Read Write v Read Only

I am reading a book called Remix at the moment by Lawrence Lessig.  Whilst the books main emphasis is upon how restrictive/outdated copyright laws are inhibiting creativity by preventing me from including an excerpt from a film or TV show on my blog (OK I still might do this! But doing so is criminal according to copyright laws!)

My post today though isn't about copyright however! Lessig uses two terms to describe how people use different media:

Read Only: Lessig uses this term to mean mostly a 'one-way' process. I buy a book, I read the book. I can't really do anything else with it.

Read Write: This term is used to describe how people use the media to absorb the message, then interpret part of the original message in a creative manner to create and build something new. Think of me watching films, TV, various videos, listening to music, reading books and blogs. At the end of me doing all this I have come up with an idea infused from all my sources. I'd now like to include my new idea in a presentation I'm about to run. 

I've got two options:

1. create a written document that explains in words only what my new idea is and how it came to me. (or a really boring powerpoint full of lots of words!)
2. create a multi-media presentation, full of images, video and sound, supported by me speaking and with a written take-away hand-out at the end. 

Option one just wouldn't work, would it? (but it's what we all see all the time!) Option two however would technically be illegal (but it would be engaging, interesting  and people would learn).

Now for how this links in with learning. 

Read Only is how things used to be when it comes to learning, as education for the masses was formalised in the late 1800's education it was a method on transferring knowledge. Today, too often, this is still the case. I just used the word learning, however this type of education was really about teaching. Pupils had their eyes open to receive the knowledge presented to them by the teacher - it was essentially Read Only.

As technology has progressed at a speedy rate, today's learners don't think in Read Only terms. The internet, digital media and cheap, powerful computers have provided people with an option they never had - Read Write. Learners today do not want to sit passively as the 'teacher' provides them with knowledge. They want to interact with the knowledge and ideas to make them their own, to make it meaningful.

The concept of Instructional Design now goes by the wayside, replaced instead by the idea of Learning Design. A small but important shift that puts the learner at the centre of the design process. Learning design then is about building learning experiences that allow the learner to Read Write. 

I'm really enjoying Lawrence Lessig's book. It has helped me to see how many changes in education and learning have been driven by culture and change. It helps to further explain why I (and I reckon everyone else) hates Powerpoint slideshows full of text and bullets with a presenter reading the slides to me. I expect more than that, I need more than that and learners need learning designers to provide them with opportunities to Read Write as they learn.

Finally for anyone who's got to the end of this post and hasn't seen Lawrence Lessig present, here is a TED video for you. Lessig's style is different, LOTS of slides (that's a good thing!), but only a few words per slide and a good use of images. The slides support his presentation, they are not the focus of it! In the presentation Lessig explain the ideas of Read Only and Read Write further, I hope you find it interesting.