November 2008 — News
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The Communications Revolution and What Schools Need To Do About It
In 1980, futurist Alvin Toffler stated that we are in a communications revolution and that the "link between communications and character is complex, but unbreakable. We cannot transform all our media of communications and expect to remain unchanged as a people" (p. 389). "It speeds the very process by which we "try on" different images of self, and, in fact, accelerates our movement through successive images. It makes it possible for us to project our image electronically to the world. And nobody fully understands what all this will to do our personalities" (p. 390). How true those words are today, as we engage in communication and collaboration globally using Web 2.0 tools.
These tools offer students an ability to take charge (e.g., via blogs, wikis, tagging and social bookmarking, podcasts, video logs), speak their minds in almost any way they desire, on almost any topic, at any time of day, and without any go-between to filter what is said. When some of those commentaries are brought to the attention of parents and educators, school systems face the challenge of what to do about those that potentially have a negative, sometimes dangerous, impact on individuals about whom the commentaries were directed. In the words of Steven Corman, Angela Trethewey, and Bud Goodall (2007), the situation becomes one of those "disruptive moves" calling for a transformation in the system to address the issue. The solution is not just creating a new policy or taking legal actions.
On a larger scale, the perception of how the United States and its people are viewed globally is a function of how well we communicate on multiple levels, such as political, economic, business, and personal. The process itself operates at two levels, according to Adrian Chan (2006), "as a binding exchange between individuals, and as a reproduction of social norms, values, and other cultural "stock." "(Sec: Project Overview, para. 7). How are we preparing our youth for successful involvement in that process on these global levels? How well are we preparing them to communicate via multiple communication channels? What 21st century models of communication are we developing to guide us? Or, are we basing instruction on outdated 20th century models? In this commentary, I examine Corman, Trethewey, and Goodall's communications model for the 21st century and its curriculum implications for K-12 schools.
A 20th Century Model
The typical 20th century model of communication is viewed as a linear, one-way process that can be compared to the model for the telephone and broadcasting industry, which was developed by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver in the 1950s. It has such components as an information source, transmitter, signal, and receiver. During the transmission process, as the signal moves through some channel, the presence of noise might degrade the message, preventing it from being received as intended.
