The Asian Information Society and the Aims of Education

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The Asian Information Society and the Aims of
Education

Dr. Soraj Hongladarom, Department of Philosophy,
Chulalongkorn University
Presentation given at the 9th Conference of the
Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics,
Namseoul University, SouthKorea, August 19-20,
2004
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Outline

• Introduction - the interplay among technology,
  culture and education
• Main question - How should we think about the
  aims of education in light of the Asian
  information society?
• Tentative answer - the traditional aims appear
  to have changed as a result of the introduction
  of ICTs.
• As society changes, so is the purpose of
  educating the younger generations

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Main Thesis

• Since technology is culturally embedded, it would
  tend to create conflicts with the Asian cultural
  milieu if it is imported wholesale from the West.
  Thus a way needs to be found to engage in
  education in such a way that technology both
  determines and is determined by the cultural
  settings.

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Main Thesis

• More concretely, this means
• Becoming more sensitive to the cultural
  presuppositions of technology
• Adapting the technology to local settings
• The aims of education should include orientations
  both toward the environment and the roots.

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ITUA 2002

• Some results from the Information Technology and
  the Universities in Asia 2002 conference at
  Chulalongkorn University
• Charles Ess, Michael Churton, etc.
• Discussion of the aims of education

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Aims of Education

• It seems to me that aims of education have not
  been much discussed they are often presupposed
  or left to tacit understanding.
• I think that we should discuss more about this,
  since we need continually to reflect on what we
  are doing.

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The Asian Information Society

• Does the spread of ICTs bring about a different
  kind of information society from that of the
  West?
• Tentative answer - yes and no
• The yes answer is not quite interesting
• But the no answer is very much so.

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Implications for Language Education

• In fact one thing that makes the Asian
  information society distinctive is language.
• The aims of education and the aims of language
  education.

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Technology, Culture and Education

• According to Ferré, technology is nothing more
  than practical application of intelligence
• Culture is usually defined as the sum total of
  human meaningful activities and practices that
  are informed by belief systems.

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Technology, Culture and Education

• Thus, when technology is used in education,
  culture is invariably involved.
• There is the traditional culture of the society
  as well as the technological culture
  presupposed by the technology that is introduced
  there.
• The two can conflict with each other.

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Technology, Culture and Education

• In Thailand, this usually reveals itself in the
  technology not being used to its full potential.
• This is so because there is a strong inertial
  force in support of the tradition.
• So the problem is how to fuse technology into
  this kind of culture

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Fusing Technology and Culture in Education

• Thai culture is a strange case.
• On the one hand, it embraces technology easily -
  Internet, mobile phones, all the new gadgets.
• But on the other, there is a strong resistance
  when the technology is perceived to threaten the
  core - such as in education.
• Internet use - 90 entertainment 10 work and
  learning

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Fusing Technology and Culture in Education

• So in order for technology to become more
  effective, how the technology is perceived needs
  to change.
• Technology needs to be part of the core Thai
  culture.
• How this is done will emerge during the course of
  this talk.

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ITUA 2002

• In April 2002, the Faculty Senate of
  Chulalongkorn University organized a conference
  entitled Information Technology and Universities
  in Asia 2002 (ITUA 2002)
• The purpose was to find ways to best utilize ICTs
  in conducting the works of universities in Asia.

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ITUA 2002

• The conference was co-organized by the ASIA CALL
  (Dr. Larry Chong)
• More than sixty participants came from many
  countries.
• Most papers discussed various ways of using ICTs
  in teaching and learning.

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Charles Ess

• Liberal Arts and Distance Education Can
  Socratic Virtue (Arete) and Confucius Exemplary
  Person (Junzi) Be Taught Online?
• Answer - Of course not, but a limited form of
  distance education may contribute to the sharing
  of ideas and cross-cultural dialogs, which lead
  to liberal education and Confucian exemplary
  person.

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Charles Ess

• if mastery, expertise and practical wisdom are
  to be acquired by students as embodied beings -
  they will require teachers who incarnate the
  skills and wisdom that mark the highest levels of
  human accomplishment.

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Charles Ess

• That is not to say that distance education is of
  no value or relevance to liberal-arts education
  and its highest goals. On the contrary, as the
  recent shift to blended or hybrid approaches
  suggests, what is called for is the careful and
  appropriate use of distance learning.

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Michael Churton

• Quality Assurance in the Design, Development,
  and Implementation of ICT and Distance Learning
  Programs Professorial Considerations
• The idea of this paper is to lay out what are
  required in order for a study program conducted
  online to be assured of its quality.

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Michael Churton

• Demand for Quality Assurance
• Accreditation and Benchmarks
• Course structure
• Teaching/Learning
• Faculty support
• Student support
• Administrative support

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Recommendations

• Distance learning programs organize learning
  activities around and assess learner progress by
  reference to outcomes.
• Distance-learning initiatives must be backed by
  an organizational commitment to quality and
  effectiveness in all aspects of the learning
  environment.

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Recommendations

• DL opportunities are effectively supported for
  learners through fully accessible modes of
  delivery and resources.
• DL activities are designed to fit the specific
  context for learning the nature of the subject
  matter, learning outcomes, needs and goals of the
  learner, the learners environment, and the
  instructional technologies and methods.

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Recommendations

• The provider has a plan and infrastructure for
  using technology that supports its learning goals
  and activities.

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What Do All This Mean?

• For our purpose, what Ess and Churton share in
  common is a commitment to a better quality of
  education through distance learning.
• For Ess, DE plays a secondary role, but he shows
  that it is really possible to engage in DE while
  maintaining the ideals of liberal education.

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What Do All This Mean?

• Churton, on the other hand, he does not have the
  same qualms he goes on and presents his list of
  benchmarks.
• In any case, we see that the role of culture is
  quite prominent in both. Churton stresses that
  the benchmarking be done with full agreement and
  cooperation of all the stakeholders - which mean
  that culture is at least involved indirectly.

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Asian Information Society

• The advent of ICTs has prompted many to proclaim
  the information society, which is characterized
  mainly by the central role played by information.
• The information age differs from the older
  industrial one in that what is manufactured and
  marketed is information rather than concrete
  objects.

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Asian Information Society

• However, this characterization ignores the many
  obvious cultural differences - such as those
  between East and West.
• So it makes sense to talk about the Asian
  information society.
• This is characterized by the central role played
  by information, but with the distinctively Asian
  embedding.

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Finer-tuned Differences

• Of course one can fine tune the difference
  further, and proclaim that the information
  societies that exists, say, in Japan and Korea
  are different.
• This may well be so, but we dont need to go to
  that level of detail here.

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Chief Characteristics

• The characteristics of the Asian information
  society are not yet much explored.
• Nonetheless, one may tentatively say that they
  include the following (apart from the usual)

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Chief Characteristics

• Communitarianism (as opposed to individualism)
• Belief in social hierarchy
• Emphasis on conformity
• Low content/High context
• Strong continuity with the past (esp. in
  Thailands case)

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Asian Information Society Thailand as a Test Case

• The core and the periphery
• The core belief in social hierarchy, Buddhism,
  traditional version of history
• The periphery appreciation of all modern things
  - radios, telegraph, television, computers,
  mobile phones, digital cameras, etc.
• The trick is that the latter must not threaten
  the former.

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Asian Information Society Problems

• since the 1980s, the new industrialization
  strategy in East Asia and, for that matter the
  advanced developing countries of Latin America,
  has offered large opportunities for employment
  and income gain for a portion of highly educated
  and qualified professionals, but the less
  educated and less skilled workers have been left
  out in the cold (Ryokichi Hirono 2001 41)

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Many-dimensional Divides

• Digital divide
• Income divide
• Knowledge divide
• Opportunity divide
• Education divide
• Etc.

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• What these show is that the promise of the
  information society has not reached all the
  strata of the societies in Asia.
• Obviously education plays a key role, but how?
  And what kind?

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What This Means for Education

• So the problems are multi-faceted there are the
  divide problems, and there are the added
  dimensions of culture.
• Education is much perceived as belonging to the
  core of the culture.
• Thus you can see where the problem lies.
• This is why I would like to talk about the aims
  of education today.

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Aims of Education

• Whitehead (1929)
• the apprehension of general ideas, intellectual
  habits of mind, and pleasurable interest in
  mental achievement can be evoked by no form of
  words, however accurately adjusted.

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Aims of Education

• The solution which I am urging, is to eradicate
  the fatal disconnection of subjects which kills
  the vitality of our modern curriculum. There is
  only one subject-matter for education, and that
  is Life in all its manifestations

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Traditional Aims of Education

• In Thailand, it is generally understood that
  educations main purpose is to train students to
  function in the workplace.
• Another deeper purpose is that education aims at
  maintaining the status quo.
• People send their children to school in order to
  go up the social ladder.
• Education thus is not for change, but the
  opposite.

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Educational Aims and Technology

• With the advent of modern technology, there is a
  tacit reconception of educational aims.
• The emphasis has shifted from preserving the
  status quo to responding to contemporary
  challenges - neither Whitehead nor traditional
  Thai.
• Technology may not be the direct cause of the
  shift, but certainly it accompanies it.

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Slow Adoption of Technology

• Much teaching and learning in Thailand still
  proceeds in the traditional manner, even though
  there is eager adoption of technology elsewhere.
• But we need to find a balance between unbridled
  enthusiasm and total pessimism.

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The Middle Path

• The middle path, however, is rather difficult to
  find.
• Behind the self-proclaimed fear of technology,
  there is a deeper fear that technology would
  threaten the core of the culture.
• So if we can find a way for technology to be an
  integral part of the culture, then it seems we
  can have a beginning.

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Making Technology and Culture Go Together

• Since technology comes with the baggage in which
  it is embedded, one would presumably need to
  start from unwrapping it and putting it in the
  other context.
• But that is not possible, because technology is
  part and parcel of a culture.
• Hence culture also has to change.

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Rethinking the Aims of Education

• Making technology an integral part of culture
  makes it important that the aims of education
  should be rethought.
• A shift from responding to globalizing
  challenges to taking ones initiatives in fact
  of globalization

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Taking Initiatives

• What this means is that, instead of following the
  globalizing trend and trying to catch up with it,
  one should look at the trend with more critical
  eyes and evaluates how the trend is going to
  affect ones own priorities and values, as well
  as become a player in the globalizing game.

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• I would like to say that the divide problems
  mentioned earlier can only be solved if these
  initiatives are taken into consideration.
• More emphasis on the local and development of
  home grown knowledge systems.

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How Is This Relevant to Language Education?

• Rethinking the aims of education
• Taking the initiatives in ones own hands means
  that, in using ICTs in language education, one
  does not teach or study (foreign) languages
  solely for the purpose of responding to
  globalization, but to master it, so to speak.

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How This is Relevant

• I cannot presume to talk to all the linguistics
  and language teachers here about how to teach a
  language.
• However, I believe what I am saying here is
  relevant because all uses of technology in
  education involve certain degrees of cultural
  embeddedness.

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Combating the Divides through Language Education

• The promises of the Asian information society,
  with its peculiar characteristics, will not be
  realized if one does not solve the divide
  problems.
• For this language education plays a key role in
  providing the learners with a window by which
  they can look at the world appreciatively and
  with understanding.

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Realizing the Full Potential of the Asian
Information Society

• To do this technology is essential, but it should
  be a kind of integrated technology.
• We can see the computers also as an extension of
  the older Asian technologies such as the abacus
  and the ink and brush - no disruption should be
  allowed.
• If we can do this, then the prospects should be a
  bright one.

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Thank you very much!