Blog 12: The Dark Side of Digital,
The Graphic Textbook Model,
& Concluding Remarks
The Dark Side of Digital
In 2007 alone, 1,288 x
1018 bits, or 161 billion gigabytes of digital content were created, stored,
and replicated around the world. In lay terms, that’s 3 million times the
amount of information in all the books ever written, or twelve stacks of books
reaching from the Earth to the Sun, or six tons of books for every living
person. It would require 2 billion of the highest-capacity iPods to store all
of that information.
―John
Palfrey and Urs Gasser, Born Digital,
185
Ouch!
That’s a lot of data. Why we are saving every Twitter tweet is beyond me. Not
that I do not understand the technology, mind you, it is just that the whole
act of saving them seems so…narcissistic. According to Frida Ghitis, Google has
kept every email its users have ever sent or received, along with every chat
using Google Talk, and every conversation using Google Voice. From your
calendar to your contact list, Google saves it all, and “can even track
searches on your computer when you're not logged in for up to six months.”
(Ghitis, 2012) Scary! Unfortunately, they are not the only ones and the whole
idea of your entire cyber life being available to “who knows who” has such an
air of “Big Brotherliness” to it. With all that data waiting to be accessed there
is a lot of potential for bad things to happen, which is odd for a company such
as Google whose motto is “do no evil.” In the digital landscape there is
neither a past nor a future, since all information is accessed simultaneously.
That means the sins of the past not only never go away—they are always in the
present. So, other than going completely offline, what is the answer?
The Right to Be Forgotten
In
January of this year the European Commission for Justice, Fundamental Rights,
and Citizenship proposed a privacy reform called, “The Right to Be Forgotten” (le
droit à l’oubli—or the “right of oblivion”). (Rosen, 2012) It is the digital
equivalent to, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” It is based on the
belief that once a criminal has served their time, and has been rehabilitated, the
slate is wiped clean (which is a basic tenet of every Abrahamic and Eastern religion). There are certain free speech issues associated with this law that
are well above my pay grade, but I agree with the idea that if I delete
personal data from the digital landscape it should be gone forever, and not
saved forever. So, how does this figure into the topic of graphic eTextbooks?
Quite simply, it has to do with the “cloud” and who has access to information.
The Cloud
“Cloud
computing” is simply where multiple devices simultaneously share the same application
platform over a network (like the Internet). Back when I was a computer
programmer everything was written, stored, and run on a mainframe, and all of
the information was entered through a “dumb” terminal (which was nothing more
than a monitor and keyboard). For example, this blog is not on your computer;
it is on an application platform somewhere, and you are accessing it via the
Internet. Most of you are using Foxfire (35%), Explorer (25%), or Safari (21%)
for your web browser, while 63% of you are using Windows PC compared to 28% on a
Mac. Most of you are from the United States, followed by Germany, Russia, and
other Western European countries; however, there have been visits from Brazil,
Australia, Canada, India, Vietnam, and South Africa. Oh,…and how do I know all this?
Well, Google owns Blogspot, and collects all the data for me.
The
point is, just like this blog, digital textbooks are on a cloud somewhere, and
students need to access them. Granted, you may have a pdf of a book or two
saved on some device, but there are copyright problems with that. One of the
downsides to digital publishing that still persists is that piracy is too easy.
You only have to look at the music industry and Napster to see how that played
out. There is a fine line between free access to all information, and the
creators of graphic eTextbooks getting paid their fair share. After all,
whether it is physical or digital, the contents of a book are still the
intellectual property of its creator(s). [Note: As of October 5, 2012, Google settled a seven-year legal battle with McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin, John Wiley & Sons, and Simon & Schuster over illegally digitizing their books.] If creators do not get paid for their efforts then there is no
incentive to create more books. Digital
Restriction Management codes (which restrict digital textbooks to only one
device) are too restrictive. One solution that I prefer is for colleges and
universities to purchase site-licenses, thus making eTextbooks accessible to
students through their libraries.
While
students would not own eTextbooks the eNotes that they take should be theirs indefinitely. Peter Meyers suggested all tablets come with styluses, the ability to take
notes, or highlight passages, and the ability to provide a “passage-quoting
bulletin board.” (Meyers, 2011) To this list Alexandra Samuel adds collaborative
annotating, persona management (privacy settings), social note sharing (access
to social media from within the eBook), and the ability to add visuals to the
notes. (Samuel, 2011) The Kno tablet is already doing most of this (click HERE
then scroll down the article to watch the demo videos). In fact, Kno tablets also allow social sharing of notes, so if you miss a class your friend’s notes
will immediately show up in your eTextbook. This “tablet” is actually a
full-bore computer, so reading, note-taking, surfing the web, social networking—namely,
multi-tasking—is all available to the user in one device. Presently, prices are
steep ($900 for the double-screen version, & $600 for the single), and the
duel-screen model weighs 5.6 pounds, but those should both come down if they
want to stay competitive. Otherwise, expect all of their bells & whistles
in the next ipad rollout.
“Dark Editing”
Another
problem with digital content is reliability. What none of you probably know is
that I have made changes to every blog entry I have posted. Most changes have
been minor such as adding links, and adding highlights, but I have also added
and deleted text. On one occasion I changed the name I had originally referenced
to “Charles Schulz” because it was a better choice for illustrating my point. I
doubt if anyone knows what the original name was, and since the change was made
within an hour of the original posting, it is highly unlikely there is a backup
of it anywhere. I refer to this as “Dark Editing.” How do we validate the
material in a digital landscape where there is only the present? Without a hard
copy as proof of the past, how do we know the digital information we are
quoting as a source will be the same tomorrow as it is today? To further
illustrate the point, a friend of mine noticed that in a digital edition of Moby Dick several chapters were missing.
Missing! And nowhere in the indicia, or on the title page, or on the website
did it say it was an edited or abridged edition. “Truth” has always been
subjective, but in the digital age it is also ephemeral. After all, what is a
cloud anyway, but an amorphous, ever-changing wisp that eventually disappears completely?
Digital Natives and the Gatekeepers
For
Digital Natives, those born in 1980 and afterwards, the digital landscape is an
integral part of their lives. For the rest of us, the Digital Immigrants, we
can remember a time when phones had cords, and computer screens were black &
white. In preparing for this blog entry I watched the first two episodes of the
television show, Revolution, which takes
place fifteen years after all the power goes out globally. One Internet entrepreneur
laments his loss of wealth, and a mother still carries around her cell phone
because locked inside are pictures of her long-gone children. At no time did
anyone mention the loss of all that knowledge, but for some reason they want
you to believe that without electricity we would be knocked back to living in Colonial times. One of the staples of spy shows of the past
couple decades has been the electromagnetic bomb. Explode one within a major
capital city, and that nation’s infrastructure and economy collapses. It is
entertainment, so it is meant to be dramatic; however, the real threat to
Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants is access, and the real power lies in
the hands of the Gatekeepers.
We
know that it is possible for countries to block the Internet, or portions of
it. The euphemism is called “filtering,” and it is the same principle as
software controls parents put on their children’s computers, but on a larger
scale. The greater concern is that, under the guise of “protecting its
citizens” any country can frame the narrative for its people, especially those
who never travel abroad. Not only that, but the Gatekeepers can designate
specifically what knowledge a person may have access to and for how long.
Without physical books it is therefore easier to create a caste society where
some people have access to knowledge while others are left ignorant.
When
information on a cloud (mainframe) is completely blocked and certain people are
no longer permitted access to fundamental knowledge, as in a caste society, I
have begun calling this form of injustice “Clear Skies Censorship.”
Modeling the Graphic Textbook
So,
what does my model for graphic textbooks look like? Well, like this!
All
graphic narratives are made up of three parts. They are the script, the art,
and the history of the medium. All three of these spheres are the same size
because all are of equal importance. This model also encompasses people such as
Will Eisner, Frank Miller, Jeff Smith, and all the others who both write and
illustrate their stories because there is always a balance between text and
imagery. The history of the medium is vital because it includes all that has
come before to get us to where we are. If the creators study the writers, artists,
and graphic narratives that have come before them; the better prepared they
will be for creating their own graphic narratives. Each of these three spheres
overlap, with the rich tradition of storytelling, and at the core of this is
where graphic narratives emerge. For educational graphic novels and graphic
textbooks, all of this fits into a sphere of pedagogy. This model does not
advocate a specific style of writing or art, and is international in its scope.
Nor does it advocate a specific format or software/hardware platform. What it
does portray is the importance of the content; that storytelling is at the core
of all good graphic narratives. After all, we all love a good story.
[Note: For educational
purposes, I am also including a blank diagram so anyone can fill it in with whatever
language they choose.]
Concluding Remarks
Back
in Blog #1 I wrote, “It is my opinion that one day introductory-level
educational graphic textbooks for college students will be the norm rather than
the exception.” I believe that. There is a fear that the educational system
cannot keep up with changes in digital landscape. Graphic eTextbooks can help
make learning fun and enjoyable, without diluting the information. This is not a
juvenile art form. It is a hybridized, verbal/visual, problem-solving, engaging art form
that entertains as it educates. As Ray Bradbury once wrote, “Intellectual snobs will
no doubt be shocked. Those with widespread, happy tastes will accept, as I
accept, this new form.” (Bradbury, Autumn People, 1965)
Finally,
using comic books in the classroom is not a new concept, and began, to my
knowledge, around the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics in 1938. The following was written by Milton Schwebel, professor emeritus of the graduate school of applied and professional
psychology at Rutgers University as well as dean emeritus of the graduate
school of education of the same institution. Professor Schwebel was also the
founding chair of American Psychological Association's Advisory Committee on
Impaired Psychologists for eight years, and founding editor of the APA
divisional publication, Peace and
Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology for seven years. It is the earliest
account that I have found regarding the use of comic books in the classroom,
and it validates my belief in the benefits of using graphic narratives for
teaching undergraduate students.
Recent
attention to the use of comic books in schools drove me to the search engine
Google, where my query of the phrase yielded 682,000 English pages. [In] the
late 1930s, when, as a high school substitute teacher in Troy, N.Y., I was
called upon to teach a course in English for students in a low-status
vocational program. […] To my dismay, I discovered that the chief literary fare
in this so-called class in English consisted of comic books. As a recent
graduate of Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. —then an all-male institution of
about 800, with a proud record of well over a century of teaching the liberal
arts and science — and with a major in philosophy, I had nothing but disdain
for this folly and for the elderly teacher, now ill, who had created it.
Fortunately
for me, she was absent for a month, during which time I came to see that my
arrogance had blinded me to her creativity. These boys and girls, all from
working-class families, many of them children of immigrants, were devouring the
comic books, and were reading for pleasure for the first time. Some of them had
moved from comic books to Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Jack London, and
they enjoyed discussing Oliver Twist as much as Superman.
The wisdom
of this experienced woman taught me that there are numerous ways to get
children hooked on books and learning. In the many ensuing years, the lesson I
learned from her influenced my teaching at the college, university, and
postdoctoral levels. I discovered that it didn't matter whether an instructor
lectured, led discussions, or used role-play or any other procedure, provided
the students—no matter their age—were engaged. It's not surprising that
educational research has substantiated that principle.
―Milton Schwebel, Education Week,
February 20, 2008
I
wish to express my deepest appreciation to everyone for reading this blog; especially
to all of those who shared their thoughts, critiques, and personal stories
with me. While this is the end of this blog it is not the end of my research!
After
all…I still have to finish my dissertation, graduate, and get a real job!
Peace!
B