Problems and False Starts

I was so excited about the concepts concerning the implications of communicated knowledge in Areopagitica that I had all but decided on restricting my study of Milton to an exploration of that text. At first, I was mainly interested in how Milton's rhetoric might inform libertarians in our current age, as demonstrated by this false-start I never posted:




But I'm also fascinated by the concepts that intersect with Book IX of Paradise Lost, especially as they pertain to Mormon studies in a digital age (a preoccupation of mine evidenced by Ships of Hagoth).

If time were not an issue, I would explore the following subjects:

1. Milton's thoughts on the ethics and implications of personal and communicated knowledge, as expressed in Paradise Lost and Areopagitica
2. Doctrines, attitudes and histories of the LDS Church and it's members on the ethics and implications of personal and communicated knowledge
3. Challenges and implications of the above in a digital world

As it stands, that list looks like an elephant so large, it would take years to digest, even at the rational rate of one bite at a time.

[Blogger sighs with exaspiration.]

Social Media Renaissance: Part 2

A common worry throughout history has been how more convenient forms of communication can negatively alter our realities. (See this comic for details.) However, with convenient forms of communication come convenient forms of feedback. It puts power into the hands of the people to not only circulate ideas, but to make them well-polished. I believe Milton would have thrived in our modern community. As mentioned in my last post, Milton believed people deserved the opportunity to become scholars and sages. Because of Martin Luther, Milton, and other Reformers with similar beliefs, we have the information we do. And the number of people exposed to the Restored Gospel increases each year because of the stance of the Church on social media. It's hard to give testimonials for others, though they are out there, so I'll briefly touch on some things I've done and experienced through this format.

It can be difficult to figure out at first, but once used to, it can be exciting.

Things I've done

• Found communities in Google + that may be interested in the topic or the blog
• Posted different hooks for different audiences
• Read and responded to others' posts

Fun perks

• An educational community from Singapore has shown interest in my ideas about education
• I've learned a lot about PLCs from a lot of critics and supporters
• Educators and others from around the U.S. have put me in their circles to see more about these subjects
• I've had scholarly discussions and found places to go for future research
• I've received personal and specific feedback about ideas my roommates think are too boring

Social Media Renaissance

It has been said of our generation that we are in the "Social Media Renaissance." What does that mean for Milton lovers? It means we're one step closer to his own world. Life in the Renaissance was changing fast. Why? (I know you love all my rhetorical questions). Fine I'll tell you. Because their way of communicating was changing. 

Education specialists Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner say in their novel Teaching as a Subversive Activity,

"You seldom, if ever, have an old element plus a new element, such as a printing press or an electric plug. What you have is a totally new environment requiring a whole new repertoire of survival strategies. . . When you plug something into a wall, someone is getting plugged into you. Which means you need patterns of defense, perception, understanding, evaluation. You need a new kind of education."

I could talk for days about the implications of new media on education (ask my slowly decreasing pool of non-Facebook friends), but I won't. What I will talk about is how media always has and always will play a crucial role in our learning process through social feedback.

The Influence of Dictation: Writing By Voice

The more I continue to listen to Paradise Lost the more fascinated I become with the fact that Milton dictated the entire epic. Composing verses in his head, committing them to memory, and pulling them out later for dictation, what a mind! The idea makes me wonder how dictation would have affected Milton's work and how different methods of transcription influence the writing they produce. Does Milton's epic find its greatness from being created orally rather than constructed on paper?

First of all the work is transmitted through another human being. It becomes a performance, to a certain degree, subject to the reactions of the transcribers, and would seem to force the author to become more self-conscious of the work he is creating. I found an interesting article that contrasted this setting with the rise of other sorts of transcription, especially voice recognition software that has been rising in popularity among writers. One author, Richard Powers, described the idea as "a return to 'writing by voice' as done by authors through history."

Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasion

Does rhetoric have to be words? After reading Dr. Burton's paper and exploring a bit this was the thought that occurred to me. We don't just persuade people with our words, right? My moment of "oh, I landed on something good!" shriveled up when I realized that the etymology of the word rhetoric is literally "art of an orator." So much for that idea.

As I was moving on to find another interesting bit to post about, my mind flickered back, "well, then, what is it? Where does the visual fit in?" As we delve further and further into our digital/visual age, the argument appears - do images, visual presentation, and object placement have a place within the hallowed halls of Rhetoric? 

That could be a whole essay in and of itself, but I want to discuss more of the practical effects of such a notion. 

We are up to our eyebrows in the Digital Age. We've been discussing the ramifications of a changing society in my class on mass communications and media literacy - a society more familiar and satisfied with the 140 characters of a Twitter alert, than with reading an entire news article. We are having to say the amount we've always been saying and (oftentimes more with the rate of innovation nowadays) with less. Attention has to be grabbed within the first three words or so else no one will read it. And they do say, a picture is worth a thousand words...

Digital Academy and Hungry Students

One of my secret dreams is to found a private academy--you know, one with thick, leather-bound volumes and big, comfy chairs in the reading rooms... a garden... Shakespeare in the orchard... poetry by candlelight. And students! Students and scholars that want to be there and are there for no other reason than the sake of learning itself--well, and to change the world, of course. That goes without saying... I think it all might be the Eden that I escape to whenever the current educational system gets me bogged down and wondering what will be of the future. The more I think about it, though, the more I think that modern academies are going to take a different form than that idyllic, rustic academy that's been floating around in my head all these years. Maybe the days of the pastoral haven of learning aren't passed entirely, but modern educational paradigms are going to have to incorporate both the old and the new, reviving those studies which, in the cultural poverty of capitalism, have been neglected or forgotten and embracing those novel ideas that make learning learning.

In "Of Education," John Milton describes the educational exploits of his day as "that asinine feast of sow-thistles and brambles which is commonly set before [students] as all the food and entertainment of their tenderest and most docible age." I think that despite his somewhat loaded language, Milton's evaluation is valid, that if we are to keep young people both interested in and benefiting from educational systems, we must engage the students in meaningful ways. Recent years have seen a variety of new means to engage students in learning that is both pertinent and powerful, from interactive learning environment to instructional videos and online educational repositories, but our current educational paradigms haven't really kept up with technology or with the students' needs. It's not that the rising generations are insensible to the ideas and emotions of our distant (or not-so-distant) past--rather, they haven't been shown why it's important to study Horace or Plato or how it relates to the complex issues and the unintelligible world that they are experiencing right now.

Formal educational institutions are going to have to adapt, and we are going to have to be the ones to make the changes... because whether we believe it or not--whether we like it or not--students are hungry, and sow thistles just aren't cutting it anymore...