Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Children of the Code...
Children of the Code is a public television, DVD & web documentary series Including over one hundred interviews with leading neuroscientists, psychologists, reading researchers, educators, historians, economists, technologists and policy leaders.
The 'code', the technology of written language, is the most influential invention in the history of history. It is the "OS" (operating system) of civilization. Becoming code users literally changed how our minds think, self-reflect, remember, abstract, categorize, and codify. Today's social institutions; our science, law, politics, organizations and technologies are all outgrowths of what the code made and makes possible in our minds. We are all, in a very real sense, children of the code. For some of us the code is an invisible, taken-for-granted, mind-enabling platform, for others it is an ever-present mind-shaming barrier that all but determines what is possible in life.
It sounds like a bad horror film or perhaps a new reality show, but Children of the Code is a massive project, consisting of interviews, articles, and videos on the subject of reading and literacy -- and how reading acquisition can break down, and be repaired.
Children of the Code is a public television, DVD & web documentary series Including over one hundred interviews with leading neuroscientists, psychologists, reading researchers, educators, historians, economists, technologists and policy leaders. "The big step between us and animals is language. But the big step between civilization and more primitive forms of human society is written language.... it doesn't just enable it (civilization) in the sense of making it possible, but rather, it constitutes it. " - Dr. John Searle, Mills Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language at University of California- Berkeley (COTC interview)
The 'code', the technology of written language, is the most influential invention in the history of history. It is the "OS" (operating system) of civilization. Becoming code users literally changed how our minds think, self-reflect, remember, abstract, categorize, and codify. Today's social institutions; our science, law, politics, organizations and technologies are all outgrowths of what the code made and makes possible in our minds. We are all, in a very real sense, children of the code. For some of us the code is an invisible, taken-for-granted, mind-enabling platform, for others it is an ever-present mind-shaming barrier that all but determines what is possible in life. The mission of Children of the Code Project is to help bring about a society wide transformation in our understanding of "The Code and the Challenge of Learning to Read It".
The main website is here, http://www.childrenofthecode.org/
Index of the video segments: http://www.childrenofthecode.org/Tour/index.htm
I'd urge anyone interested in early literacy, and especially parents of a child with language delays and/or learning disabilities to explore the Children of the Code website.
Index of the video segments: http://www.childrenofthecode.org/Tour/index.htm
I'd urge anyone interested in early literacy, and especially parents of a child with language delays and/or learning disabilities to explore the Children of the Code website.
Statistically, more American children suffer long-term life-harm from the process of learning to read than from parental abuse, accidents, and all other childhood diseases and disorders combined. In purely economic terms, reading related difficulties cost our nation more than the war on terrorism, crime, and drugs combined.
I would have to agree with the importance this organization places on literacy. This project (and the website) is simply huge. It is difficult to explain everything available for resources here. I urge you to visit the site and take a look around.
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 2:32 PM 
