Human speech is much more complex and ephemeral. The supportive nature of epistemic conversations is elusive in a world full of corporate icons and techno-speak bulletin boards. The shift from conversation to writing represents a profound cognitive shift from reference to sign. Writing spatializes the word and makes it possible to sequentially process the word for instantaneous retrieval. But the kind of community and knowledge that Socrates was interested in required both knowledge in the mind and the mind in the community.
Community is, in a sense, a set of repetitive activities.
The short attention-span our students give learning can be a direct result of this shift from reference to sign initiated by print. And while we may assume that Vygotsky didn't agree with Socrates about writing, both of these social theorists understood that real education is the act of talking and listening to another. Nowhere in learning are students left to themselves with only books. This conversation between teachers and their students is epistemic. Socrates might be disappointed to learn that this dialogue between students and teachers has been for some time about written texts from which at least one group believes knowledge will arise.