[Reading-hall-of-fame] Light the Lamp of Literacy in the IYL

[tsticht at znet.com]

9/22/2015

Lighting the Lamp of Literacy in the International Year of Light

Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education

The United Nations General Assembly in its 68th session of 2013 declared
2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL
2015). The focus of IYL 2015 is on light science and its applications to
global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health.

In an early aspect of my work on adult literacy I focused on the science of
light and vision. My work began (Sticht, 1965) as I seated myself within a
small booth, painted flat black all around inside, with a black, opaque
curtain across the entrance so that the booth was entirely dark, with no
light at all inside. After sitting still for one half hour, letting my eyes
dark adapt, I leaned forward, took a big bite onto a dental plate fitted to
hold my head steady, and arranged my right eye on an ocular opening. Then I
placed my left hand on a button inside the booth and pressed it down. With
my foot, I then pressed a pedal which caused a small flash of light to
enter into my eye, striking the fovea, and when I sensed the light, I
released the button I was holding down in my left hand, and my reaction
time from the time the light flashed to when I released the button was
measured in thousandths of a second.

My reason for the reaction time study was to test the validity of a
relationship in light and vision science referred to as “Bloch’s Law”, in
which it is theorized that the visual system sums light over a certain
period of time essentially asserting that the product of the intensity and
the duration of a light produces a constant visual experience. My research
tested Bloch’s Law by showing that turning an ongoing light off for brief
periods of time and at different intensities produced similar reaction time
results as those found by turning a light on for varying periods of time.
This questioned whether summation of energy was the major factor in vision
as postulated by Bloch’s Law since removing the light energy for different
lengths of time produced the same reaction times but could not result from
summation of energy that what was not there.

However, what I found of importance to studies of literacy was that it is
extremely difficult to measure a physical material, in this case photons of
light. For this reason, I have found it disconcerting at times when major
national or international surveys set out in a rather cavalier manner to
measure adult literacy with its much greater complexity of factors than are
involved in the measurement of a flash of light. This concern has been part
of the motivation for my critiques of such adult literacy assessments
(e.g., Sticht, 2001)

My interest in visual science also lead to my concern with the role of light
in the teaching of reading with adults (Sticht, 2002). In a paper on
teaching reading with adults I discuss literacy as the mastery of graphics
technology. Topics include The Power of Permanent Thought,
Information Processing in Space, and The Guiding Light. Each topic is
developed to show how the basic elements of the graphic medium - its
relative permanence, its ability to be arrayed in space, and its use of the
properties of light - work together to permit literates to generate and
access massive collections of knowledge; to analyze and synthesize discrete
information into
coherent bodies of knowledge; and to perform complex procedures with
accuracy and efficiency.


Light is the major feature of graphics technology that is drawn on in
literacy (setting aside non-visual literacy technology as in Braille). The
marks that are made to produce such graphic symbols as written or printed
words, numbers, arrowheads in procedural flow charts, the white space of
the cells in a table (matrix) and so forth are constructed by structuring
the light that leaves the surface of the graphic medium such that the eye
can detect the structure in the display.


The properties of light that are used most in graphics technology are
brightness and color.
Brightness provides the contrast that makes writing possible. That is, the
"black" of the line of writing (or type) is in contrast to the "white"
background on a sheet of paper. Brightness provides contrast that can be
used in conjunction with permanence and spatiality to aid information
processing, such as the use of "white space" in arranging information
spatially on pages to facilitate semantic "chunking" for learning.


In addition to aiding in overcoming memory limitations and facilitating
learning through various
semantic "chunking" and organizing devices, the properties of light are
extensively used to aid
attention during information processing. Bold print may be used to call
attention to certain
information and color can guide information processing, as when a red line
is used in an electronics diagram to permit a particular circuit to be
traced in an array of circuits printed in black.


Learning strategies instruction may include pre-reading activities in which
bold faced,
italicized, or segregated (as by white space) words or phrases are first
surveyed and discussed to activate prior knowledge about what is to be read
in greater detail. This is done to increase comprehension and make learning
more effective.


Study techniques such as highlighting or underlining with colored pens use
light as a tool for focusing attention and reducing the amount of
information that must be processed in a second reading (itself a learning
strategy made possible by the permanence feature of graphics technology).


The International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL 2015)
rightfully calls attention to the many uses of various technologies, such
as wind-up batteries, low-cost generators, etc. in uplifting underdeveloped
communities. But the use of light for helping people master the technology
of literacy stands as the foundation for sustainable community development.
As with all technology, the power of light in graphics technology arises
from its use to develop tools for amplifying and extending human
capabilities. However, unlike hammers, sewing machines, automobiles, and
other technologies that extend human strength, dexterity, or locomotion
abilities, light-based, graphic technologies gain their power from their
application to the extension of human cognition and the ability to
manipulate information in symbolic form. In particular, the merging of
graphics technology with spoken language, itself a form of human technology
for communicating with symbols, produces the power behind, and the awe and
appreciation of, literacy.

In a volume from members of the Reading Hall of Fame, I draw upon the
fundamental role of light in literacy while discussing pioneers of adult
literacy education (Sticht, 2009). I refer to these pioneers as “The
Lamplighters”, and today there are hundreds of thousands of adult literacy
teachers around the world, many working as unpaid volunteers, and they have
brought hundreds of millions of adults from the non-existing, or dim light
of low literacy to a brighter light of improved literacy, increased belief
in their self-worth and a greater ability to read with their children,
thereby providing for sustainable development in the homes and communities
of the globe.





This International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL 2015) let
us not forget to thank the hundreds of thousands of Lamplighters still at
work using the technology of light in adult literacy education all around
the world. Let all nations turn on the Lamp of Literacy and flood the world
with light for all!



References



Sticht, T. (2009). The Lamplighters: Pioneers of Adult Literacy Education in
the United States. In: Y. Goodman & J. Hoffman (Eds.) Changing Literacies
for Changing Times: An Historical Perspective on the Future of Reading
Research, Public Policy, & Classroom Practices. (pp. 108-123) New York:
Routledge



Sticht, T. (2002, January). Teaching Reading With Adults. (Online at:
http://www.nald.ca/library/research/sticht/jan02/teach.pdf)



Sticht, T. (2001). The International Adult Literacy Survey: How well does it
represent the literacy abilities of adults? The Canadian Journal for the
Study of Adult Education, 15, 19-36.
http://www.nald.ca/library/research/sticht/ials/ials.pdf


Sticht, T. (1965) The Effects of Intensity and Duration on the Latency of
Foveal Response to Light and Dark Flashes. Tucson, AZ:  University of
Arizona.