1. Post Literacy Are Reading and Writing Things of the Past?
Ontario Library Association
February 5, 2005
Michael Ridley Chief Information Officer &
Chief Librarian
University of Guelph

2. Post Literacy Agenda The Premise The Course I Taught
Key Concepts & Ideas
Post Literacy
What Does All This Mean? (if anything)
Post Literacy
Are Reading and Writing Things of the Past?
Ontario Library Association
February 5, 2005
Michael Ridley Chief Information Officer &
Chief Librarian
University of Guelph

3. CAUTION
WACKO ZONE AHEAD
First Things First

4. Just as the powerful capabilities of literacy effectively displaced primary orality, so too is it not only likely but inevitable that literacy will be displaced by a more powerful tool, capability or capacity.
The Premise

5. Just as the powerful capabilities of literacy effectively displaced primary orality, so too is it not only likely but inevitable that literacy will be displaced by a more powerful tool, capability or capacity.
The Premise

6. vehicle for student learning in a small group setting
1st year seminar course
vehicle for student learning in a small group setting
multidisciplinary focus
provocative ideas & active learning
research program model
UNIV1200 The Past and Future of Ideas: Orality, Literacy and Post Literacy

7. The Alphabet

12. Disruptive Technologies Disruptive Cognition / Culture
“When simple change becomes transformational change, the desire for continuity becomes a dysfunctional mirage.”
The Mirage of Continuity (1999) Hawkins & Battin
Disruptive Technologies
Disruptive Cognition / Culture

13. The Scholarly Record (Scratch & Sniff Version)
Eric Havelock – Preface to Plato
Jack Goody – The Domestication of the Savage Mind
Walter Ong – Orality and Literacy
Ivan Illich and Barry Sander – ABC: the Alphabetization of the Popular Mind
Christopher Dewdney – Last Flesh
David Olson – The World on Paper
Steve Mann – Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility
The Scholarly Record (Scratch & Sniff Version)

14. The “always on” Internet
Collaborative, computer mediated reality
The future of the human is the cyborg

15. Steve Mann – Cyborg & Uof T Professor

16. Printed & Digital Texts
Orality
Written Language
Evolving Literacy
Printed & Digital Texts
Secondary Orality
Post Literacy

17. Other Literacies Image/IconographySound/Music Movement/Dance
Orality
Written Language
Printed & Digital Texts
Post Literacy
Secondary Orality
L a n g u a g e
Other Literacies
Image/IconographySound/Music Movement/Dance

18. Orality Literacy stories and song words and texts
speakers (poets) and audience
objects (books) and readers
memory & performance
logic & composition
active, external, temporal, physical (body)
passive, internal, persistent, physical (object)
“magical”
“rational”

19. Post literacy is not a decline from literacy
The Nature of Post Literacy

20. The Nature of Post Literacy
clarity & precision
expressive & nuanced
persistent
time & space
active & passive
a means to understand & to provide understanding
create community & enable individual identity (collective & personal)
advantageous
The Nature of Post Literacy

21. Transition Disruption Suspicion & Distrust Loss Unsophisticated
Early adopters
Elitism & Power
Mainstream
Transition

22. Candidates for Post Literacy
Bio-Computing
Unused Capacity of the Brain
Telepathy / Collective Unconscious
Genetic Memory
Post Humans
Candidates for Post Literacy

23. Neutrally interfaced computer technology complementing natural telepathy supported by genetic memory.
Post Literacy

24. Candidates for Post Literacy
Aliens

25. “Language is a virus from outer space.”
Agenda
William Burroughs

26. What, if anything, does all this
mean?
Literacy is over
Profound new capability & capacity
A very difficult period of transition

27. Post Literacy Comments? Questions?
Are Reading and Writing Things of the Past?
Ontario Library Association
February 5, 2005
Michael Ridley Chief Information Officer &
Chief Librarian, University of Guelph