Ten years ago today, I finished my final MA thesis and research paper. If I were to give it a simple title, I would have probably called it, "The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same."
I based much of my thesis on Marshal McLuhan and Eric McLuhan's book Laws of Media "The New Science." Eric finished the preface on 8/8/88 after his father died. I chose to finish my thesis on 8/8/08 to honor both men. While I used many other sources, Laws of Media was tremendously useful and worth reading several times. Today I reread Eric's Preface. It is also worth reading on its own. Just the preface discusses Francis Bacon, Giambattista Vico, James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, and Newton's theory of motion, and in case McLuhan seems to take himself too seriously, he also considers scrapping his preface and replacing it with Bacon's preface from Bacon's New Science work.
My old thesis and research paper were written before I started posting work online. I hadn't read either paper for several years and I didn't even know if I could find my thesis. Surprisingly, I could have written similar words today with similar critiques. I attached some of the PDF's, but in case they don't transfer, here are some sample paragraphs.
McLuhan would not merely argue that policy leaders or school
administrators were asking the wrong questions; he would challenge
educators to consider long term implications of their decisions.
(Federman, 2004). While some researchers argue that technology
implementations do not disrupt change quickly enough(Blin & Munro,
2008), McLuhan asserts that most innovations create change slowly.
Furthermore, most change is usually “unanticipated.” (Federman, 2004)
According to McLuhan, these “unanticipated consequences,”
often referred to as “unintended consequences,” are caused by events
that we do not consider when planning, because these events are too
normal and too numerous for most people to consider (Federman,
2004). It is for this reason that society needs artists and other social
critics to remind us what we take for granted. (M. McLuhan, 1964).
Download When an innovation is introduced
In Laws of Media, the McLuhans explained how the four laws of media applied throughout history. I applied the four laws to education and "innovation." Ten years ago, I had already begun to ask where the "real journalists" had gone. I could have asked about "fake news."
Have we begun distrusting New Media already? Maybe this
generation is moving faster. We trusted the real news for generations.
How much longer before Yelp becomes obsolete, and the real
journalists return? Yelp claimed to be “honest and current.” When
everyone is honest and current, who will lead? Who will teach?
Yelp hasn't become obsolete yet, but it also hasn't become honest and current. When I was completing my research project, Yelp was being sued by small companies that had received bad listings. (At one time, I actually bought the domain name www.yelpyelp.com.) I wasn't sure Yelp would last ten years. In 2008, I was also trying to build my own innovative education company that would create better experience than existed at the time. As part of my research project, I wanted to learn more about the difference technology experiences of educators and other working professionals.
Download ARWriteupBTF08
I also wanted to learn how to create better websites and online professional development for educators. In 2008, websites had less imagery. (Sites looked more like this post.)
Recommendations / Reflections
The internet is not yet a visual medium, though it has tremendous potential. Currently, text predominates. Imagery exists as an afterthought creating a “flickrization” of visual content. Some would argue that people spend much of their time “looking” at the internet;
Essential Elements of Effective Web Pages - 10 -
therefore, the internet must be a visual medium. People look at books. This does not make books visual.
Web pages often have too much text, poorly edited, with small font. Educational web sites are too much like text books, difficult to follow and boring.
Publishing a web page is simple. Publishing an effective website is more difficult than publishing a newspaper or magazine. A person must understand design, video, sound, photography, as well as any content, advertising and additional computer software. These fields each require years of study to master. Yet, people publish websites daily
Download Portfolio_Title_Pages_Fall_2008_Farley
On my final submission Abstract page, I found two comments that have reappeared throughout the last ten years. I was prepared to solve big education problems and I had just become a photographer.
I am always just becoming a photographer.
Process
I chose the iMET program, so that I could learn how to apply technology to large scale education problems. I have taught in several schools and I have worked with hundreds of teachers throughout the country as a visual arts educator. Now that I have completed iMET, I am prepared to solve technology problems I have witnessed.
During iMET I also became a photographer. This might surprise most of my classmates who considered me the class photographer; however, until recently, I was a visual arts educator who spent time with well known photographers. Now, after much work, I also consider myself a photographer
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Edited on 8/16/18
When I wrote my thesis, I did not discuss my father's suicide (which happened on August 16th, 2004) or my experience with the anti-sexual assault movement. I am uncertain why I omitted the discussion. It was probably too early to discuss suicide and I had already grown pessimistic about any progress for sexual assault survivors. Despite the #metoo movement's recent success, I think that the way humans encourage silence will continue. I have been an outspoken advocate for decades. I don't know how to change the discussion. I think that too many people do not want to change the discussion.
On 8/8/18 I received a news article in my feed about Instagram titled "Someone Did It First" You Are Not Original On Instagram. This illustrates fear mentioned above about the"flickrization" of photography and the adherence to the 4 Rules of Media.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
