Electracy
Encyclopedia
Electracy describes the kind of “literacy” or skill and facility necessary to exploit the full communicative potential of new electronic media such as multimedia
, hypermedia
, social software
, and virtual world
s. According to theorist Gregory Ulmer
, electracy “is to digital media what literacy is to print.” It encompasses the broader cultural, institutional, pedagogical, and ideological implications inherent in the transition from a culture of print literacy to a culture saturated with electronic media
. “Electracy” is the term he gives to what is resulting from this major transition that our society is undergoing. The term is a portmanteau word, combining "electrical" with "literacy," to allude to one of the fundamental terms used by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida
to name the relational spacing that enables and delimits any signification in any medium (which is to say that it operates in orality and literacy as much as in electracy). Usage parallels "literacy": a person may be literate or illiterate, electrate or anelectrate.
Electracy denotes a broad spectrum of research possibilities including the history and invention of writing and mnemonic practices, the epistemological and ontological
changes resulting from such practices, the sociological and psychological implications of a networked culture, and the pedagogical implementation of practices derived from such explorations.
Ulmer writes of electracy:
Ulmer’s work benefits from considering other historical moments of radical technological change (such as the profound changes resulting from the inventions of the alphabet, writing, and the printing press), and thus his work is grammatological
insofar as it derives and extrapolates a methodology from the history of writing and mnemonic practices. His career can be encapsulated as an attempt to invent a rhetoric for electronic media.
Ulmer introduced electracy in Teletheory (1989), and it began to be noted in the scholarship as early as 1997. It has been regarded as among the "most prominent" contemporary designations for what Walter J. Ong once described as a "secondary orality" that will eventually supplant print literacy As James Inman writes, "It is important to distinguish electracy from other terms, such as computer-based literacy, Internet literacy, digital literacy, electronic literacies, metamedia
literacy, and even cyber-punk literacy. None of these other terms have the breadth electracy does as a concept, and none of them draw their ontology from electronic media exclusively". Some scholars have viewed the electracy paradigm, along with other "apparatus theories" such as Ong's, with skepticism, arguing that they are "essentialist" or "determinist."
Alan Clinton, in a review of Internet Invention, writes that “Ulmer’s pedagogy ultimately levels the playing field between student and teacher” Academic Lisa Gye also recognizes the pedagogical implications of Ulmer’s work:
Electracy as an educational aim has been recognized by scholars in several fields, including English composition and rhetoric, literary and media criticism, digital media and art, and architecture Mikesch Muecke explains that "Gregory Ulmer's ideas on electracy provide … a model for a new pedagogy where learning is closer to invention than verification"
Ulmer himself writes:
Ulmer's educational methods fit into a broader paradigm shift in pedagogical theory and practice known as constructivism
. He discusses the relationship between pedagogy and electracy at length in an interview with Sung-Do Kim published in 2005.
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
, hypermedia
Hypermedia
Hypermedia is a computer-based information retrieval system that enables a user to gain or provide access to texts, audio and video recordings, photographs and computer graphics related to a particular subject.Hypermedia is a term created by Ted Nelson....
, social software
Social software
Social software applications include communication tools and interactive tools. Communication tools typically handle the capturing, storing and presentation of communication, usually written but increasingly including audio and video as well. Interactive tools handle mediated interactions between a...
, and virtual world
Virtual world
A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...
s. According to theorist Gregory Ulmer
Gregory Ulmer
Gregory Leland Ulmer is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Florida and a professor of Electronic Languages and Cybermedia at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.- Career :...
, electracy “is to digital media what literacy is to print.” It encompasses the broader cultural, institutional, pedagogical, and ideological implications inherent in the transition from a culture of print literacy to a culture saturated with electronic media
Electronic media
Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user to access the content. This is in contrast to static media , which today are most often created electronically, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end-user in the printed form...
. “Electracy” is the term he gives to what is resulting from this major transition that our society is undergoing. The term is a portmanteau word, combining "electrical" with "literacy," to allude to one of the fundamental terms used by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
to name the relational spacing that enables and delimits any signification in any medium (which is to say that it operates in orality and literacy as much as in electracy). Usage parallels "literacy": a person may be literate or illiterate, electrate or anelectrate.
Electracy denotes a broad spectrum of research possibilities including the history and invention of writing and mnemonic practices, the epistemological and ontological
Ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
changes resulting from such practices, the sociological and psychological implications of a networked culture, and the pedagogical implementation of practices derived from such explorations.
Ulmer writes of electracy:
What literacy is to the analytical mind, electracy is to the affective body: a prosthesis that enhances and augments a natural or organic human potential. Alphabetic writing is an artificial memory that supports long complex chains of reasoning impossible to sustain within the organic mind. Digital imaging similarly supports extensive complexes of mood atmospheres beyond organic capacity. Electrate logic proposes to design these atmospheres into affective group intelligence. Literacy and electracy in collaboration produce a civilizational left-brain right-brain integration. If literacy focused on universally valid methodologies of knowledge (sciences), electracy focuses on the individual state of mind within which knowing takes place (arts).
Ulmer’s work benefits from considering other historical moments of radical technological change (such as the profound changes resulting from the inventions of the alphabet, writing, and the printing press), and thus his work is grammatological
Grammatology
Grammatology is a term coined by the linguist Ignace Gelb in 1952 to refer to the scientific study of writing systems or scripts. It includes the typology of scripts, the analysis of the structural properties of scripts, and the relationship between written and spoken language...
insofar as it derives and extrapolates a methodology from the history of writing and mnemonic practices. His career can be encapsulated as an attempt to invent a rhetoric for electronic media.
Ulmer introduced electracy in Teletheory (1989), and it began to be noted in the scholarship as early as 1997. It has been regarded as among the "most prominent" contemporary designations for what Walter J. Ong once described as a "secondary orality" that will eventually supplant print literacy As James Inman writes, "It is important to distinguish electracy from other terms, such as computer-based literacy, Internet literacy, digital literacy, electronic literacies, metamedia
Metamedia
As coined in the writings of Marshall McLuhan, metamedia referred to new relationships between form and content in the development of new technologies and new media. McLuhan's concept described the totalizing effect of media....
literacy, and even cyber-punk literacy. None of these other terms have the breadth electracy does as a concept, and none of them draw their ontology from electronic media exclusively". Some scholars have viewed the electracy paradigm, along with other "apparatus theories" such as Ong's, with skepticism, arguing that they are "essentialist" or "determinist."
Electracy and pedagogy
Ulmer’s work has implications for the practice of education as well. Co-author of a textbook for freshman English courses, Ulmer develops undergraduate and graduate level courses which incorporate his theories and invite students into the process of inventing new practices and genres.Alan Clinton, in a review of Internet Invention, writes that “Ulmer’s pedagogy ultimately levels the playing field between student and teacher” Academic Lisa Gye also recognizes the pedagogical implications of Ulmer’s work:
The transition from a predominantly literate culture to an electronic culture is already engendering changes in the ways in which we think, write and exchange ideas. Ulmer has been concerned with the kinds of changes that take place as a result of this transition and his primary concern has been a pedagogical one – that is, he is interested in how learning is transformed by the shift from the apparatus of literacy to the apparatus of what he comes to term ‘electracy’.
Electracy as an educational aim has been recognized by scholars in several fields, including English composition and rhetoric, literary and media criticism, digital media and art, and architecture Mikesch Muecke explains that "Gregory Ulmer's ideas on electracy provide … a model for a new pedagogy where learning is closer to invention than verification"
Ulmer himself writes:
Electrate pedagogy is based in art/aesthetics as relays for operating new media organized as a prosthesis for learning any subject whatsoever. The near absence of art in contemporary schools is the electrate equivalent of the near absence of science in medieval schools for literacy. The suppression of empirical inquiry by religious dogmatism during the era sometimes called the "dark ages" (reflecting the hostility of the oral apparatus to literacy), is paralleled today by the suppression of aesthetic play by empirical utilitarianism (reflecting the hostility of the literate apparatus to electracy). The ambivalent relation of the institutions of school and entertainment today echoes the ambivalence informing church-science relations throughout the era of literacy.
Ulmer's educational methods fit into a broader paradigm shift in pedagogical theory and practice known as constructivism
Constructivism (learning theory)
Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas. During infancy, it was an interaction between human experiences and their reflexes or behavior-patterns. Piaget called these systems of...
. He discusses the relationship between pedagogy and electracy at length in an interview with Sung-Do Kim published in 2005.
See also
- Multimedia literacy
- Computer literacyComputer literacyComputer literacy is defined as the knowledge and ability to use computers and related technology efficiently, with a range of skills covering levels from elementary use to programming and advanced problem solving. Computer literacy can also refer to the comfort level someone has with using...
- Information literacyInformation literacyThe National Forum on Information Literacy defines information literacy as “...the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand.” This is the most common definition; however,...
- New literaciesNew literaciesNew literacies generally refers to new forms of literacy made possible by digital technology developments, although new literacies do not necessarily have to involve use of digital technologies to be recognized as such...
- TransliteracyTransliteracyTransliteracy is The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. The modern meaning of the term combines literacy with the prefix trans-, which means "across;...
- GrammatologyGrammatologyGrammatology is a term coined by the linguist Ignace Gelb in 1952 to refer to the scientific study of writing systems or scripts. It includes the typology of scripts, the analysis of the structural properties of scripts, and the relationship between written and spoken language...
- ConstructivismConstructivism (learning theory)Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas. During infancy, it was an interaction between human experiences and their reflexes or behavior-patterns. Piaget called these systems of...
External links
- Gregory Ulmer’s homepage
- “Toward a Theory of New Literacies Emerging From the Internet and Other Information and Communication Technologies”
- Tilson, William and John Craig Freeman. "Place and the Electrate Situation". Rhizomes 13 (Fall 2006).
- Clips from video interviews with Ulmer
- Imaging EmerAgency: A Conversation with Greg Ulmer