Electracy, described by

Gregory Ulmer Gregory Leland Ulmer (born December 23, 1944) is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Florida ( Gainesville) and a professor of Electronic Languages and Cybermedia at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland ...

, is a set of skills that are necessary to fully utilize the communicative potential of new

electronic media Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical means for the audience to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which today are most often created digitally, but do not require ele ...

, such as

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

hypermedia Hypermedia, an extension of hypertext, is a nonlinear medium of information that includes graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks. This designation contrasts with the broader term ''multimedia'', which may include non-interactive linear ...

social software Social software, also known as social apps or social platform includes communications and interactive tools that are often based on the Internet. Communication tools typically handle capturing, storing and presenting communication, usually writt ...

, and

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space or spaces) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar and independently explore th ...

Concept

According to Ulmer, electracy "is to

digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...

what literacy is to print". It encompasses the broader cultural, institutional, pedagogical, and ideological implications inherent in the major societal transition from print to

. Electracy is a portmanteau of "electricity" and Jacques Derrida's term "

trace Trace may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Trace'' (Son Volt album), 1995 * ''Trace'' (Died Pretty album), 1993 * Trace (band), a Dutch progressive rock band * ''The Trace'' (album), by Nell Other uses in arts and entertainment * ...

". Electracy encompasses a wide range of research areas including the history and invention of writing and mnemonic practices, the

epistemological Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowled ...

and

ontological Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every ...

changes resulting from such practices, the sociological and psychological implications of a networked culture, and the pedagogical implementation of practices derived from such explorations. Ulmer's work considers other historical moments of radical technological change such as the inventions of the alphabet, writing, and the printing press. Also, electracy is grammatological in deriving a methodology from the history of writing and mnemonic practices. Ulmer introduced electracy in ''Teletheory'' (1989). First citations of the work appear in 1997. James Inman regarded electracy as one of the "most prominent" contemporary designations for what Walter J. Ong once described as a "secondary orality" that will eventually supplant print literacy. Inman distinguishes electracy from other literacies (such as metamedia), stating that it is a broader concept unique for being ontologically dependent exclusively on electronic media. Some scholars have viewed the ''electracy'' paradigm, along with other "apparatus theories" such as Ong's, with skepticism, arguing that they are "essentialist" or "determinist".

Pedagogy

Lisa Gye states that the transition from literacy to electracy has changed "the ways in which we think, write and exchange ideas," and that Ulmer's primary concern is to understand how that has transformed learning. Electracy as an educational aim has been recognized by scholars in several fields including English composition and rhetoric, literary and media criticism, digital media and art, and architecture. Mikesch Muecke explains that "Gregory Ulmer's ideas on ''electracy'' provide ... a model for a new pedagogy where learning is closer to invention than verification." Alan Clinton, in a review of ''Internet Invention'', writes that "Ulmer's pedagogy ultimately levels the playing field between student and teacher." Ulmer's educational methods fit into a constructivist pedagogical theory and practice. He discusses the relationship between pedagogy and electracy at length in an interview with Sung-Do Kim published in 2005.Kim, Sung-Do. "The Grammatology of the Future" (An Interview with Gregory Ulmer). ''Deconstructing Derrida: Tasks for the New Humanities''. Ed. Peter Pericles Trifonas and Michael A. Peters. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005. 137–64.

References

{{Literacy Mnemonics Information society Philosophy of education Literacy

Concept

Pedagogy

See also

References