For my Religion and Modernity in the West course this week, we read Jean-François Lyotard’s “A Report on Knowledge.”
Let be honest and say I haven’t finished it. I might be missing something huge.
I am taking both GEDI and NMFSS the semester, and as I read through the intro and beginning of the short work (yes, I have no excuse for not having finished it), I was drawn to Lyotard’s discussion of the importance of understanding how technology is changing the way we learn. In this new technological age, language becomes incredibly important (this is all on page 16 of the edition I have). As part of this shift towards a more communicative society, he sees narrative and story as becoming more and more important (page 19).
Narrative becoming more important. People telling their stories. You mean… like blogging?
Lyotard wrote this work in 1979, and honestly, it is asking the same pedagogy and new media questions we are still asking. I forgot to look at the title page when I started (my bad…), and from his language and discussion, I pegged him in the late 80s/early 90s.
Lyotard isn’t in our NMFSS textbook, and frankly, I’m shocked. Because this guy is seriously awesome.