Internet & Books Share Same Critics 3

The pencil was attacked as a device that would ruin the writing of students when it was first introduced.  Just how important is the "smell" of books?

Many of the same attacks that are now launched at computers, spell checks, easy deletion and modification of documents electronically were the same arguments used against older technology that we take for granted today.

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Another Shunned Technology . . . The Pencil

1st brand name pencils Faber, 1761

The funniest thing about all of these arguments against the Internet that we have covered in this series is that the people who say them, truly believe they are original. The same arguments have been used every time a new piece of technology comes out. Five years ago, when a teacher friend began using technology to teach his middle school students he was constantly getting into arguments with his supervisor and administrators. He wanted the students to type everything and email it to him. The supervisor and administrators wanted students to begin with a paper draft and not type until the final draft. The justifications the administrators used were that:

1. If students type everything and never write by hand, their penmanship will be horrible; and when they eventually take the state test (which must be done in pencil) they will not have the hand strength to write long enough.
2. Because computers have spell check and grammar check. Why is this a problem? Because the students will not think about their grammar and spelling when writing their early drafts; causing the students to become worse in these areas.

Now let’s return back to the early days of the printing press when people refused to give up writing books by hand. Why did they refuse? "Indeed, pen marks are likely to be valued more highly than printed passages because they offer clues to a given reader's thought processes." (Eisenstein, 324)  

And "Among other arguments (the usefulness of keeping idle hands busy, encouraging diligence, devotion, knowledge of Scripture, and so on)." (Eisenstein, 11)



And then about 400 years later, we came across a very similar situation with the invention of the rubber-tipped pencil. Armstrong reminds us that:

pencil from 17th century Nuremberg

Though their large-scale manufacture began in the late 1860s, it wasn't until after 1900 that inexpensive pencils – and ones with an important refinement, a built-in eraser – became widely available. For the first time, these wonderful writing tools, now in 1900 available at a price of one cent each, came within the budgetary reach of many schools. Teachers were not thrilled (Coles, 1999). Many of them had taught for years under conditions in which students could not easily correct writing errors. In response to these conditions, they had taught their students to think very carefully about what they wished to say before committing pen to paper. Many teachers of this era feared the arrival of a writing tool that would allow errors to be quickly and easily erased. Such a device, they felt, would encourage bad writing habits. The pencil with an eraser made it possible for students to make corrections 'on the fly' instead of making them in their heads as they carefully preplanned what they intended to write. Despite these concerns, pencils with erasers soon became common in schools, and teachers came to appreciate that there were benefits as well as potential dangers of a device that allowed written mistakes to be corrected quickly. (26)

And now a hundred years after that we are going through it all again with computers and the Internet.

People fear these changes and try to hide from them without considering the damage that can be done. Many think that by keeping these new devices from the children and forcing them to do things the old fashioned way we are increasing their intelligence. But what if we are actually hindering them? When reading the book, The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, we are reminded that

It is often said that 'everything begins with a pencil,' and indeed it is the preferred medium of designers. In one recent study of the nature of the design process, engineers balked when they were asked to record their thought process with a pen. While the directors of the study did not want the subjects to be able to erase their false starts or alter their records of creativity, the engineers did not feel comfortable or natural without a pencil in their hands." (Petroski, loc. 169)

Now let’s take this experiment and apply it to our students. They spend all their time writing on keyboards. They type all the time. In fact, we don’t remember the last time a student picked up a pen or pencil willingly, without being forced to do so, unless they were going to draw with it. The only time most kids write with a pen or pencil is when they are doing homework. But what if this is hindering them from reaching their full potential? After all, professional engineers were unable to perform because they were denied their medium of choice, the pencil; now we are doing the same thing to our children. We are denying them their medium of choice, the computer. And why? Because it is not our medium of choice. How selfish!

We include some videos abou the pencil for those who might be interested.  If you cannot see the embedded videos, here is the link: http://bit.ly/qF4O3D.

Speed & Convenience or A Familiar Smell?
It is not just in education that we see this trend happening. When showing the Amazon Kindle, we are constantly being mocked. They argue that they like the look, feel, and smell of an actual book; things an e-reader or tablet cannot mimic.  We were immediately reminded of a quote from Eisenstein:

Vespasiano's 'Lives of Illustrious Men" contains a reference to the beautifully bound manuscript books in the Duke of Urbino's library and snobbishly implies that a printed book would have been "ashamed" in such elegant company." (21)



Printed books could not compare in elegance and beauty to hand written manuscripts in the 1500s and now electronic books aren’t good enough when compared to paper books. Why? Because of aesthetics. They don’t look right. They don’t feel right. Let’s forget about increased portability. Let’s forget about the convenience of being able to access your library from almost anywhere. Let’s forget about never having to worry about losing or ruining your library. And let’s forget about being able to find any quote or annotation with a click of a button. We’re willing to give this all up for a familiar smell.

The Power of Hindsight
It only took a few hundred years; but now we finally see all the advantages the printing press has and had to offer us. For one,

Heightened awareness of distant regional boundaries was also encouraged by the output of more uniform maps containing more uniform boundaries and place names. Similar developments affected local customs, laws, languages, and customs." (Eisenstein, 59)

 

Another,

There is simply no equivalent in scribal culture for the "avalanche" of "how-to" books which poured off the new presses, explaining by "easy steps" just how to master diverse skills, ranging from playing a musical instrument to keeping accounts." (Eisenstein, 66) 

Well, it shouldn’t take another few hundred years to see how Google Maps and YouTube do this better than printed books ever could.

Another huge advantage of the printing press would have to contemporaries of the day was  that it,

…will so spread knowledge, that the common people, knowing their own rights and liberties will not be governed by way of oppression and so, little by little, all kingdoms will be like to Macaria. . . .Printing . . . Ended forever a priestly monopoly of learning, overcame ignorance and superstition, pushed back the evil forces commanded by Italian popes, and, in general, brought Western Europe out of the Dark Ages.' (Eisenstein, 167)

Mubarak cartoon

And once again we now see the Internet doing the same exact thing for all countries around the world. Just look at Egypt and Tunisia. Within the last year or so, people who live in countries like these have been getting increasingly unhappy with their situation and fighting for their rights and freedom. Most of this seems to be due to the fact that they see all that other countries have through the Internet.

Thus we see all the arguments against technology repeated over and over and over again. It is all so repetitive that when Eisenstein said of the printing press,

Even the 'decay of nature' theme, once intimately associated with the erosion and corruption of scribal writings, would be reworked and reoriented by gloomy modern prophets who envisaged a 'run-away technology' and felt regress, not progress, characterized their age," (99) 

click to enlarge

via: techliberation

she could very well have been talking about any number of new technologies. The important thing to remember, though, is that these arguments didn’t stop the printing press; they didn’t stop the rubber-tipped pencil; and they are not going to stop the Internet, e-readers, or any other new technology that comes out. In the end, the newer technology always wins out over the old one. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t take people another few hundred years to realize how good they are for us.

References

Eisenstein, E. L. (2005). The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (p. 406). Cambridge University Press.

Petroski, H. (1992). The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance (p. 448). Knopf.