Final Exam Part 2: The Rise of the Digital Medium

The world is in the midst of another information revolution, just as civilizations past underwent revolutions from oral forms of communication to written forms of communication, and subsequently written to printed.  The advent of the new digital medium with the invention and popularity of the personal computer, internet, and more recently the laptop and smartphone changed the way people communicate and share knowledge with each other. Although these new media have already had great impact on both everyday interactions and the world of academia, they are not yet the prevailing form of sharing knowledge. Print is currently still the dominant medium through which knowledge is shared; however, in the very near future due to the desires of the rising generations as well as its ability to synthesize all forms of communication, the digital form will become the most popular knowledge medium.

Do you have the Authority?

During the salon, one of the most impractical questions I encountered went something along the lines of this: which form of knowledge—folk, oral, written or print—is more dominant or effective? Arguing for or against a specific form of knowledge would be redundant due to the fact that legitimate arguments can be made both ways. However, there is one aspect that must be present in each form of knowledge for it to be considered effective or worthwhile. That aspect is authority. Whether it is folk, oral, written, or print, knowledge must derive from a central figure or source that has been previously established as legitimate.

Although the essence of folk knowledge comes through collaborating and working together to solve an unknown problem, an expert must reign supreme within a group of people. For example, consider a chemistry study group gets stuck on a homework problem. There must be at least one person who possesses a more solid understanding of the material else the study group would be rendered useless. The students could discuss for hours on end, but eventually it boils to whether or not someone understands how to apply thermodynamic laws to refrigerators. If no one does, the knowledge behind how to solve the problem remains undiscovered. Think about advances in science, if it weren’t for figures such as Newton who understood concepts more than any other, could people have collectively figured out the laws of physics?

The authoritative figure is especially significant in oral knowledge. Lectures or speeches depend on one figure emerging before an audience. The Bards in Medieval Scotland became the authorities on preserving Scottish culture in the form of song and story. In the Book of Mormon, we learn about King Benjamin and how his skills as an orator played a key role in converting an entire Nephite nation to the the gospel of Christ. In our class we simulated King Benjamin’s speech; the most interesting aspect was how even though there was a designated authority for each scripture, the audience still felt connected to the oral message as whole. That’s what made King Benjamin such a powerful leader: his decision to not esteem himself any higher than his subjects. The best orators are those that consider themselves a part of the audience. When the audience makes a personal connection with the orator, then authority is established, and the knowledge transmitted becomes valuable.

Once writing systems came into play, authority started to shift from a single person to a single text. We see this in religion all the time with scriptures such as the Bible, Quran, and the Book of Mormon that establish keystones of respective faiths. However, one of the more interesting examples of written authority I heard from one of my fellow group members during the Salon. He mentioned that the Ancient Greeks carved the literal word of law into their government structures. This symbolically represents the power that resides in a written that has been established by years of tradition and such. In fact, I learned from one of my comparative politics classes that one of the main indicators of a developed country is whether or not the people follow the authority of the written law. Without the proper authority established by textual information, the information becomes null and void; and in the case of law, lack of authority would spark anarchy.

Once the printing press had been established, the idea of authority changed not necessarily from where the source originally came from, but rather who could get themselves published and available to more people. In my studies, one of such people was Andreas Vesalius. Before the Renaissance, the authority on medical knowledge was the ancient Greek philosopher known as Galen. However, once Vesalius published his De Humani Corporis Fabrica complete with his revolutionary anatomical findings, the scientific community regarded his works as the authority. It’s interesting to see how today even, peer reviewed sources are what validate the legitimacy of knowledge.

The reoccurring pattern of knowledge requiring authority may seem somewhat corrupt and unfair. Only certain people or sources can be considered correct? While this may sound elitist, without established validity of sources, knowledge loses its value. As scholars, we draw from traditions, orators, and texts so that we can establish a firm foundation for our own epistemologies.

The end of the end: The FINAL PAPER

The Final Paper.

Can you believe it? We finally got to the end. Oh, but remember—it’s never really the end because it’s all about the process. And the process never ends. =]

Because we are on the brink of the digital knowledge revolution, I was interested in the transition between each of these types of knowledge. This idea in combination with the discussions we had today in class prompted me to write this subsequent essay. Enjoy.

       Knowledge from antiquity to modern times has been a slave to the institutions and mediums of each era. As folk knowledge, oral knowledge, written knowledge, print knowledge, and now digital knowledge have revolutionized the development and dissemination of information, there have been dynamic changes altering the very fabric of society.  Although each new medium of knowledge brings unalterable change, societies never truly abandon past mediums of knowledge because of their necessity and utility.

The Big One: Part One: Studies of our Past Blogs

This was an interesting process, to go back and remember all that we've learned this year.  I agree with Summer that everything is about the process: how books are made, how the sharing of knowledge changes, how we learn about those changes, how we come to appreciate self-directed learning.  I think that Dr. Burton and Dr. Petersen's goal was an apt one, to help us to be more humble and smart about our own ignorance.  It's impossible to learn everything, but it is possible to appreciate knowledge enough to know that you don't know everything, and keep searching.  

Preliminary Blog Post

	Unit One: Folk Knowledge	Unit Two: Oral Knowledge	Unit Three: Written Knowledge	Unit Four: Print Knowledge
Self-directed Learning
Other’s Blogging
Collaborative Learning
Projects/Activities

Let's go to a Salon and Get Enlightened!

Final Notes for Honors Civ:

Here are my notes for the Salon tomorrow. As of right now the theme I’ve noticed within all forms of knowledge (folk, oral, written, print) centers around the idea that authority is what determines how valuable that knowledge is. Especially in Islam, public speakers, medicine and so forth.

Salon Notes: Final Exam Review

As I created this blog post, I thought back on all the different assignments and blog posts we had written. It made me realize that even though this class has been difficult, we have all learned a lot about the history and transmission of knowledge as defined by different institutions in power. I think we have also learned a lot about ourselves: how fast we can whip out a blog post, how we work with others, and how (through self-directed learning) we can make any topic interesting and relevant to ourselves. Most importantly, we've learned 

IT IS ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS.