Post Literacy; Neo Oralcy

Post Literacy
Neo Oralcy

I read a study recently suggesting that
Americans now swim through most of
their day looking at some kind of screen

— screens on their cell phones,
on their desks, in their kitchens,
everything from digital billboards
on the highway and in the back of
a cab to the eruption of screens
in urban centers.

Times Square is no longer an unusual
attraction; it’s the norm. The side of a
building can now be made to broadcast
video. There is hardly a public space left —
a bar, a gym, the dentist’s office — that
hasn’t been vanquished by some kind of
screen. Jack Hitt

So what? anyone could ask.
Don’t have to be an academic to wonder.
Does IT make any difference?
A difference that makes a difference?

@@@@@@@

Take out your
s l a t e-board
and chalk,
children, spiral
ring note books
and #2 pencils;
put away your
mittens and stash
your lunch boxes
in your cubbies:

I want you to pay
Royal Typewriter
attention efficiency
here & write this
down because it’ ll
be on the final
examination:

Anno Mirabilis: year of wonder
& repentance for Sustainability
Club: marvelous transformational
challenges to our preservational
practices to secure a world as we
know it—turning us from light bulbs,
golf carts, solar panels, wind mills,
electric auto mobiles & polar bears
to WAYS we DO what we do,
not just What We Do.

Ways & Means! Hot!

Home Economics
(eco-logical housekeeping)
become Big Ideas—Local
Food for Thought.

Media is the message.
Process is the Product.

How to teach the generation
raised on screens? The Screen
Savvy? Same as on paper?
Swimming in a post-literate
& neo-oral amnion: same as it
always was?

We could take moments or more to
reflect, with our First Year Seminarians,
and Fine Arts & Humanities personnel,
our Social as well as our Hard Scientists:
liberal artists all, Gen Ed & Phdegreed:
philosophers in our major disciplines:
a colloquy of rivals, collaboration
of genius.

Asking together: Does IT make any difference?

IT, I said What’s happening. HAP.
Anno Mirabilis.