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Examines four different levels of development constituting writing as a technology for thinking. Discusses evolution (what speech affords thinkers), history (how text changed the collective construction of knowledge), ontogeny (how literacy affects the development of mind), and microgenesis (how writing facilitates thinking from moment to moment). Argues electronic technology changes students' learning much less than is generally thought. (SR)

As a summary of current advances in developmental psychology, the above article makes some useful contributions. As a contribution to educational policy and practice, it is limited if not a failure for two reasons. It fails to come to grips with the real demands of living classrooms, and second, it fails to grasp the actual subjective lives of the children taught. The gap between science and practice is now as large as it was when John Dewey first called attention to "the whole child" and a pragmatic approach to knowledge and thinking.

Slavin's call for evidence-based research on the effectiveness of treatments is criticized for its unreflective concept of a "treatment." It is argued that treatments cannot be defined objectively but only relative to the beliefs, goals, and intentions of those supposedly affected by the treatments. An alternative approach to the study of schooling in terms of the entitlements and obligations of those involved at all levels of the system is suggested.

This text is the transcription of the speech given by the author as recipient of the Walter J. Ong Award for Outstanding Career Achievement in the field of Media Ecology, at the 22nd Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association. PUC-Rio, July 8-11, 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the structure of language and meaning in speaking, writing, and computing. Argues that writing and computing are biased toward a radical explicitness that eliminates the role of interpretation, the construction of a personal, subjective meaning. Discusses the cognitive implications of teaching children to cope with this explicitness. (KH)

Literacy is important not only as a means of access to new information and as an extension of memory. Rather, it is argued that writing is a means to the awareness of the implicit properties of language. This awareness is expressed through new concepts for referring to what is said, what is meant by it, what it implies, of what it is composed, and the like. Writing achieves this effect through distancing the thoughts of the writer from the fixed, objective form it takes when written down. The effect on the reader, correspondingly, is equally distanced from the writer with the result that reading is less like hearing a speaker that like over-hearing. I describe this effect by saying that writing puts language within quotation marks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses academe's cautious reception of the late Marshall McLuhan's ideas on communications because he had huge popular appeal and academics thought his presentation overly simplistic; focuses on the application of his ideas "within a systematic research tradition.

In this paper it is argued that literacy has its cognitive effects indirectly, through the conceptual distinctions and social practices that it fosters, rather than directly, through the actual activities of reading and writing. The conceptual distinction examined in particular is that between what is given, whether in texts or in nature, and what is inferred or interpreted by the reader or observer. Children's acquisition of this distinction is decisive, it is argued, to the development of a literate mode of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epidemic asthma occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the 1950s and 1960s, but its causes were never fully understood. Subsequently, similar outbreaks of epidemic asthma in Barcelona, Spain, were shown to be caused by the release of soy dust at the harbor. To investigate whether airborne soy dust may have contributed to epidemic asthma in New Orleans, the authors examined historical data on vessel cargo from the New Orleans harbor together with data on emergency department visits for asthma, for the period from 1957 through 1968. Days on which there were 64 or more visits for asthma were twice as likely to have occurred on days when a vessel carrying soy was at the harbor (odds ratio (OR) = 2.3, 95% confidence interval (CO 1.5–3.3). The association was stronger when the maximum wind speed was less than 12 miles/hour (19.3 km/hour) (OR = 4.0, 95% Cl 2.1–7.7) and strongest when wind speeds were low and the prevailing winds were from the south or southwest, the direction of two grain elevators from the hospital (OR = 6.7, 95% Cl 1.5–46.7). Various temporal and climatic factors that had been associated with the occurrence of asthma outbreaks did not appear to be important confounding factors. The association was specific to soy cargo; no association was observed between asthma-epidemic days and the presence of either wheat or corn in vessels at the harbor. The results of this analysis provide further evidence that ambient soy dust is very asthmogenic and that asthma morbidity in a community can be influenced by exposures in the ambient atmosphere. Am J Epidemiol 1997; 145: 432-8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about the international conference on Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan and the Frontiers of Communication at the University of Toronto in Ontario is presented. The event is hosted by the author and Derrick de Kerckhove of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology and Ian Parker and Roger Riendeau of the Innis Foundation. In addition, it was participated by some leading scholars including Jack Goody, Denise Schmandt-Besserat, and Brian Stock.

The pilot study discussed in this article assessed formaldehyde levels in portable classrooms (PCs) and traditional classrooms (TCs) and explored factors influencing indoor air quality (e.g., carbon dioxide, temperature, and relative humidity). In a cross-sectional design, the authors evaluated formaldehyde levels in day and overnight indoor air samples from nine PCs renovated within three years previously and three TCs in a school district in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. Formaldehyde levels ranged from 0.0068 to 0.038 parts per million (ppm). In both types of classroom, overnight formaldehyde median levels (PCs = 0.018 ppm; TCs = 0.019 ppm) were higher than day formaldehyde median levels (PCs = 0.011 ppm; TCs = 0.016 ppm). Carbon dioxide levels measured 470-790 ppm at 7:00 a.m. and 470-1800 ppm at 4:00 p.m. Afternoon medians were higher in TCs (1,400 ppm) than in PCs (780 ppm). Consistent with previous studies, formaldehyde levels were similar among PCs and TCs. Reducing carbon dioxide levels by improving ventilation is recommended for classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]