The Study Of Neil Postman’s Educational Thoughts

As a doctor and professor of education,education research has been the focus of Neil Postman’s academic research,almost all of his books are flashed the light of educational thoughts.His educational thoughts are based on the sober understanding and criticism of media technology progress.All of his writings have an ultimate concern:Through education to help young people understand the nature of media technology,to preserve the excellent traditional culture,and to deal with the "future shock" of the media technology,realize the continuation and development of human civilizationSummarize postman’s view on media.On the basis of languages(meida)construct our perception of "reality",Postman learned from the idea of Mcluhan’s "the medium is the message",developed the viewpoint of "the medium is the metaphor","medium as epistemology",put forward"the study of media as environments",and created the school of Media Ecology.Postman asserted that the forms of our media like metaphors,working by unobtrusive but powerful implication to enforce their special definitions of reality,would influence our understanding and definition of the truth and reality.He supported the printing culture.He claimed that the printing culture is clear,serious and rational,and that the electronic culture is like Peekaboo which is fragmented meaningless,childish provides instant entertainment,and let all secrets are available to everyoneUnderstand postman’s view on education.Psotman claimed that education should be relevant to develop youth a competence in applying the best available strategies for survival in a world filled with unprecedented troubles uncertainties and opportunities,and to prepare for future life meaningful.In the early of his academic research,he believed that education should be relevant to current reality,and adapt to media thchnolgy change.He proposed that teaching as a subversive activity which looks forward and abandons the traditional,and focuses on the inquiry method.At the end of 1970s,he saw that the technological change was too rapid,he began to think that the relevance of education exist in the past and the traditional,and it’s better to think teaching as a conserving activity by looking back.He advocated that education should recognize the advantages and disadvantages of media technology progress,and preserve the excellent traditional culture to balance the mainstream bias of the information environment.With the deep understanding of the"technopoly",postman believed that education was facing a crisis of value,and puts forward the reconstruction of the value of the school.Look insight into postman’s anxiety and answer to the electronic media.He alerted us focus on electronic media technology of "the disappearance of childhood","amusing ourselves to death","technopoly ",warned people not to addicted to media instant entertainment and technology progress,otherwise what we love will ruin us.He worried that our education would be dominated by technopoly,and that technology progress would be a synonym for educational progress and human progress.He advocated that the government,schools and families to protect childhood,create a better environment for childhood through reading.He called for a positive development of media literacy education,but not to teach students to use technology skills,but to let our young people understand and recognize the media,so that they could use the media technology rather than used by media technology.He hoped to build shared narratives,to build social common values,and to provide guidance for our society,education,and personal values.He advised us to seek the rational and critical inheritance from the the enlightenment movement in eighteenth century,and to develop the students’ critical spirit and critical thinking on the basis of the common value of the society.He hoped that the schools put emphasis on the development of the history of each subject,so that students could understand the source and development of knowledge,understand the ideological mechanism and creation mechanism which the human excellent cultural heritage based on,understand the development of knowledge and humanity is a process of exploration.We should hold a critical view of postman’s educational thoughts.With the critical thinking of the media technology,we should use information technology rationally to promote education reform and development,and rethink postman’s educational thoughts in the new technology environment.