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Academic Article Analysis

Page history last edited by Meghan Hart 14 years, 4 months ago

     Dennis Baron's article, From Pencils to Pixels, focuses on mainly the impact of emerging technology and the changes that that has on the actual writing that we do and use today. The pencil, which was ordinarily created to mark lines measurements eventually evolved into the most popular form of writing for centuries. As Baron argues, the computer is going to do the same thing; emerge as our most popular form of writing.

 

     Baron's use of "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change," written by Elizabeth Eisenstein was used in order to show how revolutionary changes in technology have altered the forms of learning and education. This source is narrowed down to one particular topic about how the newest forms of technology have such a significant change on education as a whole and by using such a specific source, this enabled Baron to concentrate on one particular and specific topic. With the use of such a specific source, this implies how important Baron believes that the recent and continuous changes in technology have on education as a learning process because there now seems to be a dependence on technology with education.

 

     The author's main focus throughout "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change" was mainly towards a revolutionary shift in technology that later had a significant change to education. The author admits that there is "a revolutionary shift from the reproductions of written materials to the copyist desk to the printer's workshop." This here is significant because as shown throughout his article, Baron put much emphasis on the technology and simple changes of educational materials such as the pencil throughout history. Baron spoke about Thoreau's time spent on the improvement of the pencial from lead to graphite, "Dispite this silence,Thoreau devoted ten years of his life to improving pencil technology at his family's pencil factory. It was this pencil technology, not inherited wealth or publication royalties, that provided the income for one of the greatest writers of the American renaissance." Evidently, the smallest technological improvements or advancements can positively change the successes of our education.  Furthermore, the author of this source claims, "this revolutionized all forms of learning which was particularly important for historical scholarship." He believes that the advance in technology had a cataclysmic effect on society. According to Steinberg, "the history of printing is an integral part of the general history of civilization." This is true because of the originality that each piece of technology adds to each generation. Each new piece of technology becomes more advanced and improves educational strategies because as newer and more complex pieces of equipment come out, we tend to rely on this and children now, are not learning the same way as children ten, or twenty years ago were learning and this means that every decade or less, our education as a whole needs to rely on and catch up with all of these new ideas. Baron included  this source throughout his academic article because it relates to his views in that he they also believe that the more advanced and sophisticated technology becomes, the more the younger generation will bypass the basics of education. This connects to Baron's section about Humanists and technology where he focuses on society's growing independence on communication technology because the more advanced we become, the more we rely on the new advances rather than previous knowledge.

 

   One of the sources used in the article "The Printing Press," spoke about the same general issues, "Neither political, constitutional, ecclesiastical, and economic events, nor sociological, philosophical, and literacy movements can be fully understood without taking into account the influence the printing press has exerted upon them."  The author's focus here is trying to show how technologies such as the printing press have changed the once simple views of everyday aspects of life that seem to be overlooked like economical events or sociological, philosophical and literacy movements. All three of these texts all relate to one another as they all have the same focus with the overall view that technology changed, is changing, and will continue to change our lives everyday.

 

 Neither of these sources complicated Baron's claims. Baron argues about the changes in technology throughout the years and that this influences culture and society as a whole. The changes in technology change the view of our society and influences forms of  communication and education. Just as the pencil became a new form of writing and a strong part of communication, the newest technologies such as the computer are going to become the most successful and quickest way of communication.

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments (5)

Joe Essid said

at 8:50 pm on Oct 25, 2009

Nice start--so many classmates have NOTHING posted! Some advice to add clarity to promising spots in your project and to untangle some sentence-level concerns:

--"Baron believes that the recent and continuous changes in technology have on education as an entire process." I don't follow what you mean by "as an entire process" and could use a little more specificity here.

--"This here is significant because in relation to Baron's argument just minor changes in technology is going to affect the ideas of less complex education materials." I like this claim but I need a little more explanation. By "less complex education materials" I'm trying to understand what you mean. Do you mean that some minor change will influence textbooks? Or pencils, as in the case of the eraser. I think an actual example from Baron would help you here. Finally, note that the very should be "are" because its subject is "changes."

--I'd make "changes societies and generations" much more specific. What changes? Habits of literacy? The way we retrieve information? Something else?

--The sentence that contains that phrase packs in two major ideas. Work hard--with your Writing Consultant too--to be sure you have made this into two linked sentences governed by the claim set out as the first sentence in your paragraph.

--" A source of the source that Baron used " does not quite have the academic tone you need here. If the author is Smith, you'd want "Smith's work, cited by Steinberg, considers/explores/claims [whatever verb suits your purpose]"

--Banish the word "society" from your paper. Instead, talk about specific people or societies at some point in time.

--"Baron's section about Humanist's" Note here that you have the possessive correct for "Baron's" but the word Humanists is simply plural. Why the apostrophe?

Sarah L. said

at 3:45 pm on Oct 29, 2009

You have some great thoughts, they just need to be explained/analyzed a bit more as well as made clearer- here are some things I noticed:

- keep in mind the word count min 800 words- you currently only have 650

- possibly give some background info about Barron's article first, this could be a good intro and add to your word count

- first sentence awk - maybe remove "there have been" before revoluntionary

- not really sure what the first paragraph proves- you use "specific source" too many times

- do you really need the first paragraph? I'm not sure what it proves or if it adds anything to your paper

- baron put should maybe be "puts" although I am unsure what tense you want your paper in- past/present? just make sure it agrees throughout the paper

- misspelling of "pencil"

- awk word choice of "successes"

- period after "this" and start again with "Children now..." this was a run on sentence

- instead of a source of the source try just saying "one of the sources used in the article "The Printing Press.."

- 2nd sentence third paragraph is a run on

chelsea said

at 3:48 pm on Oct 29, 2009

-Your introduction does a good job explaining why he uses "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change" . It shows the importance of why he uses this source in his article.
I would try and break the sentence "Each new piece of technology becomes more advanced and improves.." up. The sentence seems way to long with too many commas.
I like how you show how all the texts relate to each other.

- 2nd paragraph, 6th line "greatese" --> greatest

- Nice job "cutting the fat". Your wiki is looking good you don't have any weird breaks or anything.

Sarah L. said

at 5:09 pm on Nov 5, 2009

"This is true because of the originality that each piece of technology adds to each generation."

- Define originality- is it really original? isn't is just new additions to old technology?

- Define technology- do you mean the parts that go into a larger component (i.e. ram) or a device (ipod)

- Generation? Define this further.

chelsea said

at 3:51 am on Nov 20, 2009

Hey!
looking good. I like how you chose a source that focused on the educational aspect of his article. Most people in class chose a different one, so this was really interesting.

One thing- I'm not sure if you need the first two commas in your intro. It seems like to many breaks.

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