{"id":553,"date":"2017-09-19T15:05:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T20:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/?p=553"},"modified":"2017-09-19T15:08:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T20:08:16","slug":"higher-order-consciousness-is-the-essence-of-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/higher-order-consciousness-is-the-essence-of-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher order consciousness is the essence of education"},"content":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in my explosion of thought blog post<\/a>, my immediate impression of the term \u201ceducational technology\u201d applied to the computer era, and the facilitation of learning via electronic means. That idea was a humble impression, but with thought and focus, I realize my naivet\u00e9.<\/p>\n

My deeper thinking launched from descriptions of technology in the classroom dating back centuries (Haran, 2015). One intriguing device was a hornbook, a wooden paddle with basic reading content such as the alphabet pasted on to the paddle, which was then covered with transparent layers of horn. This device, a testament to the ingenuity of man, was used before the advent of widespread book printing, and I\u2019m sure the earliest example of laminated pages.<\/p>\n

The article described another technology\u2014the use of sandboxes\u2014where students had a small sandbox on their desks in which they drew letters, a monitor checked their work, and then ironed the sand to continue on in the lesson.1<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

Hornbooks and sandboxes led me to thinking about writing on bark with ink made from crushed berries (a device I actually assembled\u2014albeit digitally\u2014in a game I played earlier today), which then led me to far older \u201ctechnologies\u201d employed before written words.<\/p>\n

\"image

Rock art, Pixabay CC0<\/p><\/div>\n

My current position is that the dawn of man\u2019s ability to communicate is the dawn of educational technology, reaching as far back as cave paintings. As Marchant (2016) stated, \u201cWhat sets us apart is our ability to think and plan for the future, and to remember and learn from the past\u2014what theorists of early human cognition call \u2018higher order consciousness.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Many cultures didn\u2019t have written language, using spoken language and epic poems taught intergenerationally to preserve their history. By my definition, those who kept the culture\u2019s history were the technological device, and the myths and poems were the knowledge disseminated.<\/p>\n

For example, \u201cKr\u00e1kum\u00e1l: The Death Song of Ragnar Lodbrok\u201d\u00a02<\/sup><\/span> is a song from c. late-1100\u2019s detailing the events leading to the death of the Scandinavian King Ragnar. The knowledge was preserved for the ages, even to this day, as it served as an educational resource in the scripting of the television series \u201cVikings.\u201d\u00a03<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

Higher order consciousness is the essence of education.<\/p>\n

Footnotes<\/h2>\n

1<\/sup> Of course, sandboxes still appear on many desks, now in the form of Zen gardens.<\/p>\n

2<\/sup> Read an English translation of the first 13 stanzas of the poem at http:\/\/www.odins-gift.com\/pclass\/ragnar.htm<\/p>\n

3<\/sup> Read about the TV program at http:\/\/www.history.ca\/vikings\/<\/p>\n

References<\/h2>\n

Haran, M. (2015, May 29). A History of Education Technology. Retrieved from: http:\/\/institute-of-progressive-education-and-learning.org\/a-history-of-education-technology\/<\/p>\n

Marchant, J. (2016, January). A Journey to the Oldest Cave Paintings in the World. Retrieved from: http:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/journey-oldest-cave-paintings-world-180957685\/#c1u9yOFvdhQsWLJZ.99<\/p>\n

Connolly, E. (2017). Rock art [Online image].\u00a0Retrieved September 19, 2017 from\u00a0https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/rock-art-bushman-africa-ancient-2755159\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in my explosion of thought blog post, my immediate impression of the term \u201ceducational technology\u201d applied to the computer era, and the facilitation of learning via electronic means. That idea was a humble impression, but with thought and focus, I realize my naivet\u00e9. My deeper thinking launched from descriptions of technology in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt523","tag-activity02","wpautop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}