[Overview]
With more and more computers available in schools and at home, and more
and more internet connections, teachers began exploring new ways of
teaching. Going from print book culture to digital culture was changing
their relationship to knowledge, and the way both scholars and students
were seeing teaching and learning. Print book culture provided stable
information whereas digital culture provided "moving" information.
During the September 1996 meeting of IFIP (International Federation of
Information Processing), Dale Spender gave a lecture about Creativity
and the Computer Education Industry, with insightful comments on
forthcoming trends.
[In Depth (published in 1999)]
Going from print book culture to digital culture began changing our
relationship to knowledge. Book culture provided stable information
whereas digital culture provided "moving" information. During the
September 1996 meeting of the IFIP (International Federation of
Information Processing), Dale Spender gave an interesting lecture about
Creativity and the Computer Education Industry.
Here are some excerpts:
"Throughout print culture, information has been contained in
books - and this has helped to shape our notion of information. For the
information in books stays the same - it endures.
And this has encouraged us to think of information as stable - as a
body of knowledge which can be acquired, taught, passed on, memorized,
and tested of course.
The very nature of print itself has fostered a sense of truth; truth
too is something which stays the same, which endures. And there is no
doubt that this stability, this orderliness, has been a major
contributor to the huge successes of the industrial age and the
scientific revolution. (...)
But the digital revolution changes all this. Suddenly it is not the
oldest information - the longest lasting information that is the most
reliable and useful. It is the very latest information that we now put
the most faith in - and which we will pay the most for. (...)
Education will be about participating in the production of the latest
information. This is why education will have to be ongoing throughout
life and work. Every day there will be something new that we will all
have to learn. To keep up. To be in the know. To do our jobs. To be
members of the digital community. And far from teaching a body of
knowledge that will last for life, the new generation of information
professionals will be required to search out, add to, critique, 'play
with', and daily update information, and to make available the constant
changes that are occurring."