Chapter 1: The Network Society from knowledge to policy
The road map (history) of knowledge societies was moving from survival to agricultural Societies, then to the industrial society (transition process countries like Portugal), and finally to the post-industrial/Information/knowledge society (Like US, Finland, Singapore).
Industrial society was built based on power networks (energy networks, which cause the factory model in education) while network society was built based on digital communication networks (like internet) which extend to every country in our planet. (Essential in our 21st century learning model).
The network society, in the simplest terms, is a social structure (open structure) based on networks operated by information and communication technologies.Globalization is another way to refer to the network society. The network state
Cons views of new technologies/network society:
In these views, new technologies destroy jobs, Internet isolates, we suffer from an overload of information, the digital divide increases social exclusion, Big Brother extends its surveillance thanks to more powerful digital technologies, technological development is controlled by the military, the tempo of our lives is relentlessly accelerated by technology, biotechnology leads to human cloning and to major environmental hazars, Third World countries do not need technology but the satisfaction of their human needs, children are increasingly ignorant because they are messaging and chatting instead of reading books, nobody knows who is whom in the Internet, work efficiency is hampered by technology that does not rely on human experience, crime and violence, and even terrorism use the Internet as a privileged medium, and we are rapidly losing the magic of the human touch. We are alienated by technology.
Pros Views of new technologies/network society:
Although some workers are displaced and some occupations are phased out (e.g., traditional typist secretaries), other occupations appear (e.g. assistant managers instead of secretaries), more jobs are created, and most displaced workers are re-employed, except for those too old to adapt, their fate being decided depending on public policies in each society; Internet users are more social, have more friends and contacts, and are more socially and politically active than non-users; using internet in charity activities (e.g. collecting money for tsunami hurricane’s refugees), for health awareness campaigns (e.g. diabetes/Aids/.. campaigns), for environmental issues (e.g. Hopenhagen group); electronic trade in internet (e.g. ebay, amazon,…); knowledge transfer that internet and new technologies facilities it; internet is a real indicator of globalization and diversity in cultures we have today in planet (not in all countries but for a lot of countries); Digital networking technologies enable networks to overcome their historical limits of sharing their knowledge in innovative and accessible way.
There are three necessary conditions for productivity growth to take place: generation and diffusion of new microelectronics/ digital technologies of information and communication, on the basis of scientific research and technological innovation; transformation of labor, with the growth of highly educated, autonomous labor that is able to innovate and adapt to a constantly changing global and local economy “Self Programmable Labor”; diffusion of a new form of organization around networking.
Dilemmas of Our Time: Creativity versus Rentier Capitalism; Communication Democracy versus Political Control.
Chapter 7: The E-learning and the Transformation of Education for a Knowledge Economy
The knowledge economy is related to changes in society worldwide, particularly globalization, information/knowledge intensity, and networking and connectivity.
Characteristics of a knowledge economy include: the increased mobility of services, information, and workforce; the need to derive local value from information often in creative ways that go beyond expected performance; the need to work in multidisciplinary and distributed teams; the need to use information technology (IT) for knowledge management, sharing, and creation; the need to update and change ones skills throughout one’s lifetime; and the need to “act autonomously and reflectively, joining and functioning in socially heterogeneous groups”.
Know-why and know-who is matter than Know-what:
Know-what, or knowledge about facts, is nowadays diminishing in relevance. Know-why is knowledge about the natural world, society, and the human mind. Know-who refers to the world of social relations and is knowledge of who knows what and who can do what.Knowing key people is sometimes more important to innovation than knowing scientific principles.
Personal knowledge management skills as well as a knowledge management infrastructure for the organization or professional body supporting knowledge workers are critical to the learning needed for a knowledge economy.
The World Bank (2003) contrasts traditional learning with learning for a knowledge economy as moving away from the teacher and textbook as sources of knowledge towards the teacher as a guide for finding and interpreting real-world information; away from learning being delivered to learners who receive it toward learning by doing and participating as close to the real world as possible; from assessment being based on responding to questions with pre-determined right and wrong answers to assessment being based on competence development as documented by a variety of forms of performance including those that require integrating one’s work with the work of others.
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Example from professional:
From Shell EP company applying the e-learning system and how it positively enhances employees’ skills and knowledge.
Example from education:
From University of Twente applying the e-learning system that causes a competencies growth to their students.
My Contribution to these two chapters reading Plus UNESCO report:
Network Society:
I believe there are plenty of challenges to build a network society, these challenges stated in UNESCO report like poverty, human rights, human security (Maslow’s theory), illiteracy, democracy, language barrier, social barrier, and a lot of other factors that affect forming a knowledge/network society, even within the same country it could be relative network society (like in India case as stated by UNESCO report).
Another problem would be the misuse of the internet, as stated in UNESCO report by giving examples about terrorist, I would add also slavery trade, and any other type of crime that could be happening using internet, Also privacy of individual (like what happened to some Facebook users sometime back). But there are ways we can secure the internet and deal with these challenges.
I believe also some people living in non-knowledge societies could be knowledgeable individuals themselves independently of the society that they live in, in condition of that they have all the tools/facilities/abilities that will make them members in the big network society (Globalization).
E-learning:
For sure E-learning is the future market for a lot of students all over the world as it saves cost, time, overcome the geographical obstacles, flexibility, and a lot of other advantages; even countries of South is taking a big move in e-learning (as stated by UNESCO report that out of the eleven largest open universities, eight are situated in countries of South), it is a new field in education investment because of its advantages.
As mentioned in UNESCO report, I believe that rich countries need to help poor countries to build their infrastructure which is going to enable delivering e-learning to those countries.
E-learning requires huge efforts from the provider to upload all material/courses and make it available online for all users; good example in UNESCO report was MIT which had to upload 500 of their courses online plus 1,500 in phases.
A good example mentioned in UNESCO report was the UK government initiative called National Grid for Learning to connect libraries, schools, and learning centers to form virtual education resource center; a good example also would be khalifa university initiative in UAE to connect the government universities (HCT, Zayed, and UAE-U) to form a virtual education resource center.
