tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/printing-press-30198/articlesPrinting press – The Conversation2022-11-21T13:15:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908172022-11-21T13:15:09Z2022-11-21T13:15:09ZThis course teaches how to judge a book by its cover - and its pages, print and other elements of its design<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486605/original/file-20220926-17-5lozzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C0%2C3894%2C1991&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Books have shaped societies throughout the ages.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/old-books?assettype=image&license=rf&alloweduse=availableforalluses&agreements=pa%3A144323&family=creative&page=5&phrase=old%20books&sort=best">normallens via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Course Title:</h2>
<p>“For the Love of Books”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>The idea for the class came from seeing University of Richmond students interact with the rare books and archival collections. Their curiosity about historic texts was not just with how the materials were made and used, but also with how these particular volumes survived and became a part of the university’s collection. </p>
<p>The course is offered as a <a href="https://fys.richmond.edu/">first-year seminar</a>. It is designed to focus on a specific topic while deepening students’ understanding of the world and of themselves as they build stronger research and communication skills. </p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>The many ways the word <a href="https://lithub.com/what-exactly-do-we-mean-by-a-book/">“book”</a> can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-018-9622-z">defined</a>
in the digital age. For most students, books are for homework or reading for pleasure, but I ask them to look deeper into the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/what-is-a-book/361876/">concept of a book</a> by analyzing books through four themes: object, content, technology and art.</p>
<p>For books as objects, we look at books through their <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/video-dept/anatomy-of-a-book">anatomy</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/19/books/how-a-book-is-made.html">structure</a>, including <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/papermaking/Natural-fibres-other-than-wood">paper</a> and material form. Students then explore books as content, including how books are written, sold, read, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/07/style/rare-used-book-collectors.html">collected</a> and, sometimes, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220921-the-dangerous-books-too-powerful-to-read">banned</a>. </p>
<p>Changes in the technology of book production – the printing press in Europe after 1450 and <a href="https://historycooperative.org/the-history-of-e-books/">the evolution of the digital book</a> going into the new millennium – brought new ways to access information. Technology like <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/dna-books-artifacts/582814/">DNA sampling</a> of older books has helped scholars explore where they were made by studying samples from the parchment skins. New <a href="https://thedebrief.org/could-augmented-reality-change-how-we-read-paper-books/">virtual and augmented reality</a> technologies allow readers to experience books in new ways.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>When students focus on how the transmission of information has <a href="https://informationmatters.org/2022/01/the-history-of-information-science-in-30-seconds/">changed over time</a>, they use <a href="https://archaeologyofreading.org/historiography/">books</a> as a lens for social and cultural analysis. Exploring books as a communications technology, students develop a stronger understanding of how books have long influenced literacy, economics, <a href="https://uxdesign.cc/how-the-oldest-form-of-written-technology-became-the-basis-of-the-internet-27f1c23f955d">technology</a>, art and culture. In so doing, they also learn the histories, traditions and labor involved in the creation and distribution of information.</p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>By choosing to focus on the history of books, the lesson is hopefully that what might appear to be something simple can often be deeply complex, far more meaningful and have more of an impact than students might expect. For instance, there has been a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/organized-groups-fuel-rapid-rise-us-book-banning-report-says-2022-09-19/">recent rise in requests</a> to ban books in schools and libraries. By exploring the long history of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/history-of-book-bans-in-the-united-states">book censorship</a>, students can better understand the context of current events within that larger history.</p>
<p>Students also get firsthand experience with historical forms of printing. For example, students have the opportunity to hand-set type, letterpress print, and make different types of books as part of the hands-on work in class.</p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>• Tom Mole, “<a href="https://tommole.org/the-secret-life-of-books/">The Secret Life of Books</a>” </p>
<p>• Amaranth Borsuk, “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262535410/the-book/">The Book</a>” </p>
<p>• Melissa M. Bender & Karma Waltonen, “<a href="https://broadviewpress.com/product/whos-your-source/#tab-description">Who’s Your Source? A Writer’s Guide to Effectively Evaluating and Ethically Using Resources</a>”</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>Books are physical artifacts that connect today’s students with people from long ago and from faraway places, but books are also agents of change that have influenced societies and cultures for centuries. Students will be able to trace the history of the book and the exchange of information and ideas over time in a way that helps them understand both the historical context and how that continues to shape their world today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynda Kachurek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Books are one of the oldest forms of communication ‘technology,’ a scholar writes, and understanding how they’ve evolved over time provides insights into their role in society.Lynda Kachurek, Head of Book Arts, Archives, & Rare Books, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1529192021-01-11T19:58:41Z2021-01-11T19:58:41ZWhy ‘free speech’ needs a new definition in the age of the internet and Trump tweets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377864/original/file-20210109-17-124oukp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=102%2C6%2C3917%2C2669&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Donald Trump speaking at a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as President, on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The day following the storming of Capitol Hill by Trump supporters, whose use of the Confederate flag signalled a white supremacist insurrection, Simon & Schuster announced that it was <a href="http://about.simonandschuster.biz/news/josh-hawley/">cancelling the publication of Sen. Josh Hawley’s book, <em>The Tyranny of Big Tech</em></a>. Simon & Schuster justified their decision based on Hawley’s involvement in challenging the election results and helping incite the violence. </p>
<p>Hawley replied with an angry tweet about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/books/simon-schuster-josh-hawley-book.html">how this was an affront to the First Amendment and he would see them in court</a>. Of course Hawley, a graduate of Yale Law School, is fully aware that a publisher cancelling a book contract has nothing to do with the First Amendment. Simon & Schuster is a private company that acts in its own interests and this depends only on the fine print of the book contract. </p>
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<p>Hawley’s anger is not just folly or misplaced disappointment, but the continuation of a long-term strategy that American historian Joan Wallach Scott has termed the “<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-the-right-weaponized-free-speech/">weaponizing of free speech</a>” by the right wing, or the deliberate misrepresentation of the very idea of free speech. </p>
<p>As Scott demonstrates, this dangerous redefining of freedom of speech by the right wing has nothing to do with accepting diverse opinions. Rather, it is a weapon in their culture war premised on creating confusion and misunderstanding. </p>
<p>It’s in this context that we all must think through the implications of the mayhem on Jan. 6 and understand the argument behind the principle of freedom of speech. We must also be willing to ask if this foundational principle developed in the 18th and 19th centuries is able to fulfil its function today in a very different digital and social media environment.</p>
<h2>Social media platforms and free speech</h2>
<p>English philosopher and economist J.S. Mill’s classic defence of freedom of speech includes a limitation directly relevant to the siege of the Capitol. In his philosophical treatise <em>On Liberty</em>, Mill notes that action cannot be as free as speech. He immediately provides the example of speech in front of angry mob that could incite violence. Mill contends that such speech should not count as free speech but is action, and when harmful should be regulated. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-antitrust-battle-escalates-tensions-between-government-big-tech-151959">Facebook antitrust battle escalates tensions between government, Big Tech</a>
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<p>This describes exactly how most media commentators and Democratic politicians understand Trump’s incendiary speech at his rally on Jan. 6. Importantly, Republican leaders who had supported Trump, such as senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, agreed. They explicitly noted that the violent attack was, in former Trump chief of staff John Kelly’s words, “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/politics/john-kelly-trump-25th-amendment-capitol-riot-cnntv/index.html">the direct result</a>” of Trump’s speech. </p>
<p>But it was not the government but private corporations, Twitter and Facebook, that made the decision that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/technology/trump-twitter-ban.html">Trump’s speech was so incendiary that it had to be suspended</a>. These companies are <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-josh-hawley-media-social-media-f40a7667bef5af155397bc2004775b0b">targets of Hawley’s now-cancelled book</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377863/original/file-20210109-19-1crkij4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of a smartphone with the screen showing Trump's suspended Twitter account" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377863/original/file-20210109-19-1crkij4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377863/original/file-20210109-19-1crkij4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377863/original/file-20210109-19-1crkij4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377863/original/file-20210109-19-1crkij4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377863/original/file-20210109-19-1crkij4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377863/original/file-20210109-19-1crkij4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377863/original/file-20210109-19-1crkij4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">On Jan. 8, 2021, Twitter permanently suspended Trump from its platform, citing ‘risk of further incitement of violence.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Tali Arbel)</span></span>
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<p>As critics have noted, both social media platforms are <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-about-social-media-neutrality-1517175805">hardly neutral in making such determinations</a>. They can be harmed by — and at the same time, benefit from — Trump’s incessant tweets that bypass traditional media to communicate directly to his supporters. </p>
<p>Twitter and Facebook are private, for-profit institutions and must put their own interests first. They cannot be expected to be a primary vehicle of the public interest. The future of Twitter and Facebook will be shaped by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/29/no-twitter-did-not-violate-trumps-freedom-speech/">congressional legislation and potential regulation</a>. To expect them not to have a dog in this fight is unreasonable.</p>
<h2>History of free speech</h2>
<p>The principle of free speech developed historically after the advent of the printing press, newspapers and, significantly, mass literacy through mandatory public education. Prior to the invention of the printing press and mass literacy, this would have made little sense as the “reading public” did not really exist. </p>
<p>Radical for 1784, German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s argument in favour of freedom of speech — what he called the “<a href="http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/KantOnElightenment.htm">public use of reason</a>” — was specifically dependent on non-democratic and illiberal restrictions on all other civil freedoms. Kant applauded the slogan he attributed to Frederick the Great, “<em>argue</em> as much as you will, and about what you will, <em>but obey</em>.” Kant’s optimism about the public use of reason was so great, it surpassed any worry of autocracy. While an important argument in the development of freedom of speech, Kant’s general position is obviously out of place for contemporary democracies. </p>
<p>Mill, writing 75 years later, feared democracy as the “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/#LibeFreeSpee">tyranny of the majority</a>,” but was more accepting of it than Kant. Mill did not posit an antagonistic relationship between freedom of speech and other civil freedoms as Kant had. However, to justify freedom of speech, he too clearly distinguished it from action. And Mill’s position rested on a similar optimism about the best ideas triumphing over objectionable and potentially harmful ones. Mill goes much further, with the utilitarian view that even false and terrible ideas can strengthen true and better ideas. </p>
<p>Of course, we have to question if this remains true in terms of hate speech and racism at the heart of much of Trump’s base. </p>
<h2>Free speech and violent actions</h2>
<p>Kant and Mill both accepted the now commonplace principle that more speech is the best response to dangerous or objectionable ideas. But today, pollsters tell us 70 per cent of Republican voters do not think the 2020 election was “<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/09/republicans-free-fair-elections-435488">free and fair</a>” despite massive amounts of empirical and legal evidence that it was at least as legitimate as Trump’s 2016 electoral win. And there is a clear link between this and the violence we saw on Jan. 6, as well as an irony concerning the history of voter suppression (<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/poll-prri-voter-suppression/565355/">especially of Black voters</a>) and gerrymandering in the U.S. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377862/original/file-20210109-19-1syyaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman at a protest holding a sign reading TRUMP WON I KNOW IT YOU KNOW IT" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377862/original/file-20210109-19-1syyaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377862/original/file-20210109-19-1syyaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377862/original/file-20210109-19-1syyaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377862/original/file-20210109-19-1syyaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377862/original/file-20210109-19-1syyaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377862/original/file-20210109-19-1syyaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377862/original/file-20210109-19-1syyaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A supporter of President Donald Trump gathers to protest in solidarity on Jan. 6, 2021 in Salem, Ore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>However difficult it might be to determine in practice, the logic of free speech rests on that childhood formula: “Sticks and stone may break my bones but names will never hurt me.” Of course, not only can names and speech hurt people, but as we have seen, they can also threaten democracy. </p>
<p>Trump’s angry mob was not just incited by his <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-save-america-rally-transcript-january-6">single speech on Jan. 6</a>, but had been fomenting for a long time online. The faith in reason held by Mill and Kant was premised on the printing press; free speech should be re-examined in the context of the internet and social media.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Ives does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Freedom of speech emerged as a concept after the invention of the printing press, and that’s worth revisiting in the context of social media and Trump’s presidency.Peter Ives, Professor, Political Science, University of WinnipegLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/916762018-02-21T07:23:34Z2018-02-21T07:23:34ZLessons from the Reformation could help spur Africa’s linguistic revolution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205924/original/file-20180212-58352-1jb8jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's no reason Africa shouldn't be at the centre of global knowledge production.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa is at a tipping point. Countries across the continent are on the brink of shifting from postcolonial to <a href="https://en.unesco.org/themes/building-knowledge-societies">global knowledge societies</a>. A global knowledge society empowers people by increasing access to and preserving and sharing information and knowledge in all domains. Its features include freedom of expression and respect for cultural and linguistic diversity.</p>
<p>This change, driven by digitalisation and globalisation, will nudge African countries from being consumers of knowledge to its producers. It will bring full mental decolonisation to the continent. But none of this will happen without a shift in how Africa thinks about and champions its own languages.</p>
<p>Knowledge comes to Africa in the languages of the former colonial masters – French, English, Portuguese. Education is based almost exclusively on these languages. This would pose no problem if learners acquired nearly perfect command of the foreign language in question. But they don’t. The continent’s learners struggle with English and French. So do many of their teachers. </p>
<p>Across the continent, European languages are seen as “superior”. Africa’s own languages are “inferior”. This language attitude is fatal to optimal education in Africa, which must rely on both indigenous and foreign languages. Repeated over generations, it is deeply entrenched in people’s minds. And it is unsustainable.</p>
<p>Europe cannot serve as a model for Africa. European statehood is largely based on the ideology of a largely homogeneous nation state. These nation states rest on a one state, one nation, one language philosophy. They can be run through a single national language, which happens to be the vast majority’s mother tongue. This concept makes no sense for Africa, with its <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/region/Africa">great linguistic plurality</a>.</p>
<p>Africa’s current situation has a parallel in European history. Exactly 500 years ago, Martin Luther brought about <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/reformation">Reformation</a>, which historians consider the breakthrough to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/modernity">Modernity</a>. This led to the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment">Age of Enlightenment</a> and laid the foundations of European exceptionalism. What started as a theological issue launched three “revolutions” which all hold lessons for Africa today: an ideological and political revolution, a technological revolution, and a linguistic revolution.</p>
<h2>A three-fold revolution</h2>
<p><strong>1. Ideological and political change</strong></p>
<p>Luther (1483-1546) was a German monk who doubted the Roman-Catholic teaching at his time. In his view, it contradicted the spirit of the Holy Bible. In the year 1517, took issue with Roman-Catholic dogma. He questioned how the Pope, operating from Rome, dominated Europe so completely – not only spiritually, but also when it came to politics. Luther’s followers were called “Protestants”.</p>
<p>Luther shattered the unity of Occidental Christianity and induced independence of regional polities from the central authority of the Pope. This eventually fostered separation of the State from the Church, which in turn bolstered individual freedom and democracy. And, crucially, it created mass education by abolishing the dominance of Latin as the sole language of (higher) education, replacing it by regional vernaculars.</p>
<p>The parallels to Africa are obvious. The Pope and Latin in Europe in the Middle Ages correspond to the former colonial masters and their languages in Africa.</p>
<p>African “vernaculars” must challenge the hegemonic dominance of English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. There is nothing that European languages can do that African languages cannot do. The desired outcome would be to liberate Africans from their copycat existence in trying to imitate the model of the former colonial master.</p>
<p><strong>2. Technological shifts</strong></p>
<p>Luther’s propaganda took advantage of the <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory/chapter/the-printing-revolution/">printing revolution</a> using movable letters. This was the beginning of mass media. Fast and cheap printing allowed ubiquitous distribution of pamphlets to be read to the illiterate masses in market places and churches.</p>
<p>Today’s equivalents are digitalisation and desktop publishing. Any language, African or other, can be printed at very low cost. So cost is no barrier to the re-empowerment of African languages. In fact, Africa is already embracing digitalisation and global communication even in her many “home languages” – orally, through SMSes and tweets.</p>
<p><strong>3. A linguistic revolution</strong></p>
<p>One of Luther’s biggest achievements was to push literacy in the vernacular. His translation of the New Testament (1522) into largely unwritten German made him the first “<a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.116.1124&rep=rep1&type=pdf">intellectualiser</a>” of standard German. It would go on to become a global language of philosophy and science a few centuries later. </p>
<p>This allowed mass education to take root. It stimulated Germany’s ascent to a leading economy and home to philosophy, literature, science and first-class technology. Mass education based on learning through the vernacular languages eventually overcame oligarchic regimes. It fostered democracy and civil society. Latin, once so powerful, was relegated to a teaching subject in secondary schools.</p>
<p>There’s no reason the same could not happen in postcolonial Africa. A linguistic revolution would make African languages the default media of instruction, and give global languages like English their place as well-taught language subjects. Those global tongues could be used for <a href="http://education.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-181">translanguaging</a> purposes when accessing imported knowledge. </p>
<h2>Beyond the tipping point</h2>
<p>The time is ripe for change. Africa is advancing in terms of digitalisation; already the <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/04/15/cell-phones-in-africa-communication-lifeline/">density of cell phones</a> is amazing. Mental decolonisation is on the intellectual agenda. Experts push it by suggesting multilingual education from kindergarten to university. </p>
<p>Standardisation and intellectualisation of African languages are under way, but need much more support from all quarters. Perhaps those long-ago lessons of the Reformation and the decades that followed it hold some of the answers the continent needs to jump from “tipping point” to full-blooded linguistic revolution.</p>
<p><em>An <a href="https://historyofknowledge.net/2018/02/21/developing-knowledge-societies-africa-needs-a-linguistic-revolution/">expanded version</a> of this article can be found on the German Historical Institute’s History of Knowledge blog.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>H. Ekkehard Wolff is currently benefiting from a "Hugh le May Fellowship" for senior scholars in Rhodes University's Faculty of the Humanities.</span></em></p>Africa’s current situation has a parallel in European history - the Reformation and the changes it wrought in terms of language exceptionalism.H. Ekkehard Wolff, Emeritus Professor of African Linguistics, University of LeipzigLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/588032017-11-06T12:32:06Z2017-11-06T12:32:06ZWhy openness, not technology alone, must be the heart of the digital economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151298/original/image-20161221-4085-1qyx1j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyndale_Bible_John_5.jpg">Kevin Rawlings</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440 it was, just as the internet has been in our time, a revolutionary development. Before the printing press, it is estimated there were <a href="http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/educator/modules/gutenberg/books/legacy/">just 30,000 books in all of Europe</a>. Fifty years later, there were more than ten million. Over the next 500 years Gutenberg’s invention would transform our ability to share knowledge and help create the modern world. </p>
<p>Less than a century later on October 6, 1536, a man named <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/william_tyndale/">William Tyndale</a> was burnt at the stake as a heretic for producing <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/william-tyndales-new-testament">the Bible in English that bore his name</a>. Just 40 years old, Tyndale grew up in a world transformed by Gutenberg’s invention. Educated at Cambridge, Tyndale became a scholar and a priest. At that time it was forbidden and deemed heretical to translate the Bible from Latin. The reason was simple: control of the information in the Bible provided immense power. </p>
<p>Very few could read Latin, not even most aristocrats. By ensuring the Bible remained in Latin only the Pope and priests of the Catholic Church retained control of the information within it. This allowed the church to exert religious authority and also to maintain secular power and generate revenues, for example by inventing new “pay-for” sacraments with no scriptural basis – the most egregious of these were “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/indulgence">indulgences</a>” which permitted their purchaser automatic forgiveness of sins.</p>
<p>Tyndale had an independent mind. Inspired by <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/william_tyndale/">Martin Luther’s call to reformation</a> he became a medieval information freedom fighter. Tyndale was committed to opening up information by translating the Bible into English. Between 1524 and 1527 he produced the first printed English translation of the Bible from abroad to avoid prosecution, which was secretly shipped back to England. Despite being banned and publicly burnt, his translation spread rapidly, giving ordinary people access to the Bible and sowing the seeds of the Reformation in England.</p>
<p>Fast-forward to today and we are living through another information revolution as digital technologies such as the internet change how information is created and communicated. Our world may seem very different from that of Gutenberg and Tyndale, but if we look deeper there is much we can learn.</p>
<p>Gutenberg’s technology may have laid the groundwork for change, but the printing press could very well just have been used to produce more Latin Bibles for priests – enabling only more of the same without changing the balance of power. It was Tyndale’s efforts to translate the Bible in order to democratise access to it that created real change: the printing press was just the means to carry his message to the masses. In doing so he empowered and liberated ordinary people and gave them the opportunity to understand, think and decide for themselves. This was open information as freedom, as empowerment, as social change.</p>
<p>Knowledge power in the 16th century came through control of the Bible. Today, in our data-driven world it’s much broader: everything from maps to medicines, sonnets to statistics. And so today we need to open up public data and information, making it freely available to anyone for any purpose, building insight and knowledge from it together.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193413/original/file-20171106-1008-2uhkhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193413/original/file-20171106-1008-2uhkhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193413/original/file-20171106-1008-2uhkhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193413/original/file-20171106-1008-2uhkhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193413/original/file-20171106-1008-2uhkhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193413/original/file-20171106-1008-2uhkhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193413/original/file-20171106-1008-2uhkhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Technology that no one can access is no more use than a book no one can read.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maksim Kabakou/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact we already have concrete examples of how this would work. For example, <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org">OpenStreetMap</a> is an open, global map service based on freely available sources. <a href="http://opentrials.net/">OpenTrials</a> is an open database of medical and clinical trials, open source software such as <a href="http://www.phonearena.com/news/Android-is-taking-over-the-world-80-of-all-smartphones-run-Googles-OS_id46001">Linux and Android powers 80% of all smartphones</a> and of course there is a vast amount of publicly-funded research made available through open journals.</p>
<p>Tyndale’s example highlights the crucial role of openness: too often we focus on technology and forget the structures of law, ownership and power that technology operates within. Dazzled by the astonishing pace of technological advance we can easily think that information technology is itself the solution. Instead we must think about the purpose, power and politics of information technology, and not presume some in-built positive aim. Put simply: the medium is not the message, and the internet’s open architecture will not itself guarantee a more democratic or open world – as the events of 2016 should demonstrate.</p>
<p>If we need reminding of this we need only look to radio or even cable TV. Discussions of radio from the 1920s sound eerily familiar to <a href="https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence">early utopian visions of the internet</a>: radio would revolutionise human communication, creating a peer-to-peer world where everyone could broadcast, enabling a new and better democracy. Radio may have delivered on its technological promise but not on its social one. Far from a peer-to-peer communications democracy, instead we have a one-way medium dominated by state broadcasters and a few huge corporations.</p>
<p>Likewise, take a look at the 21st century internet and it’s clear that the internet’s costless transmission enables the creation of information empires and <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21637338-todays-tech-billionaires-have-lot-common-previous-generation-capitalist">information “robber barons”</a> as much as it does digital democracy and information equality. Modern information technology offers unprecedented opportunities for surveillance, as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/19/extreme-surveillance-becomes-uk-law-with-barely-a-whimper">newly passed Investigatory Powers Act in the UK demonstrates</a>, and for the manipulation of information. It is just as easily used to exploit as to empower.</p>
<p>Which brings us back to Tyndale. He took the possibility the printing press offered and married it with openness. In doing so he created something truly transformative – modern versions of the Bible incorporate much of Tyndale’s translation. The same is true for us: in all areas, from databases to drug formula, we must combine the possibilities offered by digital technology with a policy of openness. Only by putting openness at the heart of the information age can we fully realise its potential – be that for creativity and collaboration, or for freedom and fairness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58803/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rufus Pollock is an Associate of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Cambridge; the Founder and non-executive President of Open Knowledge International (<a href="https://okfn.org">https://okfn.org</a>), a not-for-profit dedicated to creating a world where knowledge creates power for the many, not the few, where data empowers us to make informed choices about how we live, what we buy and who gets our vote and where information and insights are accessible – and apparent – to everyone; and the co-Founder of Art / Earth / Tech a community of people seeking a wiser, weller world - <a href="https://artearthtech.com/">https://artearthtech.com/</a>.
He and these associated organisations have been the recipient of numerous grants including a 3 year Mead Research Fellowship in Economics at the University of Cambridge, a Shuttleworth Fellowship, FP7 and H2020 EU funding, and UK innovation and research funding as well as grants from foundations such as the Omidyar Network, Hewlett Foundation, Open Society Foundations and others.
</span></em></p>The printing press, like the internet, has been revolutionary. But technology alone is not enough – access to to it must be open to ensure its benefits are felt.Rufus Pollock, Associate Fellow, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/787342017-06-13T02:56:41Z2017-06-13T02:56:41ZBefore the digital age, how religious groups increased the numbers in their order<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172966/original/file-20170608-32294-12jzcpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cloistered nuns in the Monastery of Saint Clare in the western Mediterranean Sardinian city of Oristano.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.lalucedelleclarisse.monasterosantachiaraoristano.it">Gabriele Calvisi</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A monastery of 10 nuns on the Italian island of Sardinia is <a href="http://religionnews.com/2017/05/30/cloistered-nuns-on-facebook-whats-not-to-like/">using social media</a> to share their community’s work and ensure its very survival. This might appear surprising considering these nuns chose a life of quiet work and prayer separated from the world.</p>
<p>But as a Catholic theologian focusing on liturgical and religious life, my research shows the nuns’ turn to cyberspace is only the latest chapter in a long history of religious orders’ using the best means of communication.</p>
<p>The story of how the Jesuits grew their order back in the 16th century provides an interesting case study. </p>
<h2>Communicating for cloistered sustainability</h2>
<p>Nearly all Roman Catholic men’s and women’s orders in Europe and North America have in recent decades undergone <a href="http://cara.georgetown.edu/services/religious-institutes/">steep declines in membership</a>. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/10103961/Number-of-priests-and-nuns-in-marked-decline.html">Among those hard hit</a> have been many cloistered women’s communities, who practice their lives of prayer and work behind walls separating them from the wider world.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172967/original/file-20170608-22791-dlxp4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172967/original/file-20170608-22791-dlxp4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172967/original/file-20170608-22791-dlxp4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172967/original/file-20170608-22791-dlxp4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172967/original/file-20170608-22791-dlxp4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172967/original/file-20170608-22791-dlxp4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172967/original/file-20170608-22791-dlxp4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A nun in the Monastery of Saint Clare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.lalucedelleclarisse.monasterosantachiaraoristano.it">Gabriele Calvisi</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One such struggling cloister is the <a href="https://www.monasterosantachiaraoristano.it">Monastery of Saint Clare</a>, which was founded in the 14th century in the western Mediterranean Sardinian city of Oristano. Today, this community has dwindled to 10 sisters, most of whom are elderly, some in their 90’s. While all the sisters join as best they can in the <a href="http://religionnews.com/2017/05/30/cloistered-nuns-on-facebook-whats-not-to-like/">eight daily sessions of prayer</a>, only a few can work at the gardening, sewing and care of children, as well as listening to people who come to talk or ask for prayers. The elderly nuns, of course, need care themselves. In order to survive today, wider support and new members need to be found. </p>
<p>Back in the Middle Ages, <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mona/hd_mona.htm">as monasteries proliferated</a> in Western Europe, they often situated themselves in cities or towns. Withdrawn from the surrounding society, the monks and nuns nonetheless would offer instruction or guidance to visitors. People could sit in designated edges of the monastic chapels to listen and pray silently as the community chanted in the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iepJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT1496&lpg=PT1496&dq=monastic+choir+stalls&source=bl&ots=cu4UJL4hQm&sig=lrDzfYsHLwg2kHAaUbDySnKeFXo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwixiaSEy6nUAhWj64MKHVLoC4AQ6AEIVTAJ#v=onepage&q=monastic%20choir%20stalls&f=false">choir stalls</a>. It was through such interaction between the monastery and “world” that the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%209:35-38">call for co-workers</a> to join the community would quietly go out. Men and women were exposed to the monastery’s existence and way of life through physical proximity and personal visits. </p>
<p>Today, however, the appeal to vocations needs to go out through the World Wide Web. Joining the ranks of numerous <a href="http://poorclaresosc.org/">convents</a> and <a href="http://www.chartreux.org/">monasteries</a> around the globe, the sisters of St. Clare have recognized the need to communicate better who they are and what they have to offer. Their youngest member, 42-year-old Sister Maria Caterina, has launched the community’s <a href="https://www.monasterosantachiaraoristano.it">website</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Monastero-Santa-Chiara-Oristano-416775662020874/">Facebook</a> page.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpermalink.php%3Fstory_fbid%3D434498623581911%26id%3D416775662020874&width=500" width="100%" height="579" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
<p>But this is not the first time that religious communities are having to think about the best way of communication to be able to grow their membership. </p>
<h2>Growth of the early Jesuits</h2>
<p>The Society of Jesus, an order of priests and brothers commonly known as the <a href="http://jesuits.org/aboutus">Jesuits</a>, traces its origins to 1541. Its initial group comprised seven friends who vowed not only poverty, chastity and obedience but also their availability to the pope for any mission.</p>
<p>Unlike monastic religious communities, the Jesuits were an <a href="http://biblehub.com/greek/652.htm">apostolic</a>, that is, a missionary order. Rather than being cloistered, this type of Roman Catholic order is “on mission” in “the world.”</p>
<p>By the time those few founders passed away, the order had already grown to over a thousand. One key to that success was the circulation of handwritten letters – a quaint medium today but a vital communications tool for its time.</p>
<p>The new Jesuit order quickly found itself invited by church and royal officials to set up missions in Asia. Letters between religious superiors and their men abroad predictably conveyed information, sought or issued directives and gave advice. Some letters, however, were designed to gain support for the order, to edify the members and to inspire new men to join.</p>
<p>Jesuit historian <a href="http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/jwo9/">John O'Malley</a> <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674303133">explains</a>, “Most importantly, both Jesuits and others learned who Jesuits were by reading about what they did.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172787/original/file-20170607-5408-zigvua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172787/original/file-20170607-5408-zigvua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172787/original/file-20170607-5408-zigvua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172787/original/file-20170607-5408-zigvua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172787/original/file-20170607-5408-zigvua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172787/original/file-20170607-5408-zigvua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172787/original/file-20170607-5408-zigvua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Francis Xavier’s letters helped inspire the growth of the Jesuit order.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bc-burnslibrary/9161642822/in/photolist-eXzPe1-bjTTYD-p6Tt7n-dCWENQ-bobVPo-dUW92D-bjTUdv-9aw6vp-9y8a13-4r35Vd-c8mcUG-2gfmgz-5Dscye-e7JuXW-9PMHGv-5VE63Y-iT462u-DZ3YKc-5obRC-6etSQB-5B8hzB-e7Jxuj-hCkQFm-e5Bdci-nBhzcv-xQRjuf-dYC8hr-bA1zLk-5uXBnW-dYHQNU-eCeRmD-4fD9wV-5C6AFP-dCYJfb-e78EvJ-JujGA-a1ACZ8-8avyJ2-dYC7jz-dMq18J-gjVKZW-deWX7k-8gBT7h-qVcxJm-ad3Qay-7Ga1Ce-5pviTW-bW4H5t-RRE8cg-p6QNFE">Burns Library, Boston College</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://jesuitsources.bc.edu/the-letters-and-instructions-of-francis-xavier/">Francis Xavier</a>, the first Jesuit missionary to India and Japan, sent letters not only to his religious superiors in Rome and Portugal but also to Portuguese King John III, <a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/libraries/pdf/frances-xavier-catalog.pdf">from 1542 to 1552</a>. The king had each of <a href="https://acmrs.org/sites/default/files/v6_Laberinto_Conrod.pdf">his eight letters from Xavier</a> read publicly at Masses celebrated throughout his realm. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25024096?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">The letters</a>, which included requests for high-quality recruits, both reinforced the king’s support of Xavier as his ambassador to the East and helped inspire the rapid growth of the fledgling Society of Jesus back in Europe.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Jesuit order developed its own system of letters sent within and among their communities. Notable examples are the semiannual circular letters of <a href="http://jesuitsources.bc.edu/year-by-year-with-the-early-jesuits-1537-1556-selections-from-the-chronicon-of-juan-de-polanco-s-j/">Juan de Polanco</a> in the mid-1500s. Polanco served as the executive secretary to the first three Jesuit superior generals in Rome. <a href="http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=marq_fac-book">His letters</a> conveyed the leadership’s shaping of the Jesuit way of life and their <a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/top/church21/pdf/HowtheFirstJesuitsBecameInvolvedinEducation.pdf">educational system</a>. These letters built up the distinct Jesuit style of religious life and projected what proved to be an attractive image for new recruits.</p>
<p>Letters between Jesuits in foreign lands, such as Francis Xavier, and officials in Europe were transported through trade ships and <a href="https://acmrs.org/sites/default/files/v6_Laberinto_Conrod.pdf">often took several years</a> to reach their intended recipients. For the letters to circulate among wider audiences – such as members of Jesuit houses or the public attending Masses in King John’s Portugal – they had to be copied by hand.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.prepressure.com/printing/history">evolution of the printing press</a> exploded the written word onto the pages of books, journals and newsprint. Over the <a href="https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/67472">20th century</a>, mass communication came through the development of the telephone, radio, film and televised and internet media. The sharing of ideas and information increasingly <a href="https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/a-primer-on-communication-studies/s15-media-technology-and-communica.html">grew in volume and reach</a>. </p>
<h2>New Jesuits reaching the world on the web</h2>
<p>Throughout this modern period, Catholic institutions and religious orders, including the Jesuits, have used all such means of communication. More recently, from the <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/it.html">Vatican</a> down through regional to local institutions has come a proliferation of Catholic presence on the internet. The websites largely present information about a given diocese, school or religious order. Some use traditional-style <a href="https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/">journalism</a>, such as <a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/">magazines</a> and <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/">newspapers</a>, to convey their message.</p>
<p>A group of young American Jesuits have also started their own internet platform, <a href="https://thejesuitpost.org/">The Jesuit Post</a>. Their blogs and tweets are aimed at their generation. As they say on their <a href="https://thejesuitpost.org/introducing-tjp/">website</a>, these young Jesuits seek “to show that faith is relevant to today’s culture and that God is already at work in it.” As with the circulating letters of yore, these days it is cyberposting that promotes the Jesuit image. Other apostolic orders, such as <a href="https://www.dominicanajournal.org/">the Dominicans</a>, are doing so as well.</p>
<p>By sharing their work through the latest means of communication, these religious orders are only adapting what has been a long tradition of making contact with the world. Even for cloistered nuns like the Monastery of Saint Clare, staying alive in this wide world is a matter of sharing their life on the Web.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Morrill is a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). </span></em></p>A key to the successful growth of Jesuits were handwritten letters – transported through trade ships from India.Bruce T. Morrill, Edward A. Malloy Chair of Catholic Studies, Professor of Theological Studies, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/613562016-08-15T10:14:10Z2016-08-15T10:14:10ZWhy science and engineering need to remind students of forgotten lessons from history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133847/original/image-20160811-18023-1h09t73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Isaac Newton's portrait. What can students learn from his life?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/alessandrogrussu/15561578078/in/photolist-pH8a1j-76k45h-eoYhnV-iR8trc-5cpUoM-aXGc86-aE21ps-dSRxK5-eAQ7d6-9kLeHT-4apT3j-7QFbyr-7t4FpA-J83gv-oTm65q-aXFYFa-5i9Qs8-cJNVhY-mfTiDV-NxfdX-abJ4FM-A3iBqW-5wNXJM-dD4qSv-35jxQf-9xxYBB-cZYjKm-2WEf4X-ANkr5q-cJNsgq-uFzSE-6fQrQb-64UuMS-8MPDG8-mGBWqY-7GLbNG-nSQdH4-qxdhWK-5Ae9CL-9p72i2-fFdBQu-HXZJcL-haJ3E8-64Jkhs-9ppsrC-4wuRU9-8XgMPk-63fppS-B1GUdm-GHaEsU">Alessandro Grussu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lately, there has been a lot of discussion highlighting the need for incorporating <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-social-sciences-are-just-as-important-as-stem-disciplines/2015/06/09/65f9b8e2-0bcc-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html">social sciences</a> in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines in order to foster creativity, increase empathy and create a better understanding of the human condition among scientists.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, however, all this talk hasn’t changed the reality on the ground. </p>
<p>As a researcher and teacher in biomedical engineering, looking at the fundamental functions of the human body, I feel that we in engineering (as well as other sciences) have done a disservice to our students. We have failed to connect them to the history of science through stories of scientists. </p>
<p>Our students, these days, have little knowledge about the giants on whose shoulders we all stand.</p>
<p>And yet there is strong evidence that students are more likely to develop an interest in science and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278517/">pursue science education</a> when engaged through <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/111/Supplement_4/13614.full">narratives that tell a story</a>. </p>
<p>Research also shows that such stories enable students in STEM disciplines to better understand and apply their classroom knowledge in real-world <a href="https://www.designsociety.org/publication/30161/storytelling_stimulates_science">settings</a>.</p>
<h2>Missing piece in science learning</h2>
<p>In one of my engineering classes, I discuss how fluids, such as air and blood, flow in the human body. These processes are critical to our health and well-being. </p>
<p>As I do that, I also discuss the associated discoveries made by many leading scientists. The seminal work of scientists such as <a href="http://lpsa.swarthmore.edu/Fourier/Series/FourierBio.html">Joseph Fourier</a>, <a href="http://www2.stetson.edu/%7Eefriedma/periodictable/html/B.html">Daniel Bernoulli</a> and <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2010/jul-aug/05-isaac-newton-worlds-most-famous-alchemist">Isaac Newton</a> has transformed our world and tremendously improved our quality of life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133848/original/image-20160811-20932-1kdq2ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133848/original/image-20160811-20932-1kdq2ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133848/original/image-20160811-20932-1kdq2ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133848/original/image-20160811-20932-1kdq2ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133848/original/image-20160811-20932-1kdq2ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133848/original/image-20160811-20932-1kdq2ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133848/original/image-20160811-20932-1kdq2ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What do students know about Newton?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/5565715448/in/photolist-9tPKib-oMzjjN-eCncAV-7jMS5V-CHf72-8W5BX5-8UeNTb-qas7UX-ef9p5E-4DrKnM-6DA6CK-rG9WPp-cijXsA-34BS9z-5mmRMn-bi826M-9gbDAk-qp42Ar-gqsgAX-4BSD21-3buSu6-nuPb9z-7p9VUE-bnXCBD-atkt9H-88PV7w-oG5mqL-7JZxwd-dn3nso-BwzDC2-6ojovL-dUfCAa-2jyji-aDs3AP-968G-q3vxCX-64Dko-p1E26q-4D7GF-24XqA-8Lh5z-t6E5W-aNXTae-dn3kXW-8BSark-6toNG-dyHNWa-aYggsV-9d5nPi-5LDPqJ">cea +</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, beyond the most famous anecdote about the falling <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-core-of-truth-behind-sir-isaac-newtons-apple-1870915.html">apple</a> leading to the discovery of gravity, I find that students in my class know little about Newton’s contributions. While students in my class may have a rich understanding of the <a href="http://www.thefouriertransform.com/">Fourier transform</a> (a fundamental mathematical relationship that forms the basis of modern electrical engineering), they literally know nothing about who Fourier was. </p>
<p>Research suggests that context and history <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.3730790506/abstract">play a strong role</a> in connecting science and engineering theory with practice. </p>
<p>But despite studies highlighting the importance of storytelling and <a href="http://pal.lternet.edu/docs/outreach/educators/education_pedagogy_research/start_with_a_story.pdf">historical case study approaches</a>, impersonal <a href="http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2004/april-04/storytelling-in-teaching.html">PowerPoint presentations</a> dominate classrooms. Historical perspectives and rich stories are missing in such presentations. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>As educators, we face tremendous pressures to pack technical materials into our courses. So why should we include history in our lesson plans? </p>
<p>First, history provides a compelling perspective on the process of scientific discovery. We <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tea.3660230703/abstract">have known through research</a> that historical references can help students clear up common misconceptions about scientific topics, ranging from planetary motion to evolution. </p>
<p>Looking at the story of science over centuries enables students to understand that research and discovery are continuous processes. They can then see that the laws and the equations that they use to solve problems were discovered through long and sometimes painful <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1050897.pdf">processes</a>. </p>
<p>The findings they arrive at today, in other words, are the fruits of the hard work of real people who lived in real societies and had complex lives, just like the rest of us.</p>
<p>Second, a sense of history teaches students the all-important value of failure in science. It also highlights the persistence of the scientists who continued to push against the <a href="http://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/is-it-possible-to-have-meaningful-failure/">odds</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2016-07217-001/">Recent research</a> suggests that by discussing the struggles and failures of scientists, teachers are able to motivate students. Indeed, the discussion of struggles, obstacles, failures and persistence can lead to significant academic improvement of students, particularly for those who may be facing personal or financial <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2016-07217-001/">difficulties</a> or feeling discouraged by previous instructors and mentors. </p>
<h2>Learning from history</h2>
<p>This dose of inspiration is particularly valuable for STEM <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2016-07217-001/">students</a> who face <a href="http://www.lpfi.org/perceived-barriers-to-higher-education-in-stem/">barriers</a> in their academic work, either due to lack of financial resources or due to their gender or race. </p>
<p>The stories of past scientists are a reminder to them that history is an opportunity. Not all great discoveries were made by people who were at the very top of the socioeconomic pyramid.</p>
<p>Connected to the process of discovery and innovation is the fundamental notion of the multidisciplinary approach. </p>
<p>Students need to understand that this approach is not a creation of the 21st century. People have used the multidisciplinary tools of their time for hundreds of years. <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/johannes-gutenberg-9323828">Johannes Gutenberg</a>, for example, combined the flexibility of a coin punch with the mechanical strength of the wine press to invent the printing press, which created a profound global impact in disseminating knowledge. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133849/original/image-20160811-28149-1k5a4mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133849/original/image-20160811-28149-1k5a4mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133849/original/image-20160811-28149-1k5a4mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133849/original/image-20160811-28149-1k5a4mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133849/original/image-20160811-28149-1k5a4mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133849/original/image-20160811-28149-1k5a4mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133849/original/image-20160811-28149-1k5a4mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Gutenberg Press replica.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/caseysworld/112552239/in/photolist-aWRRR-szeXH-aWRRN-4eezaN-szfD5-4sAzAq-eG72J3-kTM3B-eG71zj-eG6YRJ-fmZH7o-4eaA6p-szf3E-szvhP-oMT69N-szeSB-eG72ob-szxid-szeN1-eFZU1R-6yLNLt-eFZTVz-eG72Rq-4sAzDC-vZxQQ-szfyA-eFZU6B-eFZReZ-eG6ZpY-vZxrC-4po2VA-eG6Yzb-eG6ZFN-eFZSRB-uUKTn-eFZRJz-eFZSWt-eFZSxH-eG73fu-eFZUhR-eFZUBP-eFZT3H-eFZSDv-eG715s-szfhT-eFZTRx-eG6Zbm-eG72tw-eFZRrx-eFZTkX">Casey Picker</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, a fundamental goal of modern engineering education is to create socially conscious engineering practitioners who have a strong sense of ethics. </p>
<p>Following an engineering education, individuals could go on to develop medical technology for resource-constrained settings, or work on stem cells or genetic engineering. The <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19968625">importance of ethics</a> in any of these areas cannot be underestimated. </p>
<p>Case studies and history could be immensely valuable in teaching ethics. History provides strong evidence of how the environment around scientists was equally important in shaping their <a href="https://www.aaas.org/page/history-philosophy-science">lives and discoveries</a>. Lessons from history could provide insights into <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11948-006-0021-z">how to make ethical choices</a> related to technology or engineering principles. </p>
<h2>History, heritage and a holistic view of learning</h2>
<p>The goal, in the end, is not to compromise on the rigor, or to focus exclusively on history and personalities, but to make the material more accessible through story-telling and connection with our common heritage. </p>
<p>By making students realize that they are part of a grand tradition of learning, success and failure, we might find that the goals of retention, inspiration, access and rich engagement with the material are closer than we realize.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Muhammad H. Zaman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research shows that students feel motivated when they learn more about the struggles and failures of the world’s greatest scientists.Muhammad H. Zaman, HHMI Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.