EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
History and Future of Higher Education
Cathy Davidson, Duke University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E The Four Information Ages Notes taken on February 1, 2014 by Edward Tanguay |
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four information ages
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1. invention of writing
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4000 BCE: Mesopotamia
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cuneiform
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early writing used for commerce and poetry
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400 BCE: Golden Age of Greece
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Socrates thought writing ruined the dialogue process between people, since people aren't engaged with each other anymore
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fortunately Plato wrote everything down
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2. movable type
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9th and 10th century China
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15th century: Gutenberg printing press
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took control of printing from out of the hands of priests, scholars, and the law
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made printers very important
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many printers were Dutch
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English is a combination of German and French transcribing words to their Dutch hears, which created some of the idiosyncrasies
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3. mass printing
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19th century
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one might like to think that once people could get access to books that they would want serious books of scholarship
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mainly it was the novel that became popular
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novel gave a very different view of the social classes
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1789: Power of Sympathy
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William Hill Brown, 23 year old
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first American novel
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about Perez Morton and James Bowdoin, who were heroes in real life (Boston) but villains in the novel
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featured low and middle-class people
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people related to and loved novels
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not everyone loved the third information age
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what will people think if they read stories about the experiences of people working in factories, or stories which indicate that the founding fathers may not be perfect
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women made internal pockets in dresses for them to carry novels
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they had to hide novels since they were thought by many since they:
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caused distraction
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ruined memory
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depleted taste for elite literature
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made you susceptible to sexual predators
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filled you with anarchic ideas
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advice literature of the day warned parents against their children reading novels
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4. Internet
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many of the concerns we have in our current information age recapitulate the concerns of past information ages
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one major tension that each information age brings to society is the conflict between the beliefs that the new technology is both a source of destruction and a panacea for good
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technology is inherently social, it's driving force has always been to change human relations
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quotes:
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The role of education today is finding the right balance between preparing the next generation for their future, and teaching them the wisdom of our past.
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The greatest impact of new technology in every information age has always been social, the structure of human relations is never left unchanged.