11/09/09
In my second reading of Ong's Article "Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought", I noticed a couple things I didn't touch on in my first blog. One of the major points Ong tries to make is that writing separates the known from the knowner. Now what does Ong mean by this? I believe that Ong means that writing seperates knowledge from a person that knows it and allows it to be passed freely to another person in the form of writing. This is evident in Ong's article "Between knower and known writing interposes a visible and tangible object, the text. The objectivity of the Text helps impose objectivity on what the text refers to. Eventually writing will create a state of mind in which knwoledge itself can be thought of as an object, distinct from the knower." Ong also argues an interesting point that writing separates academic learning from wisdom. This point I had a litlle trouble understanding but I waded into the troubled waters so to speak and came out with an aswer. Ong means that writing allows for information to be passed without the need for an apprentship or mentor Thus making it much widely spread to society. That is all from my re-read of Ong. I just wanted to address and clean-up some things i missed the first time I blogged.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
"Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought"
11/03/09
Walter Ong, the author of this essay, brings up very thought provoking points about writing and literacy. He begins the essay by arguing that writing is not a mechanical skill that is obligatory for every human do know and understand. In fact Ong argues that writing, although created by humans, is not natural to humans like oral communication is. By natural he means that all humans, unless effected my some mental or physical disability, learn to speak at a relatively young age. This is not true for writing. Writing, as the title implies, is a technology that humans use to help express thoughts like computers or musical insturments. Ong compares writing to a musical instrument to show how both are technologies "The Fact is that by using the mechanical contrivance a clarinettist or pianist or an organist can express something poignantly human that cannot be expressed without the mechanical contrivance... I instance the moderen orchestra here to make the point that writing is an even more deeply interiorzed technology than the performance of instrumental music is." So if writing is an instrument it needs to be practiced, much like any other techology, to express human emotions and knowledge. I agree with Ong on the subject of writing and literacy. We should not look at illterates as sub-human beings with a sickness or disability but rather just realize they need to be taught an unnatural way to express something so human. Ong also argues that writing can also divide socities creating a "high" and "low" language. The high language, like learned Latin, is completely controlled by writing and the "low" language is compeletly controlled by speech and oral communication. This divison can cause tension between groups that speak different discourses than one another. This article completely changed my view on literacy. When we first started talking about literacy I believed that illterates were somehow worse than literates. I know that is not the case now as Ong made me realize that writing is not natural but rather a human invention that must be learned and practiced to express human thought, emotion, and knowledge. As Ong puts it "Writing is a humanizing technology" and I to believe that it is.
Walter Ong, the author of this essay, brings up very thought provoking points about writing and literacy. He begins the essay by arguing that writing is not a mechanical skill that is obligatory for every human do know and understand. In fact Ong argues that writing, although created by humans, is not natural to humans like oral communication is. By natural he means that all humans, unless effected my some mental or physical disability, learn to speak at a relatively young age. This is not true for writing. Writing, as the title implies, is a technology that humans use to help express thoughts like computers or musical insturments. Ong compares writing to a musical instrument to show how both are technologies "The Fact is that by using the mechanical contrivance a clarinettist or pianist or an organist can express something poignantly human that cannot be expressed without the mechanical contrivance... I instance the moderen orchestra here to make the point that writing is an even more deeply interiorzed technology than the performance of instrumental music is." So if writing is an instrument it needs to be practiced, much like any other techology, to express human emotions and knowledge. I agree with Ong on the subject of writing and literacy. We should not look at illterates as sub-human beings with a sickness or disability but rather just realize they need to be taught an unnatural way to express something so human. Ong also argues that writing can also divide socities creating a "high" and "low" language. The high language, like learned Latin, is completely controlled by writing and the "low" language is compeletly controlled by speech and oral communication. This divison can cause tension between groups that speak different discourses than one another. This article completely changed my view on literacy. When we first started talking about literacy I believed that illterates were somehow worse than literates. I know that is not the case now as Ong made me realize that writing is not natural but rather a human invention that must be learned and practiced to express human thought, emotion, and knowledge. As Ong puts it "Writing is a humanizing technology" and I to believe that it is.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Technology and Literacy: A Story About the Perils of Not paying Attention
11/2/09
This article by Cynthia Selfe is an eye opening essay on Technology and Literacy. The Author argues that teaching the use of computer and technological literacy is just as important as teaching reading and writing to today's youth. Selfe later discusses the race and/or socio-economic divide of technology. She talks about how it is more likely that white children have access to computers and the internet at home or school than a child of afircan american or hispanic heritage. She gives us some shocking statistics on the matter: 73% of white kids owned a home computer compared to 32% of African Americans. Obviously technology is a growing field and will help provide the next generation numerous opportunities to succeed but if we do not teach children, espically the children who may not have access to technology, we are setting them up for failure. Also if we do not teach technology in schools to the 68% of african american's who do not own a home computer we are further the socio-economic trends that have plagued this country's history and are furthering the trend of a poor minorty class. It really comes through in this paper that teaching technology to America's youth is very important for cureent anf future teachers. Not only to provide an opportunity to those kids to succeed in life, but also to try and break free from the socio-economic line that is so prevalant in American culture. Technology is the key to doing just that if only it was stressed more in a child's early education.
This article by Cynthia Selfe is an eye opening essay on Technology and Literacy. The Author argues that teaching the use of computer and technological literacy is just as important as teaching reading and writing to today's youth. Selfe later discusses the race and/or socio-economic divide of technology. She talks about how it is more likely that white children have access to computers and the internet at home or school than a child of afircan american or hispanic heritage. She gives us some shocking statistics on the matter: 73% of white kids owned a home computer compared to 32% of African Americans. Obviously technology is a growing field and will help provide the next generation numerous opportunities to succeed but if we do not teach children, espically the children who may not have access to technology, we are setting them up for failure. Also if we do not teach technology in schools to the 68% of african american's who do not own a home computer we are further the socio-economic trends that have plagued this country's history and are furthering the trend of a poor minorty class. It really comes through in this paper that teaching technology to America's youth is very important for cureent anf future teachers. Not only to provide an opportunity to those kids to succeed in life, but also to try and break free from the socio-economic line that is so prevalant in American culture. Technology is the key to doing just that if only it was stressed more in a child's early education.
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