Cyber Or 31 Technological Competition Part I

By Rabbi Dr. Moshe Dror

I had the great good fortune and privilege to study with one of the most significant Media commentators of our era-Professor Neil Postman. I studied with him for my PhD at New York University in the Media Ecology program that he originated and ran. I would like to put some of what I have been writing about in these blogs into some historic context. Some of the basic themes dealt with are derived from Postman’s classic book “Technopoly: Surrender of Culture to Technology”, New York, Vintage Books, 1993. What Postman deals with is at least two decades old and during these 20 years or so there have been some modest and tentative changes in the classroom but not much in the churches and synagogues and the pews.

As you have been reading my blogs, you can see that I have a great respect and admiration for the wonders and the WOW character of the technologies. So it is important that I bring into my focus and yours as well the insight of a media critic so as to see what are the implications of such technological impacts on our social fabric.

In most schools all over the developed world there are at least three great technologies that are confronting each other for control of the students mind.

There is the world of the printed text, and the world of TV. Added to this is the emerging world of the internet, computers and web 2.0.

The world of the printed text -emphasizes logic, sequence, history, exposition, objectivity, detachment, and discipline…mostly Left hemisphere brain activities.

The world of TV: with its emphasis on imagery, narrative, presentness, simultaneity, intimacy, immediate gratification, and quick emotional response.

The world of the personal computer is now in the classroom as well.

As Postman so eloquently puts it:

“In introducing the personal computer to the classroom, we shall be breaking a four hundred year old truce between the gregariousness and openness fostered by orality and the introspection and isolation fostered by the printed word. Orality stresses group learning, cooperation, and a sense of social responsibility…

Print stresses individualized learning, competition, and personal autonomy. Over four centuries, teachers, while emphasizing print. Have allowed orality its place in the classroom and have achieved a kind of pedagogical peace between these two forms of learning. Now comes the computer, carrying anew the banner of private learning and individualized problem solving.”

That was in the 1990’s.

Now we are redefining the very nature of where is the classroom. Its “Space “is no longer in a very limited community. Through the internet and the Web 2.0 social networking that is available with broadband expansion- the classroom is a global classroom and the community of these students spans the globe if they want.

We are not dealing with the individual student but rather we are relating to the individual student-NETWORKED.

Yes indeed it is transforming the old school.

It’s about time.

My question revolves around the issue that if the places of learning are changing are the places of worship and prayer also changing?

We all know that the traditional Synagogue deals with three aspects of its service to the community.

House of Study-Bet Midrash

House of Community- Bet Knesset

House of Worship/Prayer- Bet Tefillah

How each of these aspects of the Synagogue will be affected by these new technologies will be dealt with in future blogs.