One Final Paper

             When going through the ages and looking at the different forms that knowledge transmission has taken, and the different institutions in which knowledge has been preserved, it’s impossible to avoid noticing trends.  When the history of knowledge is examined from the standpoint of these institutions, the ideas proposed by Ian McNeely in his book Reinventing Knowledge seem to almost present themselves.  One thing that is certain is the inevitability of change.  I have found, however, that there are a few things that remain constant in the way that things change.  In almost every case, as media and institutions shift, the new method tries to imitate or reproduce the old, then grows into its own niche, finally reaching the end of a ‘learning curve’, where a new institution or medium can meet new needs left by the old medium.