Handwriting in the Digital Era

"When even your granny starts using email and text messaging, you know the pen's days are numbered." An interesting article about handwriting in the 21st century begins with these words. It speculates that the use of handwriting will disappear completely in a few decades because of the emphasis on typing skills that become essential in the Digital Era.Unfortunately, I notice that I write with hand less often relying more on my computer even when making shopping list. Do you agree that our generation is one of the last witnesses of a "dying art"?


Read more on: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2277728/Writings-on-the-wall-for-handwriting.html

Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library visit

I cannot believe it! I could actually touch the parchment that is centuries old! A great lecture! And how about the picture of an elephant in the Encyclopedia by Brunetto Latini (1424)!

Literacy Workshop

On September 25 I had the chance to take part in The Fifth Annual Literacy Review Workshops; particularly, I visited the workshop on Information Literacy: A Resource for Teaching Adults Reading and Writing Skills in the 21st century instructed by Michael S. Orzechowski (graduate of Language and Literacy Program). It was a positive and interesting experience. We discussed the notion of information literacy and how to prepare a person to be an effective information searcher and user. In other words, we talked about how to teach adults to be comfortable with so many sources of information that exist in modern "information age" and how to recognize their credibility. We concluded with some teaching tips on preparing the Learner as a Searcher which can be also successfully used in school settings and while working with ESL students.

The most interesting points of the workshop were on the definition of information literacy and on coexisting of oral and literate cultures in every day life. First of all, information literacy was defined as "the ability to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information". When I first thought about defining information literacy, I identified it as the ability to use a computer and to work with electronic information (online articles, books, blogs, etc). But the word information goes further and includes all kind of sources that we encounter every day (including newspapers, conversations with people, TV and radio broadcasts, etc). Secondly, I realized how the same facts can be manipulated in conversation with, for example, people that held opposite points of view. For that reason it is important to evaluate not just the URL, but also casual contacts that can easily misinform. In addition, any discussion about literacy cannot avoid the subject of critical thinking, of course. The concept of "the point of emergence" was introduced. It is a change in the consciousness when a student starts thinking critically. And the teacher's task is to evoke it, help to develop and to incorporate critical thought "into the flow of their [students'] lives". Finally, three types of consciousness were introduced, and these are: naive, magical, and critical consciousness (a concept by the Brazilian literacy educator Paulo Freire). The presenter asserts that "the cultivation of information literacy is one of the ways in which critical consciousness can be awakened".

It was the great workshop. I wish we had more time because an hour of discussion was too little to touch all aspects of information literacy.

How many different alphabets are there in the world?

I had this question raising up in my mind since I have read the Literacy Primer. It says that there are approximately 6,000 different languages which are spoken and sometimes written in the modern world. I started to look for the answer, and , surprisingly, I have not found any. May be you have the answer? I doubt anyone could give an exact number.

I found this chart very helpful; although, it does not answer my question.

The Old English Runic Alphabet

You might find interesting that Old English was first written in the runic alphabet which was brought by the Germanic tribes to the British Isles in the early 5th century. The Old English runic alphabet consisted of 31 letters; and it can be written horizontally in either direction. Each letter had a name, and the alphabet was called the futhorc. There is more useful information on http://www.omniglot.com/writing/runic.htm.

There are less than 30 clear runic inscriptions in Old English. A great story about one of the most famous examples has drawn my attention. The Franks Casket, a richly carved whalebone box, was accidentally found in France, where a farmer from Auzon owned it without a slight idea of its value. Now it is on the exhibit in the British Museum. I have heard a lot of stories about interesting findings on the garage sales, but this this one seems unbelievable because the Franks Casket dates back to the 8th century!

Was writing an "intrusion"?

Plato was not the only one who "complained" about "the inhuman and artificial" nature of writing. Seven centuries later, when the written word seemed to be already an integrated part of society, some of the monks in the Egyptian Desert were reluctant toward the graphic transmission of words, particularly the Scripture (the Word par excellence). Let's read Abba Serapion 2 (in The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Cistercian Publications, 1987):

"A brother asked Abba Serapion, ‘Tell me a word.’The old man said, ‘What can I tell you? You have taken what belongs to the widows and orphans and put it on this shelf.’ (He saw that it was full of books.)"

Not that they were completely oblivious and ignorant of the entire (Greek-Roman)culture, but they definitely understood the Word different than we usually do: not as information, but as formation. Each word (and conversation) is changing the whole life of a person and the desert monks were asking for a "word", saying: "Father, give me a word that I may live/for my salvation". So, having books was not a problem per se, but keeping them on the shelf without application in one's life was seen as unacceptable. They were afraid that without the oral-aural transmission the word would become dead.

I'm wondering if the invention of writing had the human race forget the enormous power of each word, the word as a meaningful event .