Information InFiltration. The media culture blend-o-matic.

front page???E.A.Dobbsreview-a-rama

secret room upstairsFilterItYourselfwhatever
Sort:
Display:
Auto-didactic? | 9 comments
[new] The university of the future? (Avg. Score: none / Raters: 0) (#7)
by amy on Sat Mar 20th, 2004 at 09:37:33 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
(User Info) http://plagiarist.org

As I think Peter was alluding to, maybe "net-educated" and "academically-or-otherwise-traditionally-educated" will merge soon. The cost-effective and hi-tech tasty benefits of Distance Learning have been an educational enticement for at least a decade - more recently, online classes have been joining the offerings. Granted, these classes aren't *exactly* self-taught.. but definitely moving closer to that 0 to 1,000 faculty student ratio necessitated by ever-declining education budgets. Of course, this is nothing new (nor is my complaint) - but just a slow expansion of what's been going on for a long time.

On a related note: Here's a project in progress by one of my colleagues, Adriene Jenik. It's a speculative fiction PDA performance project depicting life at a research university (ours) in 2030. In the specflic world, tuition is free, but the students basically get to be lab rats and eventually become enslaved to corporate sponsors. It's a hot marketing strategy for the uni. :-)


# begin amy's sig
-- Discordia is nice.
# end amy's sig





[ Parent ]


 
[new] Speed kills, or does it? (Avg. Score: none / Raters: 0) (#4)
by PeterHuetmannsberger (huetmann <at> violine.at) on Fri Mar 19th, 2004 at 04:04:11 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME
(User Info)

Aileen has already brought up the subject of violin making, so I thought I would answer for myself.

I did my apprenticeship for three years with a selftaught violin maker, who spent lots of time in other people's workshop, a long time before the internet was made public. After those three years I had the feeling I knew it all, and started my own business right away. Many a time I regretted that move and I am sure I would have had it much easier, had I spent more years with other makers before I set off by myself. I just tried to describe to my wife how I see the difference between knowing things and knowledge. I may know how to construct a certain feature in an instrument, but not until my hands know how to do that job by themselves, do I consider it "knowing" the job. This is much more easily acquired through being shown, I feel, than through studying what's on the web, or at the same token a book.

Michael, you might be right, it is a luxury, but so are handmade cabinets or in my case musical instruments. In the academic world anything besides business studies and IT seem to have become the same kind of luxury. I think it would be a shame not to be able to offer to the internet generation the "old", luxurious way of learning besides the "fast" and independent way. Even if it is just for the inevitable conflicts that arise between, in my field, a master and an apprentice, which produce new ground for growing in whatever way.

And to try an answer to your question. I am sure this is happening already. If you look at the IT world, quite often experience counts a lot more, than academic status, which is a good thing, I believe, but shouldn't we be careful, that because of the acceleraton of things the "old" ways don't get lost?

[ Parent ]


 
[new] Time to know (Avg. Score: none / Raters: 0) (#3)
by Aileen on Fri Mar 19th, 2004 at 12:53:16 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME
(User Info)

That is an interesting comparison, Michael, which leads to a lot of associations for me personally - I live with a violin maker and different kinds of "knowledge" is a frequently recurring question, also in relation to the differences in what we both do with computers. First of all, I think all of his formal training and all the knowledge he has acquired over the years - historical background research, measuring and studying original instruments all over Europe and the US, long discussions with professional musicians - would not, by itself, account for the quality of the instruments he makes. His own musical ability, his keen hearing and the way he perceives music and sound in general, is not something that can be learned, I don't think, even if it can be practiced and honed over a long period of time.
How important a factor is time in other kinds of knowledge? What role does that play in turning "information derived from net-based technologies" into "knowledge"? I know how to gather information quickly on the Internet to get something of an overview of a broader context, and sometimes this seems to create the impression that I know more than I actually do. Working as a translator, I have the privilege of working with people who are very knowledgeable. It is important to me to understand the context of what they are communicating, to see connections and be aware of the implications of the ideas and how they are conveyed, but I see a great difference between that kind of understanding and actually "knowing".
This difference is more acute at the moment as I am trying to prepare to take part in a course on network administration starting next week. Reading through manuals on basic Unix commands, I *recognize* the commands, I know what they do, and I know how to find the relevant explanations for them on the infrequent occasions when I need to use them, but I am feeling very insecure about my lack of the kind of knowledge that can only be acquired through practice, and I just don't have that much practice. It remains to be seen how long I last in this course, or whether I need to go back to something more basic - because the information I have gathered is not yet knowledge.
To return to your question, given the quantity of information available and the speed at which it can be gathered, where does the factor of time fit in and what role does personal ability and interest (even more: passionately *wanting* to know) play in turning information into knowledge?

[ Parent ]


 

Auto-didactic? | 9 comments
Sort:
Display:

Menu

[- how to post and vote
[- faq (discordia q&a)
[- faq en español
[- search
[- send feedback

[- sick of english?
[- multi-lingual babelfilter

Login
[- Username
[- Password


Make new account >>

Stories, articles, images and comments are owned by the Author. The Rest © 2003 The Discordants under the Gnu Public License

submit story | create account | faq | search