Re: Text and authority in 18th-century China

Jay Lemke (jllbc who-is-at cunyvm.cuny.edu)
Mon, 04 May 1998 22:58:26 -0400

At 12:27 PM 5/2/98 -0700, Mike Cole wrote:
>Thanks Martin Nystrand for forwarding the fascinating message about
>separation of writing and oral communication in China. While parts of
>our academy are eerily moving in a similar direction, other parts seem
>to be decaying in ways that affect both written and oral communication.
>At present it is web-based distance education that is planned to be
>completely one way that has me wincing.
>mike
>
A subject also of interest to me. Much internet and web-based communication
shares features of
both written and oral communication; and pure static text on the web is a
poor use of the web as an educational tool, though it is an easy starting
point for many people. Listgroups like this one, and real-time chat rooms
are basic supplements. So is 1-1 email communication. In the near future we
will have internet phone audio communication also easily available, and not
long after, videoconferencing for the less elite.

But what interests me is a more basic issue: just which features of oral
vs. written communication contribute to which aspects of social learning?
is it synchronous vs. asynchronous mode? formal style vs informal (a major
semantic difference actually, not trivial as often thought)? speed of
interaction? visual cues? the ever-present possibility of physical contact?
interactional synchrony effects? paralinguistic signals (tone of voice, etc.)?

It seems to me that we have lived too long in a world where we communicate
in only two or three modes, two or three squares in a vast grid of
combinatorial possibilities. Only one of these has a long evolutionary
lineage. Only one other has a long cultural lineage. Perhaps we have
developed particular modes of learning adapted to each of these two; if so,
we have the opportunity to develop new kinds of learning via the many other
possibilities.

What are the essential differences for learning of an imaginary dialogue
with a book, listening to a lecture, or having a conversation? in person,
by phone, by chat, by email ?

To me such questions are at the core of the research agenda for education
in the 21st century, and we have hardly even begun to imagine the
dimensions of possible answers.

JAY.

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JAY L. LEMKE
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/index.htm>
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