THE VALUE OF (PRINTED) BOOKS IN THE DIGITAL ERA

ROBERT MAX STEENKIST

COLEGIO JOSÉ MAX LEÓN, COLOMBIA

2015 Education Minnesota MEA Conference

THIS PRESENTATION IS NOT:• AN ATTACK TO DIGITAL LITERACY, THE USE OF MOBILE DEVICES, MEDIA INDUSTRIES CREATIVE EXECUTIVES, MULTI READING

INITIATIVES, TECHNOPHILIA ENTHUSIASM, BLENDED LEARNING BELIEVERS

• A MANIFESTO AGAINST ANY TREND DEMANDING UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE

“WE CONFRONT A GLOBAL ECONOMY DRIVEN BY AN ACCELERATING FLOW OF NEW IDEAS AND TECHNOLOGIES WHICH ARE CREATING THE INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (…) IMAGINE FIGHTING A MODERN WAR USING CAVALRY: THAT IS THE POSITION WE ARE IN”.

CHARLES LEADBEATER, “LIVING ON THIN AIR”

HOWEVER

“Technology has grown out of concrete struggles for control over production and takes its existing shape not because this is the shape dictated by ethically neutral considerations of technological efficiency but because it concentrates decision making in a managerial and technical elite”.

Christopher lasch, Degradation of the practical arts

“Sociological analysis is naïve, we believe, when it treats the new telecommunications, space, video, and computing technologies as innocent technical conceptions and looks hopefully to a coming, post-industrial utopia”

Kevin Robins and Frank Webster

THIS PRESENTATION WILL INTENTIONALLY AVOID: •NOTIONS ABOUT IMPORTANCE OF READING IN EDUCATION (VOCABULARY, MEMORY, PERFORMANCE IN

TESTS, CONCENTRATION…)

•THE OBVIOUS LINK BETWEEN READING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN VALUES AND CREATIVITY

•ALARMS ON HOW THE DIGITALIZATION WILL “DOOM US ALL” *

• IDEALIZATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES:

* please see Alessandro Baricco´s I barbari, 2006

“This is not the first time people have projected their hope for happiness and their image of perfection upon the latest magic gadget to come along”

Theodor Roszak

I know what you are thinking….

THIS PRESENTATION WILL SPECIALLY AVOID

•IDEALIZATION OF BOOKS AND THE REGRETTABLE GLUTTONY THEY AWAKE

WE DONT WANT OUR STUDENTS TO END UP LIKE…

Count Guglielmo Libre Carucci (1803-1869)Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903) Antonio Magliabecchi (1633-1714)

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS AND KNOWLEDGE

•“OUR PROBLEM IS THAT THE INSTITUTIONS TO WHICH WE RETURN TO PROTECT US FROM VOLATILITY AND TO SHAPE OUR WORLD (…) SEEM INCAPABLE OR UNINTERESTED (…) WE NEED TO EMBARK ON A WAVE OF RADICAL INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION AND INVENTION, TO CREATE NEW KINDS OF COMPANIES, BANKS, WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS, GOVERNMENTS, SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES WHICH CAN GATHER OUR RESOURCES MORE EFFECTIVELY AND DO PUT PEOPLE MORE IN CONTROL OF THEIR LIVES”.

CHARLES LEADBEATER, “LIVING ON THIN AIR”

WHAT INTERNET AND THE BOOK HAVE IN COMMON:•CREATIVITY IS DEVELOPED BY CENTRALIZED METHODS

•INTERMEDIATION

•PERIODS OF TIME DEVOTED TO LEISURE, ENTERTAINMENT OR DEVOTED TO KNOWLEDGE (INFORMATION, RESEARCH)

•BOTH RELY ON VISIBILITY TO EXIST AND TO ENDURE

WHAT EDUCATION AND BOOKS HAVE IN COMMON•DIVERGENT FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE BECOME MORE ATTRACTIVE THAN THE

TRADITIONAL ONES

•THE “SYSTEM” IS PERMEABLE: STUDENTS AND READERS MIGRATE IN AND OUT OF IT RAPIDLY

•STUDENTS AND READERS STABLISH CULTURAL AND SOCIAL LINKS OUTSIDE THE OFFICIAL CHANNELS

•THEY BOTH CONSTITUTE A FILTER TO THE OVER SATURATION OF THE CONTENT OFFER

MORE INDEPENDENT READING PRACTICES•COEXISTENCE OF MULTIPLE READING-PLATFORMS AND DEVICES

•STUDENTS ARE NOT SUCCEEDING IN READING OVER ONE MILLION WORDS PER YEAR

(DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 2007; FAMILIES IN SCHOOLS, 2014)

•WORSE SCENARIO IN LA: LATEST STATISTIC SHOW THAT NEARLY 1/3 OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS ARE NOT CAPABLE OF COMPREHEND WHAT THEY READ

•CONTENT “FOR FREE”: AMBIGUOUS, PROFFESIONAL UNDER “UNFAIR COMPETITION” CONDITIONS, INVISIBLE MARKET THREADS

BOOKS ARE RESULT OF EFFORTS MADE BY TEAMS•EDITORS, PUBLISHERS, LIBRARIANS, BOOKSELLERS, CRI ́TICS, AND TEACHERS

•BOOKS ARE GOOD EXAMPLES OF VICTORY

•THE RECOGNITION OF AUTHORS AND THE VALUE OF CREATIVITY MUST NOT BE EXTINCTED

•MERITOCRACY

Contribution of the book # 1: respect for the work and effort of others

CHALLENGING VS. COMFORT READING

•“THOSE WHO READ A LOT OF APPROPRIATELY CHALLENGING BOOKS AT HIGH COMPREHENSION TENDED TO EXPERIENCE ACCELERATED GROWTH THROUGHOUT THE SCHOOL YEAR AND THUS CLOSE GAPS”.

•NEVER BEFORE THE DEVICE WAS AN OBSTACLE TO GET IN TOUCH WITH THE WRITTEN TEXT

Contribution of the book # 2: Difficult is good

SHORT VS. LONG TERM GRATIFICATION•PERSEVERANCE, ENDURANCE

•ULYSSES CONTRACT

•DEVICE AND SOFTWARE ALL START FUNCTIONING ACCORDING TO THE DYNAMICS OF “COMMODITIES”

Contribution of the book # 3: The value of effort

“Bubbles are primarily social phenomenona; until we understand and address the psychology that fuels them, they´re going to keep forming”

R.J. Shelley Nobel Prize Winner for 2013

SEDIMENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE VS. VOLATILIZATION OF INFORMATION •ANY NEW IDEA MUST COME FROM SOLID BASIS

•THEY ASK FOR THEIR OWN SPACE

Contribution of the book # 4: a bet for the future(from the past

BOOKS...(SIGH)

LICHTENBERG ON THE EFFECTS OF BOOKS“MAKE NAIVE PEOPLE MORE NAIVE AND SMART PEOPLE EVEN SMARTER”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799)

SOME USEFUL REFERENCES• A MONSTER CALLS, A GRAPHIC NOVEL BY PATRICK NESS AND ILUSTRATED BY JIM (INSPIRED BY AN IDEA FROM SIOBHAN DOWD). CANDLEWICK PRESS,

SOMMERVILLE MASS 2011

• INCÓGNITO, LAS VIDAS SECRETAS DEL CEREBRO, DAVID EAGLEMAN (TRANS. BY DAMIÀ ALOU) EDITORIAL ANAGRAMA, BARCELONA 2014

• THE GREATEST BOOK YOU´LL NEVER READ, BERNARD RICHARDS, OCTOPUS BOOKS, LONDON 2015

• “WHAT KIDS ARE READING (AND WHY IT MATTERS)” RENNASSAINCE LEARNING, 2015 EDITION HTTP://DOC.RENLEARN.COM/KMNET/R004101202GH426A.

PDF

• BIBLIOFRENIA, JOAQUÍN RODRÍGUEZ, MELUSINA[SIC], MADRID 2010

• THE INFORMATION SOCIETY READER, EDITED BY FRANK WEBSTER (AND MANY OTHERS…), ROUTLEDGE STUDENT READERS, NYC 2009

• OCDE, ESTUDIO PUBLICADO EL 15 DE SEPTIEMBRE SOBRE EL IMPACTO DE LA TECNOLOGÍA EN EL HOGAR Y EN EL AULA

• OREALC 2008

• LOS DEMASIADOS LIBROS, EDUARDO ZAID