My notions about the textbook of the future were meant to describe a
possible path towards something better, not the goal itself. What might the
next small steps look like? a reformed textbook that encourages dialogue,
examination of alternatives? a very small step, but taking too big a step
all at once, given the complexity of the tied-in practices, risks hybris.
(As a meta-issue here, yes, I believe in the possibility, wisdom, and even
necessity, of gradualist means to radically alternative ends; gradualist in
the sense of re-connecting the practice-network a bit here, a bit there --
the results at any point, of course, can produce emergent surprises,
qualitative jumps.)
My personal feeling about push/pull is that the more push we allow, the
more we are overwhelmed coping with what is thrust upon us, and so the less
time and other intellectual resources we have to initiate, to pull.
Television broadcast is a technology that floods us with information (in
the most generic sense of the term). It's welcome when you don't want to
think too much, restful, entertaining. If the internet follows the push
model it will first resemble the ticker-tape, then the radio, and
ultimately broadcast (or if we are lucky, cable) TV. I dumped Pointcast off
my system within a week or two of loading it. Poor quality of content was
one reason, simple distraction another, and resistance to push (especially
advertising) most basic of all. You can say that all experience and
perception are interactive, even watching TV, but as with the case of the
textbook genre, some genres of communication are designed to promote a
take-it-or-leave-it norm, and others afford more opportunity for active
participation and a role in shaping the trajectory into the future, where
the sender and receiver are equally at risk of being changed by each
other's input.
Pure pull can be a bit solipsistic; we need the corrective of some push of
alternative viewpoints. But a heavy push environment is a mode of
domination and deserves to be resisted. Push and Pull need to be sensitive
partners.
JAY.
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JAY L. LEMKE
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
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