technology/unit11/They’re Watching YOU1111.html Module 9 Assignments What do I need to do to get the most out of this module? Reading Chapter 4 of James Burke’

The invention of moveable type did a number of things for the creation, management, storage and distribution of information. It:

1. standardized vocabulary and grammar making it possible for more people to communicate with each other.
2. duplicated content exactly, making multiple identical copies of a document reducing forgeries and creating, in a sense, the idea of a fact.
3. dramatically reduced the cost of books making it possible for ideas to get into the hands of people who would otherwise not have access to them.
4. created the idea of indexing so people could easily find and retrieve information but also cross reference material so that connections they would otherwise never encounter became clear and context was readily available.

In other words, the printing press made literacy, as we have known it for hundreds of years, normal. Of course, it also ruined out memories, stored information untouched for years so that later it could misinterpreted and used out of context, and spread inane and dangerous ideas causing war and revolutions.

The insides of a Z3 – the first programmable computer built in 1941

Now we are more than 500 years into this information revolution and the benefits are becoming clear. Being able to read and write is not only considered normal but considered a basic human right even in culture that never had a written language, never mind movable type. But the limitations and costs to this revolution as well. The video The Future of Reading touches on some of these costs. There are mountains of printed texts that can’t be properly maintained. We have become so dependent on printed documents, we have no way of knowing anything without referring to them. They are not as permanent as we thought they would be and some that we depend on are disappearing. We no longer trust information without proper paper documentation.

Now we are in the midst of a new revolution in information and some argue that information stored digitally is not only very different from what was printed on paper;  it actually marks a reversal of what the printing press did in the 15th century. Consider the four points above. Digitally stored data:

1. pays little attention to standard language. Twitter, texting, social media and word processing all use different syntaxes and that doesn’t even consider the many languages used on the internet.
2. content is endlessly edited so the same piece of information can be copied, pasted, altered, excerpted and reinserted to turn a fact into almost anything but what it originally meant.
3. reduces the cost of duplicating data to near zero but increases the cost of the infrastructure to the point of be

   Instructions on writing discussion post

   How to write a good initial discussion post:

   1. The purpose of writing a discussion post is to reflect on what you have learned from the assigned material. How does it support what you already thought? How does it challenge conventional wisdom? Where it conflicts with your understanding of the world, does it convince you? Where it agrees, what further understandings does it imply?

   2. Your initial discussion post must include at least 300 words of your own material. Repeating the question, titles, quotations, paraphrases and other additions are not counted as your own material. Any discussion that does not meet the 300 word minimum will receive a grade of 0.

   3. Refer to at least two of the assigned resources. You need to give some thought to what’s presented in the assigned material. For example, you might write: The Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy explains Locke’s understanding of the relationship between simple and complex ideas this way: “Once the mind has a store of simple ideas, it can combine them into complex ideas of a variety of kinds” (
   http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/). Don’t make the class guess at the reference. We have to be able to find it. So it needs to be relevant and specific. People get busy and time is sometimes short, so it may be tempting at times to excerpt something from readings you haven’t considered carefully and stick it in your post to meet this requirement. Try not to do this. See point 5 on why. There is no need to use an MLA style citation to the end of a post. We need to read the quotation, and we need to know what in the material helped you arrive at the conclusions you arrived at and where we can find it. That means you need to include an author and a page number if it’s a printed resource, or a title reference for audio and video resources. Points will be deducted if the location of the reference isn’t obvious. To earn full points for your discussion, you need to refer to more than one of the assigned resources in the module if more are available. The resources work together.

   4. Any discussion that includes sufficiently poor grammar or spelling to suggest that the posting was not proof-read and spell checked will receive a grade of 0.

   5. The best way to meet the requirement to reference the readings is to quote them directly. But please do not quote lengthy sections of the readings. I am looking for your ideas concerning the readings and classes. See point 3. for a good example. Quotations are not considered part of the 300 word minimum.

   6. Remember that you are reflecting on the material presented in the module and taking an informed position on the topic. It doesn’t help to simply repeat facts from the module. What do they mean? Use your existing opinion wisely. The d

   Chapter 4 of James Burke’s 
   The Day the Universe Changed,  “Matter of Fact” 
   You can download it here.

   The growth of information in print is linked together with reading, at least it used to be. This video will explore the future of reading: 
   http://ctcproxy.mnpals.net/login?url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=19667&xtid=42295

   Discussions

   Do new ways of distributing Information have impacts similar to the printing press? Burke talks about how much moveable type and the printing press changed the world. Can the wider distribution of information and ideas really change the world and can you see similar changes happening as a result of new communication, data management, and storage technologies? In short, compare the changes that the printing press made possible to changes you see today as a result of new technologies being implemented today. Is this a new kind of industrial revolution.  Do new technologies impact how we read, what we read and why we read it? Does reading even matter anymore?