developing countries, such as India, the term ‘digital divide’ is used to support the argument that the use of new technologies, alone, will create conditions of learning … That is not true

the new digital technologies are tools that allow for learners to develop their imaginations, to be able to play and to have fun, to be able to tell stories in different and exciting ways. But in order to generate value they need to be integrated into new forms and structures in an invisible and contextual manner - one where new media arts can sustain social change.

Slowness promotes “wellness of being”

WHAT MIGHT WE BE LOSING, AND WHAT IS THE TRADE-OFF? (IE WHAT ARE WE GAINING?)

Horizontal v Vertical Learning

The discerning eteacher:• Acknowledges the nature and influence of

horizontal learning (multitasking)• Knows when to encourage vertical learning

(single focus activity)

TWITTER > COMPLEXITY

Howard Rheingold at http://screenr.com/rNl