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

[Langer, Judith A]

I always enjoy reading your work, Tom. Your range is illuminating.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 14, 2015, at 2:25 PM, "tsticht at znet.com" <tsticht at znet.com> wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 
> 
> 
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