EDD 5229 Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society

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EDD 5229Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society

• Lecture 2
• Knowledge Society and
• Its Impacts on Knowledge Education

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Knowledge Society Information Age A Distinct
Epoch?

• Typology of society by technological bases
• Hunting and gathering society and technology of
  hunting
• Pastoral society and technology of pastoralism
  and horsemanship
• Agrarian society and technology of farming and
  irrigation
• Industrial society and technology of manufacture
• Knowledge society and informational or
  intellectual technology

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Knowledge Society Information Age A Distinct
Epoch?

• Daniel Bells thesis of post-industrial society
• Pre-industrial society Society built on
  technology on raw materials and the axial
  principle of scarcity of land and resources
• Industrial society Society built on technology
  on energy and the axial principle of capital and
  labor control
• Post-industrial society Society built on
  technology on information and the axial principle
  of creation of theoretical knowledge

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Knowledge Society Information Age A Distinct
Epoch?

• Peter Druckers thesis of Post-Capitalist Society
• Industrial revolution Knowledge applied tools,
  process, and products
• Productivity revolution Knowledge applied to
  work
• Management Revolution Knowledge applied to
  knowledge

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Knowledge Society Information Age A Distinct
Epoch?

• Manuel Castells thesis of network society
• In connection with the development
  Information Technology (IT) in the last three
  decades of the 20th century, Castells (1997)
  further Bells thesis by characterize the
  emerging society as network society, which is
  built on the network logic made possible by the
  advancements of IT. The logic of IT network,
  according to Castells, can be characterized as
  follows.

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Knowledge Society Information Age A Distinct
Epoch?

• Manuel Castells thesis of network society
• Central position of information in production
• It replaces land and natural resources in
  pre-industrial society and capital in industrial
  society to become the primary factor of
  production in the value production process.
• In industrial society, it is information and
  knowledge acting on technology, which triggered
  the industrial revolution but in informational
  society, it is technology acting on information
  that revokes technological breakthrough.
• As a result, technology to act on information has
  replaced the technology on natural materials and
  energy to become the major driving force for
  advancement and competitions.

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Knowledge Society Information Age A Distinct
Epoch?

• Manuel Castells thesis of network society
• Pervasiveness of IT Because information and
  knowledge are integral part of human activities
  and modern IT has provided such a penetrating
  capacities to almost every aspects of human
  activities, IT has pervaded into every corner of
  informational society.

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Knowledge Society Information Age A Distinct
Epoch?

• Manuel Castells thesis of network society
• Constitution of network logic
• The Atom is the past. The symbol of science
  for the next century is the dynamical Net
  Whereas the Atom represents clean simplicity, the
  Net channels the messy power of complexity. The
  only organization capable of nonprejudiced
  growth, or unguided learning is a network. All
  other typologies limited what can happen. A
  network swarm is all edges and therefore open
  ended any way you come at it. Indeed, the network
  is the least structured organization that can be
  said to have any structure at all. In fact a
  plurality of truly divergent components can only
  remain coherent in a network. No other
  arrangement chain, pyramid, tree, circle, hub
  can contain true diversity work as a whole.
  (Kelly, 1995, p.25-27 quoted in Castells, 19976,
  note71, p. 61-62)

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Knowledge Society Information Age A Distinct
Epoch?

• Manuel Castells thesis of network society
• Flexibility The fluid structure of the network
  and its IT basis provide the network with high
  degree of modifiabity, reversibility, and
  reconfigurability. In one word, flexibility has
  become one of the definitive features of IT
  network.
• Convergence Built on the above-mentioned
  features of IT network, the network also equips
  with high degree of compatibility and
  conversability, with other systems.

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Information, Knowledge and IT Conceptual
Clarifications

• Conceptions of information and knowledge
• Norbert Weiners conception of information in
  Cybernetics Control and Communication in the
  Animal and the Machine (1948)
• Information is a name for the content of what
  is exchanged with the outer world as we adjust to
  it, and make our adjustment felt upon it. The
  process of receiving and of using information is
  the process of our adjusting to the contingencies
  of the outer environment, and of our living
  effectively within that environment. To live
  effectively is to live with adequate information.
  Thus communication and control belong to the
  essence of mans inner life, even as they belong
  to his life in society. (Wiener, 1950/1967, Pp.
  26-27)

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Information, Knowledge and IT Conceptual
Clarifications

• Conceptions of information and knowledge
• Manuel Castells Conception in The Rise of
  Network Society (1996)
• Information is data that have been organized
  and communicated. (Porat, 1977, p.2 quoted in
  Castells, 1996, p. 17, n.27)
• Knowledge is a set of organized statements of
  facts or ideas, presenting a reasoned judgement
  or an experimental results, which is transmitted
  to others through some communication medium in
  some systematic form. (Bell, 1973, p. 175
  quoted in Castells, 1996, p. 17, n.27

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Information, Knowledge and IT Conceptual
Clarifications

• Conceptions of information and knowledge
• Nonaka and Takenchis conception in The Knowledge
  Creating Company (1995)
• Information is a flow of messages, while
  knowledge is created by the very flow of
  information, anchored in the beliefs and
  commitment of its holder (p. 58)
• Information provides a new point of view for
  interpreting events or objects, which makes
  visible previously invisible meanings or shed
  light on unexpected connections. Thus,
  information is a necessary medium or material for
  eliciting and constructing knowledge. (p. 58)

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Information, Knowledge and IT Conceptual
Clarifications

• Conceptions of information and knowledge
• Nonaka and Takenchis conception in The Knowledge
  Creating Company (1995)
• However, Nanaka and Takenchi underline the
  apparent distinction between information and
  knowledge. First, knowledge, unlike information,
  is about beliefs and commitment. Knowledge is a
  function of a particular stance, perspective, or
  intention. Second, knowledge, unlike information,
  is about action. It is always knowledge to some
  end'. And third, knowledge, like information, is
  about meaning. It is context-specific and
  relational. (p.58, original emphases)

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Information, Knowledge and IT Conceptual
Clarifications

• Conceptions of information and knowledge
• Basic components of Information
• Life system, e.g. human being
• External reality, e.g. natural and social
  realities
• Perceivable and conceivable signals/messages
  from the external reality to the life system

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Information, Knowledge and IT Conceptual
Clarifications

• Conceptions of information and knowledge
• Conceptual hierarchy of information and knowledge
• Data Representations of matters and energies
  existing in external reality
• Signals Data attended by sense organs of life
  systems
• Information Messages codified and abstracted by
  life systems
• Ideas and Knowledge Information systemized by
  living cognitive systems, e.g. human brain
• Master ideas and wisdom

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Information, Knowledge and IT Conceptual
Clarifications

• Conception of Tecnology
• Ron Westrums conception of technology
• Technology as things and artifacts
• Technology as techniques
• Technology as knowledge
• Thomas P. Hughes conception
• Technology as machine
• Technology as system
• Technology as institution
• Technology as culture

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Conception of Technology
Knowledge
Technique
Artifact
System
Machine
Institution
Culture
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Information, Knowledge and IT Conceptual
Clarifications

• Information technology can simply defined as any
  man-made means in handling information. IT,
  therefore can be classified into
• Technology of Information gathering From sense
  organs of life systems, e.g. eyes, ears, touch
  receptors, to data collection mechanisms such as
  radar, X-ray, census, opinion poll, R and D
  institutes and research university
• Technology of information processing
• Technology of information codification, e.g.
  signs, symbols, languages, codes, and bite
• Technology of information abstraction, e.g.
  concepts, indexes, theories
• Technology of information storage, e.g. human
  brain, relics, historical records, books, hard
  discs in computers
• Technology of information communication and
  diffusion, e.g. human speech acts, writing and
  reading, telecommunication, internet

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• The consequences of Information-Technologicalizati
  on on knowledge
• Impacts of information technologies on production
  and transmission of knowledge (i.e. research and
  education)
• Genetics provides an example that is accessible
  to the layman it owes its theoretical paradigm
  to cybernetics. (Lyotard, 1979, p.4)
• Miniaturization and commercialization of
  intelligent machines
• The nature of knowledge cannot survive in the
  information age until it is translatable into
  quantities of information, computer language, and
  informational commodity
• These processes of mercantilization of
  knowledge is vital of nation-states in global
  competition in the information age.

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• The consequences of Information-Technologicalizati
  on on knowledge
• From the ivory tower of university to the market
  of global patent
• In modern age, knowledge generation and creation
  are endowed dominantly to universities and their
  departments and laboratories
• In knowledge economy, the competitiveness of
  firms and states depend on their capacities of
  applying technologies on knowledge. As a result,
  knowledge generation and transmission are on
  longer confined to the purviews of the
  higher-education institutes and have become the
  primary concerns and endeavors of firms and
  governments. (Lyotard, 1979 Guile, 2006) As a
  result, knowledge for truth has given way to
  knowledge for performativity. (Lyotard, 1979)

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• The consequences of Information-Technologicalizati
  on on knowledge
• From the knowledge system to knowledge network
  The epistemological change
• Knowledge is perceived as systems, each of which
  possesses definite boundary and structure, such
  as mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. and the
  inquiry of knowledge is conceived as solid paths
  with definite objectives and well-structured
  procedures.
• Knowledge is perceived as networks, which of each
  appears to be a configuration of data,
  information, ideas and propositions with no
  definite boundary or hierarchy and the
  knowledge- construction process is conceived as
  exercises of pastiche and hybridization

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• The consequences of Information-Technologicalizati
  on on knowledge
• From the world of atoms and bits The ontological
  change
• Atoms and the world of atoms Atoms belong to
  the physical worldand to the world which can be
  captured in analogue forms. (Lankshear
  Knobel, 2003, p. 51)
• Bits and the digital world Bits belong to the
  digital world. They are state of being like on
  or off, true or false, up or down, in or out,
  back or white which can be represented in binary
  code of 0s and 1s in a colourless, sizeless,
  weightless form that can be moved at the speed
  of light. (Lankshear Knobel, 2003, p. 51)

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• The modernist epistemology
• Modernist conception of epistemology
• The known A proposition of the world is
  existentially real in natural or cultural sense
• The knowner An inquiring agent is endowed with
  sensual and mental capacities to inquire truth
  embedded in the proposition of the world
• The process of coming to know A methodical
  process of verifying or justifying the truth
  embedded in a proposition
• The knowledge A system of justified and true
  propositions of the world

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• The modernist epistemology
• The modernist institution of knowledge
• Institution of knowledge production
  Universities, laboratories and research
  institutes
• Institution of knowledge dissemination
  Institutions of authorship, publication and
  readership
• Institution of knowledge transmission
  Institution of schooling (including curriculum,
  pedagogy and evaluation) and textbook publication

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Digital epistemology
• Conception of digital epistemology
• Changes in the known
• From physical space to cyberspace from atoms to
  bits from the world of analogues to the world of
  binary or digital states of being
• From physical reality to virtual reality
• Changes in the knower
• Collaborative knowers
• Temporally and spatially compressed or even
  evaporated footings of knowners
• Virtual knowers Knowers with freely chosen
  avatars (frame of reference)

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Digital epistemology
• Conception of digital epistemology
• Changes in the process of come to know
• Research for truth has been replaced by research
  for fund and/or power
• Education for humanity and emancipation has been
  replaced by education for employability and
  governability
• Delegitimation of modernist project of coming to
  know
• Relegitimation of the process of coming to know
  by performativity

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Digital epistemology
• Conception of digital epistemology
• Changes in knowledge
• Knowledge of performativity age
• The translatability into computer languages
• Accountable to the performativity of economic and
  administrative system
• Regression of knowledge to data and/or
  information
• Degradation of theory of signification and theory
  of knowledge

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On Knowledge Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Digital epistemology
• The digital institution of knowledge
• Institution of knowledge production RD
  departments of multinational corporations, and
  government commissioned projects have become the
  major driving force of knowledge generating
  machines.
• Institution of knowledge dissemination
  Hypertexts and hyperlinks have replaced
  institutions of authorship, publication and
  readership.
• Institution of knowledge transmission
  Face-to-face and hierarchical schooling systems
  have been losing ground to learning network of
  hyperlinks and hypertexts in compressed space and
  time.

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Education as coming to be literate
• What is literacy?
• Literacyis about the capacity of accessing,
  managing, integrating, evaluating and creating
  information to develop ones knowledge and
  potential, and to participate in, and contribute
  to, society. (Schleicher, 2003, p.3)
• Reading and writing literacy
• At the centre of literacy is reading literacy,
  defined...as the ability to use, interpret and
  reflect on written material. (Schleicher, 2003,
  p.3)
• Writing literacy It is an capacity of encoding
  the world into literal information, i.e. words.
• Reading literacy is an capacity of decoding
  literal information and retrieving it back to the
  world it intended to represent.

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Education as coming to be literate
• James Paul Gees three-dimensional model of
  literacy
• Operational literacy It refers to the mastery of
  the technical dimensions of a language. This may
  include
• Lexicology ???
• Phonology ???
• Semantics ???
• Grammar ??
• Syntax study ??????
• Pragmatics ??????

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Education as coming to be literate
• James Paul Greens three-dimensional model of
  literacy
• Cultural literacy It involves competence with
  meaning system of a social practice, knowing how
  to make and grasp meanings appropriately within
  the practice - in short, of understanding texts
  in relation to contexts. (Lankshear and Knobel,
  2003, P. 11)
• D. Hirsch Jr. (1987) Cultural Literacy What
  Every American Needs to Know.

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Education as coming to be literate
• James Paul Greens three-dimensional model of
  literacy
• Critical literacy It involves awareness that
  all social practices, and thus all literacies,
  are socially constructed and selective. If
  individuals are socialized into a social practice
  without realizing that it is socially constructed
  and selective, and that it can be acted on and
  transformed, they cannot play an active role in
  changing it. (Lankshear and Knobel, 2003, P. 11)
• Paulo Freire (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Conception of literacy in modernist epistemology
• Literacy is defined as the capacity of encoding
  and decoding meanings from literal texts.
  Accordingly, literacy is a literal capacity.
• Literacy is defined as the capacity of mediating
  the word-world relation embedded in literal
  texts. According literacy is an epistemological
  capacity.
• Cultural literacy is defined as the capacity of
  understanding the significant meaning embodied in
  literal texts and/or social and cultural
  practices.
• Critical literacy is defined as capacity of
  revealing the legitimation process underlying the
  knowledge and cultural meanings embedded in
  literal texts and/or social and cultural
  practices.

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Conception of literacy in digital epistemology
• Text-based literacy has been replaced by literacy
  of hypertext as well as IT apparatus of
  hyperlink. Literacy is no longer conceived simply
  as capacity of decoding and recoding of
  typographic representations, but is required to
  expand to icongraphic, sound, motion, semiotic
  representations, i.e. hypertexts.
• The epistemological literacy of word-world
  relationship has been replaced literacy of
  relationship between hypertext and virtual
  reality. In short, the word-world relation, which
  is supposed to be the empirical basis of
  epistemological literacy, has practically
  evaporated in the face of information-technologica
  lized world.

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Conception of literacy in digital epistemology
• The cultural literacy of understanding the
  significant meanings of a given national society
  has been replaced by the multi-cultural literacy
  or even hybrid-cultural literacy. As social and
  national meanings signified and embedded in
  literal texts has been eroded by hypertexts and
  hyperlinks, cultural meanings have lost their
  national and communal footholds.
• Critical literacy in modernist epistemology
  usually builds it criticism against dominations
  of social class, patriarchy, colonialism, etc. As
  these dominations go global and lose their
  communal and national footholds, critical
  literacy in digital epistemology has yet to find
  its multitude, which could aggregate and
  mobilize massive participants in social movements
  in global scale and under multiple agenda.

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Education as coming to master skills Stages of
  learning and the effectiveness of (CMI) Computer
  Assisted Instruction (IT literacy)
• Novice and advance beginner CMI can serve as
  drillmaster in practicing motor or intellectual
  skills. For advanced beginner these practices can
  be simulated in difference situations.
• Competence Competent performers seek rules and
  reasoning procedures to decide which plan or
  perspective to adopt. (p. 36)
• Proficiency The proficient performer immersed
  in the world of his skillful activities, see what
  needs to be done, but has to decide how to do
  it. (p. 41)
• Expertise The expert not only see what needs to
  be achieved, thanks to his vast repertoire of
  situational discriminations, he also sees
  immediately how to achieve his goal. (p. 41)

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Education as coming to master skills Stages of
  learning and the effectiveness of (CMI) Computer
  Assisted Instruction
• Mastery Mastery refers to performers who have
  developed their own style in performances.
• Practical wisdom Not only do people have to
  acquire skills by imitating the style of experts
  in specific domains they have to acquire the
  style of their culture in order to gain what
  Aristotle calls practice wisdom. Like embodied
  commonsense understanding, cultural style is too
  embodied to captured in a theory, and passed on
  by body.

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Education as coming to know the world Through
  embodied-presence or tele-presence
• Sense of reality In embodied-presence, such as
  face to face instruction or participant
  observation, one can have concrete grips of sense
  of distance, understanding of the context, and
  sense of risk and uncertainty. While in
  tele-presence, such as video-tape instruction or
  videoconferencing, all these grips and senses
  would be lost.
• Sense of interaction In embodied-presence
  participants, such as teachers and students can
  have direct contact and touch, uncertain and
  risky maneuvering and/or exchanges, and most of
  all look each other right into the eyes
• Sense of trust In embodied-presence participant
  can build up trustful relationship with the
  environments and each other. This in turn will
  constitute sense of belonging to the space of
  place and the presence of group.

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On Education Impacts of Knowledge Society

• Education as coming to invest in the present age
  Commitment to modern pilgrimage or nihilism and
  anonymity in the information highway.
• Anonymity in situation of tele-presence vs.
  embodied presence of recognition, name and
  identity
• Risk-free and non-consequence-bearing situations
  in the Net vs. situations of responsibility-bearin
  g and commitment
• Existence of nihilism vs. existence of pilgrimage

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Lecture 2 Knowledge Society and Its Impacts on
Knowledge and Education End