Dr. Thornburg uses creative terminology to describe the shifts in communication technology throughout history and the differences between types of media. Tribal communication was the most primitive type, consisting solely of speech, and it was eventually superseded by scribal communication, which included the written word. Typographic communication involved mass-produced printed works, and cybernetic communication refers to the dissemination of works over the Internet. Each of these types in turn offers the potential for reaching a greater number of people at once. Thornburg's terms are appropriate because their names also serve as a description of how the communication is achieved.
Hot media are those that stimulate the senses and requires little interaction on the part of the observer, while cool media stimulate the mind instead and require more interaction. Thornburg's terms here are appropriate in the sense that they indicate how the listener/viewer receives them and the response the individual makes to them.
The shift from "just-in-case" to "just-in-time" explained in Brainstorms and lightning bolts would look radically different from today's educational systems. Instead of cramming students full of information without a context "just in case" they need it someday, schools would give them information "just in time," by delivering when a context exists or can be created for it. An example of this would be teaching a lesson on the American political system during an election instead of at whatever point in the year it happened to fall in the curriculum. Providing a context for the information would lend it far greater meaning to students, as they would be able to relate it to something that they have to know or do in life. Moreover, they would not be required to try to memorize the skill or knowledge and regurgitate it at some later date but would learn it at the moment of need, when it is most ...