The articles can be located at:
No Data Left Behind By Edwin Wargo http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/31/f6/d8.pdf
Building a Digital Library on a Shoestring By Kate Foster and Alma Creighton
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=25&hid=16&sid=49cf9437-057c-4e46-a709-e93ea4aefdc4%40SRCSM2
Ben Franklin’s Information Service:
Lost: Serendipity
Chapter Nine primarily discusses the library, a source of endless information for the masses. Roszak refers to the seemingly “not so overwhelming” amount of technology available for the public in the library itself. It prompts the question as to why this is so. Roszak offers several interesting comments worth considering:
- Librarians can and do use money to fund technology when the funding is available.
- Technology companies don’t find the libraries marketing grounds-a place to promote their merchandise and entice a new market. Why? Read on.
- Libraries as noted by the American Library Association in 1990, supports a “poor people’s services policy resolution” that guarantees “equal access to information for all.”
- Poor people aren’t the sort of market big companies are targeting.
- Roszak also toys with the thought that perhaps technology is also not big business in the world of libraries because it is a traditionally a women’s profession.
Interesting enough, Roszak points out that the poor are those most desperately in need of information. Roszak also goes on to describe how information that every citizen of the United States should be entitled to, has now become a commodity sold by fee-for-use vendors. Fortunately, states have been fighting to change this. Unfortunately, it should have never been up for sale.
Points we pondered: - More importantly, those librarians who are lucky enough to have the funding for technology availability are pleased with the supplemental resources they have acquired. It is essential to recognize that computers with their so called infinite wisdom are not the ultimate sources to use but instead one of many sources.
- It can not be stressed enough that students have to learn to recognize that computer research is not ultimately authoritative. As a matter of fact, it is important to always question your sources no matter where they come from.
- In addition, they comment on the fact finding skill that is necessary to locate the information needed, a skill they say is not honed by a home computer user.
- Computers don’t have all the answers and if we truly believe they do, we will stop coming across things we never intended to find.
- Roszak’s reference to outdated programs. It was interesting to learn that programs are still used in which the programmers are no longer around and the programs can not effectively be manipulated by other programmers; yet, they continue to be used. This is a frightening state to think that the values, as Roszak calls them, of the original programmers may be outdated and so specifically defined to that one individual. It merely supports Roszak’s reasoning that computer’s can not possibly take in all the information (and ideas) to produce the same types of decisions a human would be capable of making.
- Roszak concludes this chapter with: “The more we are left in the care of their machines to meet our intellectual needs, the more likely it is that data will displace ideas, and the life of the mind wither.”
“Shhh! Quiet, please.” People are thinking.
In the Wrong Hands:
This chapter is devoted to manner in which technology has been primarily used in today’s society. As Roszak states it: This is human existence neatly adapted to the level of binary numbers.
He is, of course, referring to how data, yours and ours, has been continuously collected, stored, and sold to the highest bidder. Nothing is sacred; nothing is personal. He tells the story about the name of a boy who was contacted by the Selective Service for failing to register for the draft. As it turned out, no one lived at the address stated, as matter of fact, the boy did not exist; it was a name made up and submitted at an ice cream shop.
One of the largest collectors of information is the government. It uses include: surveillance, polling, and for wartime decision making. Roszak spends a great deal of words on the election of President Ronald Reagan who utilized the polls to a great extent. As noted, polls changed the campaigns to address the concerns or preferences of the people. Technology made this happen in an efficient manner. “What matters is the candidates think the pollsters make a difference and now plan their campaigns in response to computerized information.” And it’s all about the numbers.
A point we pondered: - A form of reverse psychology? It’s a manipulation of the people to be led to believe that their opinion counts as is the democratic way. When, in fact, that is all that matters, “not the forming of opinions, but their mere tabulation.”
It’s big business because as Roszak offers:
“All these efforts are based on one root assumption: that human thought, even at its most subtle and intricate levels, is a kind of information processing; therefore, the more data and the faster the processing, the better.”
Descartes’s Angel:
This chapter focuses on the information processing model of thought. Roszak begins by referencing Rene’ Descartes and Francis Bacon, two philosophers who were trying to figure out how the mind works and develop a new method of understanding. Building on each other strengths and weaknesses, they combined their ideas and “formed a working alliance to produce the intellectual enterprise we call science.” They believed that the mind was “guided at every step and that business was done as if by machinery.” Roszak feels that thinking is more involved than connecting data points and feels that the mind processes data selectively, without rules, depending on the “project” that is at hand. These “projects” that Roszak refers to range from basic survival skills to higher level skills and it is teaching students the latter that Roszak feels “is the whole meaning of education”.
Roszak, like Oppenheimer, stresses the idea that computers should not be introduced to students at an early age because it does not help them to become better thinkers. Young students need to be involved in building basic skills and listening to and reading various types of stories, instead of being involved with the computer. Interactions with the computer should be saved for the later years (high school and/or college).
Points we pondered: - “The best approach to computer literacy might be to stress the limitations and abuses of the machine, showing the students how little they need it to develop their autonomous powers of thought”. This is not something that many educators probably think about doing because they are too worried about incorporating the computer into the curriculum, but something that could probably prove to be very beneficial.
- The idea of intellectual adventure. When educators teach the students to realize that there are different levels of thought and that they are brought on by ideas.
Related Articles
No Data Left Behind: Edwin Wargo begins this article by posing the question, “If technology can affect student learning, shouldn’t it be considered in making decisions?”
As one reads this article, we couldn’t help but think about what we’ve read in the last few books. Are we living in a “data glut” society? Is the school system now following in the footsteps of the government and becoming infatuated with the “total recall?”
Edwin Wargo describes using data for decision making. Seems harmless. Right? He states the challenges of collecting the information (although, from what we’ve learned in the Cult of Information it’s as simple as signing up for a super-saver card at your local grocery store), finding what set of filters need to be created, and ensuring the filtered information is understandable and meaningful. Luckily, he also includes that “decisions are limited by the information used to make them.” However, do you think he is really as aware of what makes the data meaningful and to the right person? He refers to the stakeholders as being the ones that will take the most meaning from the data. However, as our “Educational Innovations” course has taught us, stakeholders can refer to a whole range of folks. Where are teachers on that totem pole? Don’t curriculum, instruction, learning, and assessment issues directly impact teachers on a daily basis? This would imply that the values or the set of filters should be written by teachers or at least by consulting with teachers? Do they really?
Wargo also states in one section of his article “Even if all the filters (questions) aren’t yet crafted, begin to collect the information. It most likely will be useful later.” In that section, he is referring to tracking down issues such as Internet inaccessibility, inappropriate website visits, etc. While these issues would tend to help with the maintenance of the system in place, he also suggests tracking technology usage? As a matter of fact, he mentions noting trends in the usage of technology, which teachers use the technology (for the purposes of identifying the need and effectiveness of teacher training). Should we, as teachers, see this as interference (Big Brother effect) or a way of really helping student achievement?
It’s interesting to read in this article Wargo’s emphasis on filtering information according to who is viewing it, thus, to have the utmost value and meaning. However, this makes one wonder how often the values or filters are updated to ensure the most meaning. Again, we ask, who writes the filters?
As we read this article, we realize we picked it apart with a fine tooth comb: agreeing with some points made and questioning others. As is the purpose of being an informed reader, it is important to not take anything at face value. Again, we invite you to post comments, answers, and more questions.
Building a Digital Library on a Shoestring: In chapter nine Roszak poses the question, “How likely is it, then, that the libraries of the world (including all non-English collections) will ever be totally (or largely) digitized – a recurrent computer enthusiast fantasy?” If the example provided in this article is any example, the answer we would provide would be most likely never.
This article discusses the University of South Carolina’s development of a digital library. What they have accomplished with what they have available to them is impressive to say the least, but it gives us an insight as to the complexity of creating a digital library.
In order to figure out where to begin, the university first created a team of staff members who all had interest in creating a digital library. These people added to their already overloaded work schedule and volunteered their time and energy to get this project off the ground. Could this type of situation happen in a public or school library where many educators only volunteer for things if there is a stipend involved? Would there be someone as “tech savvy” as Kate in each library to be able to get the digital library started? The university also spent little money on equipment and servers because they were able to utilize what they already had in place. Would this be the case in the public school setting where servers “crash” without notice and the equipment available varies from school to school? It also is mentioned that after a year and a half of scanning that the digital library had nine collections (100-300 images a collection). They accomplished this with the assistance of interns that they hired. Without the assistance of interns, will it ever be possible to have a digital library that is of benefit or will it simply be a waste of time and space on the server?
The University of South Carolina received rave reviews for their development, but would the same results be seen in the public setting where there is less money, and more need for human interaction with students, rather than computers?
Kerri and Marcy