Book	Review:	The	Textbook	and	the	Lecture: Education	in	the	Age	of	New	Media	by	Norm	Friesen Does	it	seem	that	education	is	somehow	always	lagging	behind	the	latest	technologies?	In	The	Textbook	and	the Lecture:	Education	in	the	Age	of	New	Media,	Norm	Friesen	presents	a	longue	durée	study	of	the	historical relationship	between	education	and	technologies	of	reading	and	writing	in	order	to	reframe	accusations	of	"inertia"	in education.	This	is	a	useful	introduction	to	a	media	history	of	education,	finds	Lavinia	Marin,	offering	insight for	researchers	and	educational	practitioners	into	the	longstanding	philosophical	assumptions	underpinning	their teaching	practice. This	review	originally	appeared	on	LSE	Review	of	Books	and	is	published	under	a	CC	BY-NC-ND	2.0	UK	license. The	Textbook	and	the	Lecture:	Education	in	the	Age	of	New	Media.	Norm	Friesen.	Johns	Hopkins	University Press.	2017. Find	this	book: "Our	educational	system	is	outdated."	Anyone	following	the	news	has	stumbled	upon this	statement,	be	it	on	TV,	radio,	or	the	internet.	From	the	USA	to	India	and	Australia, a	strange	consensus	unifies	public	opinion	against	one's	own	educational	system: namely,	the	perception	that	it	is	not	up	to	the	task.	One	important	argument	in	this ongoing	critique	of	education	lies	in	the	slow	adoption	of	media	technologies.	It	would appear	that	education	is	somehow	always	lagging	behind	the	newest	technologies: pupils	were	still	writing	by	hand	and	reading	paper-based	textbooks	while	outside school	walls	computers	were	the	norm;	when	computers	entered	classrooms,	the outside	world	had	already	switched	to	laptops;	when	laptops	finally	landed	on student's	desks,	the	world	was	turning	to	mobile	phones	and	tablets.	The	race	with technology	seems	to	be	already	lost	from	the	school	side. However,	education's	slow	adoption	of	emergent	media	technologies	is	not	a	new issue.	On	the	contrary,	as	Norm	Friesen	shows	in	his	latest	book,	The	Textbook	and the	Lecture,	educational	resistance	to	new	media	has	been	occurring	for	centuries. Friesen's	book	is	concerned	with	the	relation	between	media	technologies	and	education,	especially	technologies	of writing	and	reading.	One	of	the	book's	central	arguments	is	that	we	cannot	discuss	education	and	its	media separately	as	they	always	condition	one	another.	Friesen	argues	that	the	most	basic	educational	practices	–	learning to	read,	write	and	count	–	are	actually	operations	of	rewiring	the	brain.	Education	is,	then,	a	commitment	to	this process	through	special	media	techniques	such	as	reading	and	writing.	However,	this	rewiring	has	a	certain	cultural history:	it	has	acquired	different	significations	throughout	time.	By	looking	at	these,	Friesen's	book	helps	its	readers understand	what	is	at	stake	in	the	current	educational	debates	surrounding	media. The	book	is	structured	into	three	main	parts.	The	first	introduces	the	main	theoretical	approach	of	the	book:	namely, the	focus	on	media	as	"an	intermediate	agency"	(13),	a	means	which	make	possible	for	something	else	to	be expressed	or	communicated.	Media	have	three	major	features:	they	require	literacies;	give	rise	to	their	own	cultures; and	new	media	"remediate"	older	media.	Friesen	argues	that	media	are	not	just	one	way	of	acquiring	knowledge,	but the	major	way	of	doing	so:	"what	we	know	[...]	is	almost	always	mediated"	(14).	The	chapter	also	outlines	the historical	approach	of	the	book	as	performing	a	history	"over	the	longue	durée"	of	educational	forms.	Inspired	by historian	Fernand	Braudel,	this	type	of	research	studies	slow	changes	and	continuities	instead	of	focusing	on ruptures	and	revolutions,	which	are	understood	as	being	relatively	rare	events. Impact of Social Sciences Blog: Book Review: The Textbook and the Lecture: Education in the Age of New Media by Norm Friesen Page 1 of 4 Date originally posted: 2018-08-26 Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/08/26/book-review-the-textbook-and-the-lecture-education-in-the-age-of-new-media-by-norm-friesen/ Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/ The	second	chapter	offers	an	illustration	of	how	to	do	history	over	the	long	duration	by	tracing	writing	instruction,	the oldest	education	practice,	over	4,000	years	of	history.	The	history	of	education	starts	with	the	history	of	writing,	and these	two	have	been	almost	indistinguishable	for	long	stretches	of	time.	Text	is	the	"most	important	for	the	culture	of education"	(16)	because	education	has	writing	at	its	centre,	understood	as	a	system	of	inscription.	Passing	on	this system	requires	a	lot	of	instruction	and	effort,	because	our	brains	are	not	naturally	wired	to	learn	how	to	write	or	to use	inscriptions.	Friesen	reconstructs	the	history	of	education	as	the	history	of	the	effort	to	rewire	the	brain	into learning	to	write	and	to	use	writing	for	thinking.	The	chapter	compares	ancient	techniques	of	writing	from	Sumer, Jewish	education	and	the	Chinese	imperial	age	with	current	writing	practices.	Friesen	shows	that	writing	instruction historically	was	standardised	through	repetitive	exercises	and	dictation.	Learning	to	write	was	about	acquiring patterns	of	behaviour	in	designated	spaces,	separating	pupils	from	the	productive	world	and	allocating	for	this	a designated	time:	the	time	of	the	school.	The	similarity	with	current	learning	practices	is	striking.	Friesen	shows	that children	today	"still	learn	writing	through	a	set	of	steps	with	carefully	sequenced	arrangements	of	instructional methods,	materials	and	content"	(29). Image	credit:	lecture	hall	/	university,	by	Markus	Spiske.	This	work	is	licensed	under	a CC	BY	2.0	license. Friesen's	review	of	more	than	4000	years	of	educational	continuity	is	meant	to	reframe	current	accusations	of "inertia"	in	education.	Critics	of	educational	traditionalism	are	usually	the	proponents	of	novel	methods	and technologies	that	should	bring	education	up	to	our	current	needs.	But	can	we	explain	this	educational	continuity	over thousands	of	years	by	calling	it	inertia?	Could	humanity	have	been	so	foolish	as	to	maintain	useless	forms	of education	while	it	changed	everything,	from	religion	to	political	systems	and	social	structures? By	using	insights	from	neurology,	Friesen	proposes	the	hypothesis	that	the	practices	of	reading	and	writing	demand a	rewiring	of	neurons	in	the	brain.	The	commitment	to	the	same	educational	forms	for	millennia	has	not	been	a commitment	to	tradition	or	to	fixed	values.	Culturally	speaking,	reading	and	writing	have	served	remarkably	different purposes	throughout	history:	for	the	small	scribal	class	of	ancient	Sumer,	reading	and	writing	was	related	to	bookkeeping,	advancing	commerce	and	the	first	markets.	Nowadays,	reading	and	writing	fulfil	multiple	purposes,	keeping alive	a	culture	and	a	form	of	life,	cultivating	imaginations	and	allowing	for	critical	thinking.	Yet	pupils	today	learn	to read	and	write	with	methods	remarkably	similar	to	those	in	ancient	Sumer:	repetitive	exercises,	dictations,	rote memorisation,	artificial	problems	and	examples.	Thus,	the	reformist	demand	to	drop	a	certain	medium	from educational	practices	will	understandably	be	met	with	scepticism.	This	commitment	to	the	preservation	of	particular media	in	education	–	such	as	handwriting	training	in	early	grades,	in	spite	of	the	possibility	of	replacing	writing	with typing	–	is	a	commitment	not	to	the	medium	itself,	but	to	the	techniques	which	make	a	rewiring	of	the	brain	possible. It	is	through	exercise	and	repetition,	through	the	complex	intermixing	of	speech	and	writing,	looking	and	reading,	that educational	training	techniques	become	most	effective.	We	do	not	(yet)	know	how	to	achieve	the	same	effects	with digital	technologies,	perhaps	because	we	are	lacking	centuries	of	experience	from	which	to	draw. Impact of Social Sciences Blog: Book Review: The Textbook and the Lecture: Education in the Age of New Media by Norm Friesen Page 2 of 4 Date originally posted: 2018-08-26 Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/08/26/book-review-the-textbook-and-the-lecture-education-in-the-age-of-new-media-by-norm-friesen/ Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/ The	third	part	illustrates	these	debates	with	the	two	case	studies	that	give	the	title	of	the	book	–	the	textbook	and	the lecture.	Friesen	positions	media	as	inextricably	linked	to	education,	while	also	pointing	out	that	education	has	never been	just	about	speech/orality	nor	writing/	literacy.	Chapters	Three	to	Five	give	an	ample	description	of	the	debate between	the	proponents	of	speech	and	those	of	writing.	Friesen	shows	how	the	speech/writing	debate	is	at	the	core of	many	educational	divisions	between	key	figures	in	the	history	of	education.	Friesen	traces	the	roots	of contemporary	debates	to	an	old	dualism	between	the	partisans	of	education	through	speech	(the	Romantics,	led	by Jean-Jacques	Rousseau,	who	saw	spoken	language	as	the	natural,	genuine	language	based	on	"expression	and feeling"),	and	the	Rationalists,	led	by	John	Amos	Comenius,	for	whom	Nature	is	like	a	book	that	one	must	learn	to read	or	decipher.	Rationalists	also	posit	a	universal	language	of	nature,	which	led	centuries	later	to	Noam	Chomsky's universal	grammar.	While	each	tradition	privileges	one	medium	over	the	other,	Friesen's	argument	is	that	education is	impossible	with	only	one	medium.	Speech	and	writing	have	always	been	"inseparably	intertwined"	in	education (68). One	of	the	unanswered	questions	of	the	book	is	how	this	debate	between	speech	and	writing	is	reflected	in	the	case of	the	university.	If	school	is	arguably	about	learning	the	basic	habits	of	reading,	writing	and	arithmetic,	university	is about	something	else.	The	last	two	chapters,	Eight	and	Nine,	focus	on	the	university	lecture,	which	is	decidedly different	from	speaking	to	a	classroom	of	pupils.	Friesen	points	to	reconceptualisations	of	the	lecture	from	the medieval	transmission	of	knowledge	–	mostly	an	oral	enterprise	–	to	Romantic	and	postmodern	transformations. There	was	a	clear	Romantic	perspective	on	the	lecture,	inspired	by	Johann	Gottlieb	Fichte	and	his	follower	Wilhelm von	Humboldt,	which	attributes	to	it	a	certain	communion	of	the	spirits	and	an	immediacy	that	cannot	be	achieved	in the	absence	of	speech.	However,	it	is	hard	to	find	a	Rationalist	stance	concerning	the	lecture.	There	is	a	difficulty here	in	connecting	the	lecture	chapters	to	the	rest	of	the	book	because	university	education	seems	to	be	about something	other	than	a	rewiring	of	the	brain.	What	the	university	or	any	other	forms	of	complex	education	do	with	the brain	is	therefore	a	question	left	open	by	this	book. One	can	also	question	the	entire	"neurological	explanation"	angle	that	the	book	adopts.	Indeed,	neurology	offers	a nice	explanation	of	why	education	prefers	certain	well-tested	methods	to	newer	approaches,	but	in	the	current philosophy	of	education	there	is	a	heated	debate	about	the	explanatory	power	of	neurological	insights	and	there	are concerns	that	the	"neurological	turn"	might	be	another	form	of	revived	scientism,	a	debate	left	unaddressed	by Friesen.	Even	if	we	accept	this	neurological	angle,	in	the	end	the	book	does	not	help	us	take	a	stance	on	the	"digital revolution"	sweeping	schools	and	universities.	In	the	general	debate	between	speech	and	writing,	digital technologies	seem	to	lie	on	the	side	of	speech,	with	their	promise	of	instant	access	akin	to	unmediated	immediacy. On	the	other	hand,	digital	technologies	do	involve	a	lot	of	writing	and	are	based	on	coding.	Our	conceptualisation	of the	digital	is	culturally	determined	just	as	much	as	previous	technologies.	While	Friesen	does	not	set	out	to	answer the	digital	question,	but	rather	to	subvert	or	dissolve	it	via	historical	contextualisation,	we	are	still	left	with	a	quandary: what	do	we	do	with	digital	technologies	in	education?	The	book's	greatest	strength	is	that	it	makes	us	reflect	on	the historicity	of	technological	discourse	in	education,	but	this	turns	into	a	weakness	once	we	arrive	at	the	moment	of taking	a	concrete	step. The	Textbook	and	the	Lecture	addresses	both	a	general	and	a	specialised	audience.	The	latter	consists	of educational	theorists	and	philosophers,	especially	those	working	around	educational	media,	who	will	be	interested	in the	theoretical	intervention	of	the	book.	For	practitioners,	it	opens	up	the	black	box	of	educational	practices	by showing	why	they	may	still	be	using	"outdated"	media	in	their	classrooms.	For	any	member	of	the	general	public	who might	feel	tempted	to	get	sucked	into	the	debate	about	the	outmoded	nature	of	educational	forms	and	methods, policymakers	and	other	stakeholders	such	as	parents,	educational	workers	and	school	managers,	this	book	offers	a good	introduction	to	a	media	history	of	education.	Through	its	multiple	examples	and	case	studies,	The	Textbook	and the	Lecture	shows	the	philosophical	assumptions	underpinning	longstanding	debates	and	serves	to	inform	and perhaps	even	empower	educational	workers	by	helping	them	understand	why	they	do	what	they	do. Lavinia	Marin	is	a	doctoral	researcher	at	the	Education,	Culture	and	Society	research	centre	at	KU	Leuven, Belgium.	Her	work	focuses	on	the	specifics	of	thinking	at	the	university	and	on	the	media	technologies	which	make thinking	possible,	such	as	textual	and	digital	technologies.	Her	latest	published	article	argues	for	the	fundamental role	played	by	technologies	of	the	text	in	the	foundation	of	the	first	universities,	inspired	by	the	work	of	Ivan	Illich. Note:	This	review	gives	the	views	of	the	author,	and	not	the	position	of	the	LSE	Impact	Blog,	or	of	the	London	School of	Economics. Impact of Social Sciences Blog: Book Review: The Textbook and the Lecture: Education in the Age of New Media by Norm Friesen Page 3 of 4 Date originally posted: 2018-08-26 Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/08/26/book-review-the-textbook-and-the-lecture-education-in-the-age-of-new-media-by-norm-friesen/ Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/ Impact of Social Sciences Blog: Book Review: The Textbook and the Lecture: Education in the Age of New Media by Norm Friesen Page 4 of 4 Date originally posted: 2018-08-26 Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/08/26/book-review-the-textbook-and-the-lecture-education-in-the-age-of-new-media-by-norm-friesen/ Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/