Final reflection of the course

Reflection Paper

Joohee Son
MSTU4016
12/18/09

Introduction
As a person who has over 15 year working experiences and has currently come back to the school, the allegory of the cave by Plato allowed me to be encouraged of the decision to continue my studies as well as to understand the role of communication technology, which brought new world into most people in the society. I chose to pass through the way of education from my empirical teaching experiences to ideal knowledge of instructional technology for teaching career, planning to introduce the new method of learning English to the students. Especially, the study of ‘The history of communication’ course gave me insight of how the way of communication can affect on the quality of society and on the daily lives of individuals.
Through reviewing the reading materials and my blog postings of the course during whole semester, I came to realize that there are some pioneers to allow people to escape themselves from the cave, experiencing more externally and internally extended lives than before. This paper includes some historical figures that are interpreted by the author as very important to create huge impact in the history of communication, such as Plato, Gutenberg, Morse, and McLuhan. Plato and McLuhan seem to have possessed insightful thought of historical communication at the time and that’s why they brought heated argument and followers into even current period. Gutenberg and Morse also are believed to have created a new way of life into the society by their inventions of communication technology. I think the impact which printing press and telegraph caused into the history of communication seems compatible to the change which historically important leaders in the world brought into the society.
Plato
Dialectic discourse & Communication
Historically, there have been transitions of the roles of human beings when they were exposed into the communication environment. During Homer’s period (around 800 B.C.), there was no concept of ‘human soul’ and only interference of God made the thinking possible. People were passively identified into the characters of Iliad and poet’s own interpretation of the stories was very decisive to the people. The impact which the poet brought into the audience was strong enough for people to be absorbed by the content of the story, which could be very dangerous in a current point of view. In around 500 B.C., Protagoras contended that human beings already had intellectual ability, and rhetorical skills in the speech were critically important for their success. It was quite an advanced approach for human beings compared to previous communication methods, though, it was still limited communication between people with lack of insight in speaker’s internal world.
Passing around 400 years from Homer’s period, Plato (400 B.C.) introduced the dialectic communication method into the people, which requires logical reasoning dialogue method. It helped people be aware of them and start to think objectively in the communication. When we consider historical background that most people were used to passive communication each other, he is believed to suggest very constructive way to build up knowledge. If we think how many times we tell our children to explain clearly about their opinions, Plato can be considered a real forefather of education even today.
From the allegory of the cave, Plato explained that most common people who are ignorant of ideal knowledge and used to their daily lives could be changed into the people who experience ideal knowledge by way of education. It makes me even thrilled by the extent to which the theory is applicable until now. He compared the concept of empirical experience and ideal knowledge with examples of ‘cave’ and ‘sun’ from the allegory. Even though there was ways of communication by using oral method before Plato, his dialectic method of communication allowed people to move their current level of cave status onto upper knowledge level of outside the cave. As an English educator, I really respect Plato’s point of view that Education should play a key role to improve the quality of life and learners should be encouraged to build up their own knowledge by way of logical thinking and dialectic communication.

Gutenberg
Printing Press & Communication
Even before Gutenberg’s printing press, there was written form of communication, but his invention of printing press seems to have installed the ‘wheel’ into the communication. With more accessibility of the reading materials, people came to read more easily and cheaply, experiencing more individualized and extended form of lives. When people communicate each other, they could refer other reading sources conveniently, mentioning by pages or other standardized forms in the book. They could preserve the message and distribute it to many other people at the same time and even to the next generation. Especially printing allowed the young people to be educated effectively as a way of written materials, such as for Christian doctrine or morality. As a Christian, I really appreciate the bible study from Sunday school teachers, which educates my children more professionally and effectively than I teach them about how to live as a Christian.
When Victor Hugo mentioned that “The one will kill the other”, people worried that printing will destroy the power of church and architecture. Especially, by 15th century, the architecture was considered as a kind of great book, in which people used the ‘art of memory’ to associate memory image in visualized locations. People put the emotionally meaningful memory into the parts of the building, and are reminded of memory by a certain part of the building. It is such a huge paradigm shift to me by the fact that people could consider a building as a book itself, which had to be limited by time and space, though. By reading the bibles individually, they could directly communicate with God, not through the priest who could possess and read the Latin words on the bible. People must have felt more than blessed and could develop their faith toward God.
Before the printing press, most people could not possess the book individually, and only a few people who possessed books had to read loudly to transmit the content to others, which can make readers hard to internalize their own thinking. With the help of printing press, people could read the books silently by themselves, and they could communicate with their internal voices. They could reflect their own understanding and could manipulate the amount and speed of reading depending on individuals.
Especially, printing materials could be distributed to many people with the same message. They didn’t have to memorize the content to transmit them to other people and just could carry and pass the book to the person. After reading newspapers on the same day, people could communicate each other about what happened last night, which could provide people with strong sense of community they live in. If we walk by on the street on Saturday morning and happen to meet our neighbors, the topic from the current newspapers can be a wonderful source of communication and becomes a strong rope to unite us as neighbors.

Morse
Telegraph & Communication
If the printing press is the wheel of communication, the telegraph can be the ‘wing’ to make the message fly to the receiver. With the help of industrial revolution, ‘Telegraph’ separated the communication from the transportation. When we consider historical background, the invention of writing and the invention of wheel vehicles were produced almost together between 3500 B.C. and 3000 B.C. during pre-modern period and they performed great team play in society. Therefore, the separation caused by telegraph from the transportation was very meaningful in history of communication and people could receive the message even before the train reached them. Morse (1838) expected the concept of ‘global village’ by creating telegraph, which connected the people each other without being limited by time and space. If we think about how much people are thrilled at the scale and the speed which the internet bring into the current society, telegraph seem to have provided the path with the people from the cave to the sun.
The standardized language of telegraph brought the objectivity of communication to the people, which was helpful for power group to possess the consistent system for controlling many people. With more refined languages, people could filter out more emotional feeling of the message by telegraph, which is efficient to distribute the message to control the group. Especially in urgent situations, the power of telegraph would be very strong to give the message to a large number of people easily and quickly. Just a few words by telegraph could have saved a lot of people to escape from dangerous situations in the war and could have made the people go to be with their families just before their passing away.

McLuhan
Current media & Communication
McLuhan is one of the representative intellectual people who understood the social impact of media in current society, whose point of view brought a lot of argument from the people, though. He contended that media affects society not by the content but by the characteristic of medium itself, mentioning “Medium is the message”. I don’t think he totally ignores the content, but he seems to focus on the importance of the change of scale and speed of communication technology. Moving from telegraph through telephone to the internet, the content of the message has not been totally changed when compared to the speed and scale of communication technologies. Back then, we could call one of our families who lived far away and celebrated their birthday, but now we can video conferencing call to the people on their birthday and can see each other and celebrate them with a sound effect from the computer.
The benefit of online learning can allow more people from all over the world to receive the chance of being educated and continue their academic study without being bothered by their other life schedule. Many international students can take online language courses to speak with native speakers who live their own countries. For example, there are not enough qualified native English teachers to satisfy all the current needs in Korea and as one of the solutions about this situation, the online language learning currently receives a lot of attention from the government and parents in Korea. Especially, students receive more feedback from teachers and provide more responses during online speaking class. They can take an online course in their rooms at their convenient time, which is very helpful especially for Korean students who are not used to speaking in public. Definitely, we become extended physically and mentally by using the current media.

Conclusion
Passing through the course of ‘history of communication’ reminds me of the passing the route from the cave to the outside, which showed me the world of ideal knowledge about the communication and the society and gave me a confidence to continue my academic career in my life. From the impact which the pioneers in the communication created in the society, I come to be challenged by the changes which I have to introduce to my students after finishing my degree. This course gave me the insight of historic vision in the communication and education, which provided me a tool to understand the past and the present, hopefully the future.
Now, I can understand why the password of the course readings was ‘thinking’ because this course really made me think. Personally, I appreciate Dr. McClintock’s and Dr. Moretti’s insightful guidance through the course and Ruthie’s sincere support during the discussion group, all of which helped me to finish the course. Also, I really thank all of my classmates for providing their insightful opinions of weekly readings and appreciate their patience of my silly questions during the class.