Aug 5, 2007
In Praise of the Book
Alan Wall has written a splendid essay defending the book (and explaining the limitations of Power Point presentations).
"Two examples might point up the absurdity of the 'access rather than internalizing' school of modern learning. Imagine a surgeon who had not memorized his skills, since that was no longer required, but was nevertheless adept at accessing and downloading the necessary information, as and when. One would have to assume that the queue for his operating theatre would soon be dwindling. Imagine a musician, a pianist say, who did not internalize musical skills but once again knew where they could be digitally located and retrieved. How much enthusiasm would there be, I wonder, for his version of the Hammerklavier Sonata?"
"The book represents one of the greatest technological innovations in history, and its fitness for its task, its versatility, its convenience, mean that it will surely continue well into the future. It is also a remarkably democratic technology, in educational terms. If a teacher is giving a power-point presentation, as we teachers are now being exhorted to do, at every available opportunity, then that teacher dictates what is available in the form of knowledge to everyone in the room. She or he presses the keys on the laptop that change whatever text or image is up there on the screen. She decides what I can see and when. But if I am a student and I have a book in front of me, then I can answer back. I can turn my own pages in my own good time, and remind myself of my own marginalia. 'Excuse me, but I don’t agree. What you said about Dorothea in Chapter Five might well be true, but if you’d care to turn to Chapter Nine, I think you might find…'"
"Two examples might point up the absurdity of the 'access rather than internalizing' school of modern learning. Imagine a surgeon who had not memorized his skills, since that was no longer required, but was nevertheless adept at accessing and downloading the necessary information, as and when. One would have to assume that the queue for his operating theatre would soon be dwindling. Imagine a musician, a pianist say, who did not internalize musical skills but once again knew where they could be digitally located and retrieved. How much enthusiasm would there be, I wonder, for his version of the Hammerklavier Sonata?"
"The book represents one of the greatest technological innovations in history, and its fitness for its task, its versatility, its convenience, mean that it will surely continue well into the future. It is also a remarkably democratic technology, in educational terms. If a teacher is giving a power-point presentation, as we teachers are now being exhorted to do, at every available opportunity, then that teacher dictates what is available in the form of knowledge to everyone in the room. She or he presses the keys on the laptop that change whatever text or image is up there on the screen. She decides what I can see and when. But if I am a student and I have a book in front of me, then I can answer back. I can turn my own pages in my own good time, and remind myself of my own marginalia. 'Excuse me, but I don’t agree. What you said about Dorothea in Chapter Five might well be true, but if you’d care to turn to Chapter Nine, I think you might find…'"