EDD 5229
Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society
Lecture 2
Knowledge Society and
Its Impacts on Knowledge & Education
Knowledge Society & Information Age:
A Distinct Epoch?
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Typology of society by technological bases
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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
Knowledge Society & Information Age:
A Distinct Epoch?
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Daniel Bell’s thesis of post-industrial society
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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
Knowledge Society & Information Age:
A Distinct Epoch?
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Peter Drucker’s thesis of Post-Capitalist
Society
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Industrial revolution: Knowledge applied tools,
process, and products
Productivity revolution: Knowledge applied to
work
Management Revolution: Knowledge applied to
knowledge
Knowledge Society & Information Age:
A Distinct Epoch?
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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 Bell’s 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.
Knowledge Society & Information Age:
A Distinct Epoch?
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Manuel Castells thesis of network society
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Central position of information in production:
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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.
Knowledge Society & Information Age:
A Distinct Epoch?
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Manuel Castells thesis of network society
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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.
Knowledge Society & Information Age:
A Distinct Epoch?
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Manuel Castells thesis of network society
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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)
Knowledge Society & Information Age:
A Distinct Epoch?
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Manuel Castells thesis of network society
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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.
Information, Knowledge and IT:
Conceptual Clarifications
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Conceptions of information and knowledge
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Norbert Weiner’s 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 man’s inner life, even as
they belong to his life in society.” (Wiener, 1950/1967, Pp.
26-27)
Information, Knowledge and IT:
Conceptual Clarifications
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Conceptions of information and knowledge
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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
Information, Knowledge and IT:
Conceptual Clarifications
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Conceptions of information and knowledge
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Nonaka and Takenchi’s 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)
Information, Knowledge and IT:
Conceptual Clarifications
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Conceptions of information and knowledge
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Nonaka and Takenchi’s 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)
Information, Knowledge and IT:
Conceptual Clarifications
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Conceptions of information and knowledge
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Basic components of Information
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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
Information, Knowledge and IT:
Conceptual Clarifications
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Conceptions of information and knowledge
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Conceptual hierarchy of information and
knowledge
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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
Information, Knowledge and IT:
Conceptual Clarifications
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Conception of Tecnology
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Ron Westrum’s conception of technology
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Technology as things and artifacts
Technology as techniques
Technology as knowledge
Thomas P. Hughes’ conception
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Technology as machine
Technology as system
Technology as institution
Technology as culture
Conception of Technology
Knowledge
Technique
Artifact
Machine
System
Institution
Culture
Information, Knowledge and IT:
Conceptual Clarifications
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Information technology can simply defined as any manmade means in handling information. IT, therefore can be
classified into
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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
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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
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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The consequences of Information-Technologicalization
on knowledge
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Impacts of information technologies on production and
transmission of knowledge (i.e. research and education):
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“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.
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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The consequences of Information-Technologicalization
on knowledge
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From the ivory tower of university to the market of global
patent
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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)
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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The consequences of Information-Technologicalization
on knowledge
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From the knowledge system to knowledge network: The
epistemological change
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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 knowledgeconstruction process is conceived as exercises of pastiche and
hybridization
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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The consequences of Information-Technologicalization
on knowledge
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From the world of atoms and bits: The ontological change
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Atoms and the world of atoms: “Atoms belong to the physical
world…and 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)
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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The modernist epistemology
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Modernist conception of epistemology
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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
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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The modernist epistemology
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The modernist institution of knowledge
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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
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Digital epistemology
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Conception of digital epistemology
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Changes in the known:
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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
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Collaborative knowers
Temporally and spatially compressed or even evaporated
footings of knowners
Virtual knowers: Knowers with freely chosen avatars (frame
of reference)
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Digital epistemology
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Conception of digital epistemology
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Changes in the process of come to know
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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
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Digital epistemology
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Conception of digital epistemology
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Changes in knowledge
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Knowledge of performativity age:
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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
On Knowledge:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Digital epistemology
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The digital institution of knowledge
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Institution of knowledge production: R&D 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.
On Education:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Education as coming to be literate
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What is literacy?
“Literacy…is about the capacity of accessing, managing,
integrating, evaluating and creating information to develop
one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in, and
contribute to, society.” (Schleicher, 2003, p.3)
Reading and writing literacy:
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“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.
On Education :
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Education as coming to be literate
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James Paul Gee’s three-dimensional model of literacy
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Operational literacy: It refers to the mastery of the technical
dimensions of a language. This may include
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Lexicology 辭彙學
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Phonology 音韻學
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Semantics 語意學
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Grammar
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文法
Syntax study 句子結構研究
Pragmatics 句子運用研究
On Education :
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Education as coming to be literate
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James Paul Green’s three-dimensional model of literacy
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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.
On Education :
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Education as coming to be literate
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James Paul Green’s three-dimensional model of literacy
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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.
On Education:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Conception of literacy in modernist epistemology
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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.
On Education:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Conception of literacy in digital epistemology
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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 informationtechnologicalized world.
On Education:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Conception of literacy in digital epistemology
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The cultural literacy of understanding the significant meanings
of a given national society has been replaced by the multicultural 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.
On Education:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Education as coming to master skills: Stages of learning and the
effectiveness of (CMI) Computer Assisted Instruction (IT literacy)
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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)
On Education:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Education as coming to master skills: Stages of learning and the
effectiveness of (CMI) Computer Assisted Instruction
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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.
On Education:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Education as coming to know the world: Through embodiedpresence or tele-presence
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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.
On Education:
Impacts of Knowledge Society
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Education as coming to invest in the present age:
Commitment to modern pilgrimage or nihilism and
anonymity in the information highway.
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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-bearing and commitment
Existence of nihilism vs. existence of pilgrimage
Lecture 2
Knowledge Society and
Its Impacts on Knowledge and Education
End