Title: Making Sense of Pedagogical Knowledge Media
Description: This doctoral thesis is about knowledge and knowing. It considers how the medium by whichknowledge is stored and shared influences perceptions about the value and validity ofknowledge. The analysis is based on the idea that the unique material composition of theknowledge media of the time, rather than being merely a conduit for transmitting ideationalcontent, deeply influences beliefs about knowledge.A number of theorists (Eisenstein, 2013; McLuhan, 1962, 1969, 1994; Postman, 2005; Ong,1977a, 2004, 2012) have analysed how the material composition of mass-print has influencedperceptions of knowledge. Walter Ong (2004) conducted an extensive analysis of early formsof textbooks. In this analysis he found that textbooks have profoundly influencedepistemological beliefs since the Enlightenment, but their influence arose not as a result ofgood pedagogical design, but as an unintended consequence of the unique affordances andconstraints of the highly mechanised production cycles associated with mass-printed texts. As aresult of the mechanical processes associated with mass-printing beliefs about knowing andknowledge were based on representations of the world laid out on the printed page (Ong,2012).Until approximately 35 years ago the Western world used mainly the same primary media forrepresenting, storing and disseminating pedagogical knowledge that had been used for theprevious 500 years. In other words the material composition of the media by which knowledgehas been transacted has been stable. But it is clear that a period of intense change is occurringas knowledge media are increasingly digitised at all stages of their production, distribution andconsumption cycles. As a result of the processes of digitisation knowledge media are moremultimodal, increasingly dispersed beyond one certified knowledge medium and increasinglylocated outside the nexus of the classroom.Media ecologists, particularly McLuhan (1994) and Ong (1977a, 2004, 2012), have speculatedabout the epistemological changes that the digitised knowledge environment would bring, butthey tended to take a hypothetical approach to considering these changes. This research seeksto bring a more fine-grained methodological approach to these speculations by developing amedia-based methodology (or lens) that shows how knowledge seekers' incremental sensoryinteractions with the modal composition of knowledge media are mediating changes to beliefsabout knowledge.This research compares three specific examples of knowledge media diachronically along thematerial axes of time, space and the extent to which the authentic voice of the 'others' who aremutually engaged in the knowledge transaction can be heard. The three media are: a 1960sclassroom textbook--Vernon, A. (1965). Human interaction: An introduction to sociology.New York, NY: The Ronald Press Company; a classroom textbook from 2010--Carl, J.(2010). Think sociology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall; and the Wikibook--Introduction to Sociology (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Sociology).The research finds that, as knowledge media are becoming increasingly digitised, a number ofsubtle epistemological changes are emerging: knowing is increasingly becoming a process ofemotional connection with others rather than intellectual engagement with complex analyticcategories; personal stories are becoming valued as a way of coming to know; andinterpersonal connectedness and trust are increasingly perceived as valued sources of authority.In other words, the digitised knowledge environment is, rather serendipitously, increasinglyfacilitating more constructivist beliefs about knowledge.Despite this increased capacity for digitised knowledge media to mediate more constructivistpersonal epistemological beliefs, this research finds, rather alarmingly, that there are parallelsbetween Ong's (2004) findings and the current epistemological period: new knowledge mediaare being incorporated into classroom practice with limited attention to the influence that theirmodal composition is having on beliefs about knowledge and knowing. This inattention hassignificant implications for learning and teaching at this time of large-scale investment in newknowledge media. The research provides insight into how the characteristics of the 'packaging'of knowledge shapes perceptions of it. It provides a lens to help teachers, educational policymakers and planners avoid sleepwalking into the 21st century with 19th century perceptions(McLuhan, Fiore & Agel, 1967), and to advance academic consideration of these matters. Read less
Subjects: Theory of Knowledge, Media ecology, Materiality