From Now On The Educational Technology Journal

Vol 9|No 2|October|1999

The Minuteman Respecting Heritage and the Classics while Mining the Millennium       Captain Cook   Joan of Arc by Jamie McKenzie (About the Author) A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. Italo Calvino (1923-85) Brakes are a critically important form of technology when bandwagons come to town. Without them, we can suddenly find ourselves rushing along a track with cinders and smoke streaming past as we plummet downhill with the abandon of a Coney Island roller coaster. We can wake up the next morning with serious regrets and disappointments.   The Internet has been grossly oversold by technologists and hardware companies eager to cash in on the school networking bonanza. The Net has been variously represented as everything from the Grail to a miracle cure for all that ails us. In some places it has even been sold as a shining new replacement for books, librarians and libraries.   The Issue of Noise Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot full of sound and fury Signifying nothing   Macbeth by William Shakespeare   In its early forms, the Internet has proven an often grotesque parody of a good library. In rare cases it serves a broadening and enriching function. In all too many cases, it drowns the researcher in information that is both questionable and irrelevant. It has too high a "noise to signal ratio." Sometimes it is "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."   Noise1 is information that is irrelevant, distracting, unreliable and likely to confuse or obscure meaning rather than illuminate. Signal2 is the main message we seek - insight rich, pertinent information that helps us to understand.   Wise teachers, regardless of the Internet connection available, will mind their Ps and Qs, set high standards for information quality and refuse to be dragged along with the bandwagon until the glitzy, the glib and the entertainment saturated offerings of the Net are replaced with something more reliable, better organized and more helpful - until they see far more along the lines of the high quality information provided at leading sites such as the Library of Congress, Stats Canada, NASA and the Math Forum.   In many respects, we have been given only half of a product. The wires, the cables, the computers and the browsers are nothing much more than delivery systems. Not unlike plumbing. We have flow through pipes.   Educators are accustomed to quality products designed by publishers to function well with students in school. In the case of the Internet, there has been little production by publishers and a preoccupation with disneyfied3 and entertainerized4 information.   The same values that have shifted network news toward tabloid topics all too often shape the kinds of information now flowing into schools thanks to the Internet. We must maintain a commitment to heritage5 and the classics6 even as we carefully mine the digital resources of the new millennium. The Role of the Heritage and the Classics For hundreds of years we have been asking young people to read the classics. There are certain writers and thinkers like Shakespeare, Aristotle and Bronte whose words and ideas have "stood the test of time." For an example of an Internet site devoted to the classics, check out The ERIS Project at gopher://gopher.vt.edu:10010/10/33 Another example is Scholastic Magazine's list of 50 books every child in Grades 4-8 should read. http://www.scholastic.com/bestbooks/48.htm Some examples . . . The Borrowers The Grapes of Wrath The Cricket in Times Square Harriet the Spy James and the Giant Peach The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Sounder This core belief of education - the value of classics - has been challenged within recent years because the list of "classics" was often dominated by European white males. Lists are now brought forward more often with better representation of all good thinkers and artists from all cultures and genders. But regardless of which list you feel does the best job of identifying great thinkers and thinking, great writing and writers, the role of heritage and the classics is to cut through the noise, the nonsense and the blather of modern life with some of the essential ideas and values that humans have found illuminating and full of insight for a long time. We hope to spend time with the best of human production. We expect to avoid Eliot's Waste Land. The classics offer us sagacity7 ---- wisdom and thought free of trendy, fashionable, glitzy new theories and predictions. They also offer us focus and selectivity. In all too many cases, this old "test of time" has been replaced with a new "test of time" --- with a focus upon fashion . . . "Is it hip? groovy? trendy? with it?" The down side of the classics was their ability to blind us to new possibilities, to narrow our thinking and our understanding. If we read only the classics, we could become prisoners of old fashioned thinking. But those who would raise a generation of children with nothing more than electronic sources threaten then with the inverse of the same time warp. If we rely only upon the Internet, we could become prisoners of trendy and fashionable thinking. We could be blinded to the wisdom of the ages. The Need for Information Mediation For a long time we relied upon librarians, teachers and sages to point us to the best information --- to the collected wisdom and best thinking civilization had generated. We thought of libraries as focused assemblages of the best scholarship, best thinking and best commentary created over time. We expected librarians to apply high standards when selecting materials for a comprehensive and deep collection. We also expected to pay a substantial price for this expertise. Then, along came the Internet with a new approach to collection development. We found fashion and popularity driving decisions rather than worth and scholarship. After a few years of experimenting with this highly disorganized information landscape, we are beginning to see signs of regret and disillusionment, but slowly. We note a return to the strategy of asking for help - seeking advice and guidance from those who know where the best information lies. We are seeing the consequences of allowing pop culture and ratings to dictate the shape of information resources. Most people have too little time. Teachers suffer from what Michael Fullan calls "the daily press." Even students have their own version of this affliction. Efficiency and reliability will soon come back into vogue. They will once more be fashionable. Surfing is out. Finding pertinent information is in. Inside trading will be au courrant! We turn to trusted advisors for the best information on a topic . . . Best educational sites on the Internet? Check out Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators. http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/ Best reviews of search engines? Check out Search Engine Watch at http://www.searchenginewatch.com/ Best sites for young learners? Check out KidsClick - a listing created by school media specialists in New York. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/ Information mediators help us to find the best information relevant to our questions with the least amount of wasted time. One little mentioned consequence of money being diverted to the networking of schools and classrooms is the laying off of these guides in hundreds and thousands of schools across North America to make way for the "BRAVE NEW WORLD OF THE INTERNET." Full time, certified and professional library media specialists are an endangered species in all too many schools. (see "A Brave New World of Padlocked Libraries and Unstaffed Schools." February, 1999, FNO) At the same time we have dismantled much of the information mediation work force, the information industry is beginning to see the light. Netscape recently introduced a new version of searching that provides "reviewed sites" in the top ten hits for basic searches. http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/about.html?cp=srchsampl Looking for United Airlines? Netscape Search promises to make it Hit One. Instead of drowning in irrelevancy, you find quality in the top ten. Problem? Netscape is asking for "volunteers" to help with the reviewing of sites. There are reasons for standards, for training and for professionalism. The amateurism of the Web is appealing until you find that someone without a college education or any training in information science is advising you on the best sites to learn about rocket science. The HotBot Top 40 Revisited   Three years ago I was shocked by the emphasis placed on celebrities by the Internet. I wrote an article at that time warning about quality issues . . . "The Disneyfication of History and Why We Still Need Libraries, Librarians and Books," When I studied the attention devoted to various important human figures, I found that the number of "hits" and Web pages devoted to an individual was more a function of popularity, sex appeal and celebrity status than her or his contribution to society. I began with a group that mixed celebrities with serious thinkers. Wanting to balance gender, I borrowed heavily from a book published in 1985, Notebooks of the Mind, by Vera John-Steiner (University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 0-8263-0828-7) that considered the lives of 100 important thinkers - a list that was half male and half female. I was curious to see whether these important (but low profile) thinkers of the 1980s would find their way onto the Web. Few had a Web presence at all. Few hits. Little content. When I repeated the study this month, I found that little had changed.   Click here to view the new list.   I added more Canadians to the list as well as some newcomers such as Monica Lewinsky. I found that one's ranking could change dramatically in a three year period if 1) one died (Frank Sinatra and Princess Diana) or 2) was caught up in a scandal (Hillary Clinton) or 3) had an unusual spelling to the name (Hillary Clinton and Neville Chamberlain).   I marked all entertainers with blue. I added © after the names of known Canadians. I searched on the advanced version of Altavista, putting quotation marks around the names to find them as a phrase.   I tried to categorize each figure by their main identity, but in some cases (Bill Bradley) it is obvious that more than one category may apply. Monica Lewinsky and OJ Simpson were both hard to categorize.   Twenty five per cent of the top 40 figures come from the entertainment world.   As was true in 1996, serious thinkers from the 1980s are pretty much ignored by the Internet in 1999 unless they were celebrities of one kind of another. Celebrity value remains a primary factor in determining the amount of attention devoted to a figure. This phenomenon resonates with Neal Gabler's book, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality. Gabler explains in some detail how sensation and entertainment have become the driving forces behind television news, as "news magazines" have grown in popularity and share of programming time . . .   In the case of Canadians, I found that very few of Maclean's Top Ten Canadians gained as much attention as Canadian entertainers. Maclean's TOP TEN  1  Gen. Georges Philias Vanier  2  Northrop Frye  3  William Lyon MacKenzie King  4  Samuel de Champlain  5  Glenn Gould  6  Sir William Logan  7  Nellie McClung  8  Joey Smallwood  9  Tom Longboat  10  K. C. Irving Source: MACLEAN'S / JULY 1, 1998   What we are seeing is the entertainerizing4 of information, with serious thinkers, contributors and leaders falling into the background as entertainers gain the NetLight. Unlike a good library, attention on the Internet is a function of popularity and celebrity status rather than contribution to the society.   To make matters worse, the existence of "hits" is no guarantee of quality. Nor is the number of hits indicative of quality. Many of the "hits" for historical figures are actually for motel, hotel and restaurant Web sites named after that figure.   Take a look at the list below and judge for yourself. Do your own searches for these figures and assess the quality that emerges.     The 1999 Altavista Rankings Figure Category Rank '99 Altavista '99 Rank '96 Rank Change Hotbot '96 God Relig 1 6,393,032 1 0 780,052 Jesus Christ Relig 2 300,455 2 0 102,304 George Washington Political 3 132,739 5 2 72,755 Martin Luther King Relig 4 92,249 9 5 37,261 Bill Clinton Political 5 70,897 4 -1 76,137 Buddha Relig 6 69,704 10 4 34,998 Madonna Singer 7 67,725 6 -1 65,088 Thomas Jefferson Political 8 66,230 8 0 45,239 Bill Gates Business 9 61,086 7 -2 54,832 Mohammed Relig 10 45,757 13 3 27,547 John F. Kennedy Political 11 45,757 12 1 28,551 Abraham Lincoln Political 12 39,833 18 6 20,845 Albert Einstein Thinker 13 38,970 15 2 25,665 Elvis Presley Singer 14 32,180 20 6 16,267 Al Gore Political 15 30,488 16 1 25,296 Michael Jordan Athlete 16 29,835 17 1 22,039 Ronald Reagan Political 17 29,367 14 -3 26,088 Frank Sinatra Singer 18 26,399 28 10 10,820 Socrates Thinker 19 25,343 11 -8 31,267 Woodrow Wilson Political 20 24,796 21 1 14,272 Queen Victoria Political 21 21,768 33 12 9,765 Winston Churchill Political 22 21,754 25 3 12,444 Princess Diana Celeb 23 20,370 74 51 2,435 Jimmy Carter Political 24 19,484 24 0 13,898 Theodore Roosevelt Political 25 19,097 36 11 8,853 Saddam Hussein Political 26 18,225 29 3 10,678 Celine Dion © Singer 27 16,919       Nelson Mandela Political 28 15,118 31 3 10,509 Richard Nixon Political 29 14,306 23 -6 14,134 Marilyn Monroe Actor 30 12,679 27 -3 11,578 Wayne Gretzky © Athlete 31 12,369       Ross Perot Political 32 11,895 19 -13 17,174 OJ Simpson Athlete 33 11,550 54 21 6,054 Confucius Relig 34 11,471 38 4 8,229 Robert Frost Writer 35 11,344 49 14 6,548 Oprah Winfrey Celeb 36 11,244 53 17 6,056 Shania Twain © Celeb 37 11,234       Hillary Clinton Political 38 10,984 106 68 555 Bruce Willis Actor 39 10,895 41 2 7,716 Harry S. Truman Political 40 10,834 58 18 5,464 Marie Curie Thinker 41 10,557 40 -1 7,736 Emily Dickinson Writer 42 10,525 43 1 7,602 Malcolm X Political 43 10,524 3 -40 81,348 Monica Lewinsky Celeb 44 10,290       Sarah McLachlan © Singer 45 10,085       Eleanor Roosevelt Political 46 10,005 61 15 4,695 Adolf Hitler Political 47 9,939 35 -12 9,013 Arnold Schwarzenegger Actor 48 9,864 37 -11 8,328 James Dean Actor 49 9,600 42 -7 7,663 Dwight D. Eisenhower Political 50 9,524 59 9 5,302 Ernest Hemingway Writer 51 9,458 47 -4 6,631 Noam Chomsky Writer 52 9,064 30 -22 10,531 William Gibson © Writer 53 8,672 22 -31 14,214 Lyndon B. Johnson Political 54 8,249 55 1 6,036 Margaret Thatcher Political 55 7,985 48 -7 6,589 Jim Carrey © Celeb 56 7,791       George Orwell Writer 57 7,652 44 -13 7,086 Mike Tyson Athlete 58 7,605 51 -7 6,315 Franklin Roosevelt Political 59 7,386 52 -7 6,114 Jean Chrétien © Political 60 7,268       Sandra Bullock Actor 61 7,198 26 -34 12,242 George W. Bush Political 62 7,041       Ray Bradbury Writer 63 6,899 62 0 4,658 Sigmund Freud Thinker 64 6,847 45 -18 7,069 Herbert Hoover Political 65 6,742 68 4 3,684 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Artist 66 6,670 65 0 4,115 Bertrand Russell Thinker 67 6,619 56 -10 5,964 Jerry Springer Celeb 68 6,306       Langston Hughes Writer 69 5,916       Gerald Ford Political 70 5,874 63 -6 4,546 Kurt Cobain Singer 71 5,409 34 -36 9,662 Demi Moore Actor 72 5,076 96 25 1,061 Bill Bradley Political 73 5,013       Jack Kemp Political 74 4,628 60 -13 4,729 James Baldwin Writer 75 4,314 71 -4 3,352 Pamela Anderson © Actor 76 4,301 32 -44 9,890 Thomas Mann Thinker 77 4,211 64 -13 4,280 Aaron Copland Artist 78 4,116 73 -5 2,566 Glenn Gould © Artist 79 3798       Elizabeth Dole Political 80 3,671 92 12 1,318 Georgia O'Keeffe Artist 81 3,658 98 17 928 Michael J. Fox © Actor 82 3,635       Ted Kennedy Political 83 3,357 66 -17 3,907 Robert Heinlein Writer 84 3,340 70 -14 3,370 Gwyneth Paltrow Actor 85 3,283 138 53 43 Jean Paul Sartre Writer 86 3,094 67 -19 3,700 Judy Blume Writer 87 3,079 99 12 917 Emily Carr © Artist 88 2,605       Cowboy Junkies © Singer 89 2,500       King Henry VIII Political 90 2,495 39 -51 7,843 William Burroughs Writer 91 2,490 69 -22 3,553 Martha Graham Artist 92 2,480 86 -6 1,492 Paul Gauguin Artist 93 2,321 79 -14 1,803 John Holt Thinker 94 2,257 87 -7 1,460 Jean Piaget Thinker 95 2,206 77 -18 2,033 Alanis Morrisette © Singer 96 2,200       Grace Kelly Actor 97 2,180 83 -14 1,576 Winslow Homer Artist 98 2,179 88 -10 1,415 Ingmar Bergman Actor 99 2,137 72 -27 2,571 Robert Dole Political 100 2,091 46 -54 7,048 Saul Bellow Writer 101 2,087 89 -12 1,343 Hannah Arendt Thinker 102 1,962 81 -21 1,752 Benjamin Disraeli Political 103 1,936 85 -18 1,503 Mary Cassatt Artist 104 1,905 90 -14 1,329 Merce Cunningham Artist 105 1,815 94 -11 1,213 Lucy Maud Montgomery © Artist 106 1,775       Hermann Hesse Artist 107 1,766 78 -29 1,826 Gloria Steinem Writer 108 1,634 76 -32 2,201 Anais Nin Artist 109 1,558 93 -16 1,267 Ulysses Grant Political 110 1,522 101 -9 676 Geraldo Rivera Celeb 111 1,345 84 -27 1,506 Simone de Beauvoir Artist 112 1,217 80 -32 1,772 Queen Isabella Political 113 1,213 100 -13 683 Herbert Simon Thinker 114 1,171 91 -23 1,328 Henri Cartier-Bresson Artist 115 1,121 109 -6 467 Alice Munro © Writer 116 1,095       Samuel de Champlain © Political 117 1086       Arthur Koestler Thinker 118 1,068 97 -21 1,058 Neville Chamberlain Political 119 1,058 152 33 10 Katherine Anne Porter Writer 120 948 107 -13 530 Katherine Mansfield Artist 121 929 103 -18 641 Mahatma Ghandi Political 122 884 102 -20 660 Northrop Frye © Thinker 123 884       Farley Mowat © Writer 124 881       William Lyon Mackenzie King © Political 125 767       May Sarton Artist 126 744 95 -31 1,141 John McCrae © Writer 127 742       Pat Schroeder Political 128 741 82 -46 1,698 Jerome Bruner Thinker 129 697 105 -24 563 Richard Gregory Thinker 130 662 108 -22 516 Kathe Kollwitz Artist 131 614 111 -20 391 Margaret Drabble Artist 132 584 112 -20 384 Rollo May Thinker 133 553 50 -83 6,341 Julian Huxley Thinker 134 552 110 -24 436 Andrew Ferguson Artist 135 445 116 -19 289 Alfred Eisenstaedt Artist 136 442 120 -16 235 Evita Peron Political 137 336 119 -18 237 Berthe Morisot Artist 138 320 104 -34 638 Indira Ghandi Political 139 307 118 -21 246 Jessica Mitford Artist 140 306 115 -25 295 Harold Clurman Artist 141 294 123 -18 142 Gerald Vizenor Artist 142 294 117 -25 274 L. S. Vygotsky Thinker 143 276 75 -68 2,388 Nellie McClung © Political 144 238       Queen Cleopatra Political 145 237 114 -31 319 Henry Jaglom Artist 146 226 113 -33 347 Fritz Scholder Artist 147 205 124 -23 129 Joey Smallwood © Political 148 173       Eliot Feld Artist 149 167 130 -19 76 Reuben Hersh Thinker 150 164 128 -22 85 George Stoney Artist 151 138 122 -29 148 John Howarth Thinker 152 135 126 -26 107 Peter Lax Thinker 153 134 121 -32 228 Eric Hawkins Artist 154 132 129 -25 78 K. C. Irving © Business 155 116       Tom Longboat © Athlete 156 91       Diamond Jenness © Thinker 157 85       Basil Bernstein Thinker 158 69 127 -31 98 Jeanne Bamberger Thinker 159 67 132 -27 70 Nina Byers Thinker 160 64 133 -27 69 Sir William Logan © Thinker 161 62       James Aronson Thinker 162 61 134 -28 58 Lee Connor Artist 163 57 142 -21 24 Douglas Turner Ward Artist 164 57 136 -28 49 Sheila Nevins Artist 165 52 144 -21 21 Stan Ulam Thinker 166 46 135 -31 56 F. W. deKlerk Political 167 42 146 -21 17 t Ginrich Political 168 39 125 -43 123 Sir Francis Crick Thinker 169 37 140 -29 31 Vivian Horner Thinker 170 35 139 -31 42 Barry Brukoff Artist 171 35 156 -15 8 Beatrice Harris Thinker 172 33 151 -21 11 Shari Steiner Artist 173 30 157 -16 7 Martine Franck Artist 174 24 150 -24 12 Jenny Vincent Artist 175 24 143 -32 22 Byron Goldstein Artist 176 21 145 -31 20 Shelley Grossman Artist 177 18 155 -22 8 Karen McKinnon Artist 178 17 162 -16 3 Eli Levin Artist 179 15 137 -42 46 Pablo Piccaso Artist 180 14 57 -123 5,668 Linda Tarnay Artist 181 13 147 -34 13 Miguel Godreau Artist 182 10 165 -17 1 Michele Zackheim Artist 183 10 148 -35 12 Enid Howarth Thinker 184 10 160 -24 5 Rosemary Sisson Artist 185 9 153 -32 10 Sandra Edelman Artist 186 8 163 -23 2 William Rohwer Thinker 187 7 158 -29 7 Constance Sutton Thinker 188 7 159 -29 7 Gen. Georges Philias Vanier* Political 189 6       Dorothy Dinnerstein Thinker 190 5 131 -59 74 James D. Finley, III Thinker 191 4 167 -24 0 Gilbert Voyat Thinker 192 4 149 -43 12 Sir John Dawson © Thinker 193 4       Hedda Bolgar Thinker 194 3 171 -23 0 Elissa Melamed Artist 195 3 161 -34 5 Susanna Egri Artist 196 2 141 -55 26 Joseph Concha Artist 197 2 164 -33 2 Eugene mann Artist 198 1 154 -44 9 Ann Moul Artist 199 1 170 -29 0 Albert Bharucha-Reid Thinker 200 1 166 -34 0 Sara Sugahara Artist 201 0 168 -33 0 Ry Okomoto Artist 202 0 169 -33 0 Malka Wexler Thinker 203 0 173 -30 0 Irwin Maltzman Thinker 204 0 174 -30 0 Hugh Delacey Thinker 205 0 172 -33 0 .   Glossary noise                           In communications, noise consists of unwanted electrical signals, produced either naturally or by the circuitry, that degrade the quality or performance of a communications channel. Microsoft® Bookshelf® Computer and Internet Dictionary© Information that is irrelevant, distracting, unreliable and likely to confuse or obscure meaning rather than illuminate. FNO Press® Dictionary of Trendy Terms© Back to top signal             The main message - insight rich, pertinent information that helps us to understand. "The right stuff." FNO Press® Dictionary of Trendy Terms© Back to top disneyfied                             Prettified and made more fun, more entertaining and easier to digest than the real version. Glamorzied and beautified to make information, history, literature or reality easier to swallow, read or watch. The Hunback of Notre Dame becomes a lovable character. The pirates stop acting in sexist ways. Times Square becomes a haven for family entertainment. Battlefields become great spots for a picnic (theme park). FNO Press® Dictionary of Trendy Terms© Back to top entertainerize                             1. To package truth and experience in amusing, diverting, pleasing ways. 2. To change an industry or institution so that entertainment becomes the prime goal and purpose. When the coverage of network news is driven by ratings rather than traditional news ethics, we say that it has been entertainerized. Prime time straight news is displaced by tabloid values and so-called "news magaizines." FNO Press® Dictionary of Trendy Terms© Back to top heritage             Synonyms: heritage, inheritance, legacy, tradition. The central meaning shared by these nouns is "something immaterial, such as a custom, that is passed from one generation to another": a heritage of moral uprightness; an inheritance of knowledge from the past; a legacy of philosophical thought; the tradition of noblesse oblige. The American Heritage® Dictionary Back to top classics             noun 1. An artist, author, or work generally considered to be of the highest rank or excellence, especially one of enduring significance. 2. A work recognized as definitive in its field. 3. a. A literary work of ancient Greece or Rome. b. classics. The languages and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Used with the. c. One that is of the highest rank or class: The car was a classic of automotive design. 4. A typical or traditional example. 5. Informal. A superior or unusual example of its kind: The reason he gave for being late was a classic. The American Heritage® Dictionary Back to top sagacity     The quality of being discerning, sound in judgment, and farsighted; wisdom. The American Heritage®     Back to October Contents Credits: The photographs were shot by Jamie McKenzie. Icons from Jay Boersma. Copyright Policy: Materials published in From Now On may be duplicated in hard copy format if unchanged in format and content for educational, nonprofit school district and university use only and may also be sent from person to person by e-mail. This copyright statement must be included. All other uses, transmissions and duplications are prohibited unless permission is granted expressly. Showing these pages remotely through frames is not permitted. 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