Decoding and interpreting condensed messages. Schema theory is making us aware of how much the
reading process depends upon inferences supplied by the reader. As messages become more abbreviated and
condensed, this skill will become even more important.

Kenesics (or interpretation of body language). Already an important skill, it is likely to become even more
important as video pictures begin to accompany electronic communications. It is quite likely that relatively for-
mal systems of manual and facial gestures will be developed in order to cram as much information as possible
into a given transmission.

Synthesizing information. As it becomes increasingly possible to call up instantly a wide array of related
information from a variety of forms, it will be necessary to be able to pull these various messages together into a
new informative whole.

Visual literacy. The skill of “reading” pictures, still or moving, is already a necessary aspect of modern
communications. Undoubtedly this skill will become even more vital in the years ahead.

Rapid analysis and evaluation of message validity. We are already bombarded with a constant barrage of
persuasive communications: economic, political, religious, etc. With the introduction of two-way interactive
video (such as the QUBE system) requiring instant viewer response as, for example, in a national referendum, it
will be imperative for the ordinary citizen to be able to distinguish substance from semblance.

Obviously, these skills and all the others necessary to function effectively in an information society will be
learned. The question is whether they will be integrated into the school curriculum and recognized as essential
for everyone or, as at present, left to business and industry to teach.

Including these skills in the school curriculum is largely a matter of changing deep-rooted institutional atti-
tudes and values, a task made more difficult in this instance by the almost religious fervor of the back-to-basics
movement. There are, however, some relatively simple steps with which to begin the process.

1. Concentrate on transitional skills. Transitional skills are valuable (and valued) in both the industrial and
information societies and less likely to be regarded as radical departures from the standard curriculum.

2. Adopt a more holistic approach to communications and communications skills. Traditionally, we have
concentrated on verbal communications and divided these skills into four categories: reading, writing,
speaking, and listening (and then virtually ignored the latter two categories). By broadening our view
beyond the traditional and classifying skills as either “transmitting” or “receiving,” we obtain both a more
accurate model and a more effective approach. For example, we traditionally tie the process of composition
to the act of writing. A holistic view would recognize that the act of composition, a transmitting skill, is
hardly specific to writing. Photographs, paintings, films, music are all composed.

3. Identify skills that are genuinely basic to the communication process and distinguish them from those
that are essentially social graces. | submit that most spelling errors do not interfere with communication,
nor do errors in agreement. In fact, both these kinds of errors will soon be routinely filtered out by word
processors. I do not mean to suggest that these errors are socially unimportant, merely that they are no
more “basic” to communication than table manners are to nutrition. On the other hand, distinguishing the
main idea from the subordinate detail (saliency), currently taught primarily as a reading skill, is basic. If
one does not get the main point, one does not get the message. By clarifying these distinctions we can
better arrange our teaching priorities and more honestly identify our purposes.

4. Increase opportunity for lateral communication. Most school communication is verbal, from teacher to stu-
dent, and occasionally from student to teacher. There is little opportunity for, or instruction in, lateral (stu-
dent to student) communication. This is currently left to chance.

5. Develop the concept of “communication wardrobe.” Just as no single set of clothing is appropriate for all
occasions, neither is one set of communication skills. The limited range of communications currently
taught in the schools--reading textbooks and anthologies, writing formal (vertical) essays, answering ques-
tions, etc.--forces students to acquire the rest of their wardrobe where and when they can.

There is no reason why the emerging information society should communicate only in some form of mind-
deadening Orwellian Newspeak. But only by broadening our perspective and including in education the full
range of communication skills that will be needed to function in that society can we hope to foster a balanced
development of the traditional skills along with the new.

“ 1982, JCPenney Company, Inc., Consumer Education Services, FORUM, “Basic Skills for an Information Age,“
pp. 29, 30. Abstracted with permission.

 

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor
July 6, 1984, VOL. VI, NO. 19

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin,
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The University of Texas at Austin, 1984
Further duplication is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel. ISSN 0199-106X