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"Epistemic Conversations" Gary Ryan, Department of English, Christian Brothers College High School
Around 400 B.C. in his Phaedrus, Plato recorded his eloquent teacher, Socrates, providing this warning about writing and its consequences for education:
"If men learn this it will implant forgetfulness in their souls: they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks; what you have discovered is a recipe not for memory but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance; for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing...." (Phaedrus, 157). Socrates was right: writing is but a shadow of living speech, dependent upon reference to living speech to give it meaning. Without this constant reference to speech, writing, particularly the printed word, appears inhuman, incapable of defending itself or responding in the natural give and take of conversations. Modern computer texts often try to mimic the natural voice through fictional narrative techniques, such as like using Mr. Spock's voice to seem to argue with the user/reader/writer; however, real conversation is missing from the design. Human speech is much more complex and ephemeral. The supportive nature of epistemic conversations is elusive in a world full of corporate icons and techno-speak bulletin boards. The shift from conversation to writing represents a profound cognitive shift from reference to sign. Writing spatializes the word and makes it possible to sequentially process the word for instantaneous retrieval. Writing separates the writer from the word, by physically placing the word on the page or screen, and as Walter Ong suggests in Orality and Literacy, storing "what is known outside the mind." But the kind of community and knowledge that Socrates was interested in required both knowledge in the mind and the mind in the community. Community is, in a sense, a set of repetitive activities. But we must remember that communities are founded and maintained by repetitive actions: stories told, old lessons drilled, and valuable information transmitted. The short attention-span our students give learning can be a direct result of this shift from reference to sign initiated by print. They feel they don't have to possess knowledge: they can look it up. If we consider Socrates correct-that true knowledge only emerges in the interaction of individuals in a community-and we agree with Vygotsky that the acquisition of knowledge develops incrementally, through vigorous interaction with others, then we may conclude that the best pedagogical approach to writing of all types would require a good deal of interaction at a critical stages for individuals to develop the higher levels of thinking fostered by the dialogic process of serious writing, the kind of writing supported by epistemic conversation. Like Socrates, Vygotsky in Thought and Language recognized the importance of conversation, the conscious effort of trying to put ideas into other people's minds. And while we may assume that Vygotsky didn't agree with Socrates about writing, both of these social theorists understood that real education is the act of talking and listening to another. Nowhere in learning are students left to themselves with only books. This conversation between teachers and their students is epistemic. Socrates might be disappointed to learn that this dialogue between students and teachers has been for some time about written texts from which at least one group believes knowledge will arise. Socrates argues again and again that true knowledge develops only in the interactions of real individuals in real contexts. Conversations between students and teachers do just that, bringing narrative structure to disorganized facts and helping to synthesize the thoughts of all (the class) in a dialectic of conversation. Knowledge then is a product that develops one step at a time, as a matter of mutual agreement, or as James Berlin, in Rhetoric and Reality, Writing Instruction in American Colleges 1900-1985, explains, out of the interaction of individuals "engaging in rhetorical discourse in discourse communities-groups organized around the discussion of particular matters in particular ways." For the composition classroom, the wave of easily adaptable computer software (such as HyperCard and Storyspace) allows for customizing software to the needs of that classroom. However, most interactive hypertexts don't interact; they pretend to interact, and thus separate the student further from the community. Socrates might find his position justified by the uses to which most of us have put the computer. That's a shame because the computer as a writing space-unlike the ground, clay tablets or paper-allows the writer/reader to flow not only from one text to another, but also from one geographical location to another just as easily. The computer can be a powerful epistemic tool. Much of the education software available today, however, has been created as generic, Esperanto exercises offering limited interactivity in plasticized, voiceless landscapes without wisdom or will. This education software fails to recognize that ultimately, as Socrates so well knew, there has to be on the part of the student a conversation with the teacher/ colleague whether it be through the computer or not. My research suggests that students need on-line dialectic help as they write, and they at some time must present their work in realized settings-to others. I have been trying to lead my students through a careful readings of our literature, directing the development of the students' papers in progress. As my students have continued to write, reflect, and articulate, their visions have matured. And I've tried to extend these epistemic discussions into the computer medium by taking advantage of hypertext tools to customize composition software for my classroom. I've tried to focus the design and practice of these computer texts on the natural communication developing from our classroom community.
Works Cited
Berlin, James. Rhetoric and Reality, Writing Instruction in American Colleges 1900-1985, Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois Universty Press,1987
Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Methuen, 1982.
Plato. Phaedrus, translated by R. Hackforth, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989
Vygotsky, L. S. Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press,
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