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العنوان: From Information Society to Knowledge Society

التاريخ : May 23, 2005

المصدر:  ---

نص الموضوع :

Some years ago, we were talking about computers and informatics, and
their influence on learning, teaching, and education.
The new technological tools brought new resources for the teacher,
and were considered a supplementary aid for teaching, like
other technologies had been before. Information technologies then
developed processing digitalized information. At the same
time, communication technologies transporting digitalized
information, developed as well; both merged leading to new tools
known as information and communication technologies. The concept of
Information Society appeared: information has
become a valuable good, that one can buy and sell, and information
has acquired a major place in economic and social
matters. The organization of societies evolves being based more and
more on information and access to information.
Information is very easily accessible, in any place, at any time. But
new questions appeared: how to sort and categorize
information, which is abundant and untidy? How to evaluate and assess
information, how to distinguish between accurate and
wrong information? New ethical questions about information, access to
information, and distribution of information were
raised. Information is like raw materials: it must be processed
before used.
Information is not knowledge. Information, even if it is digitalized,
interactive, dynamic, has no human dimension. The next
step, the major step, is now to move toward Knowledge Society.
Information Society is based on technology; Knowledge
Society is based on human beings.
Knowledge is a good that can be stored, circulated, exchanged. But it
is an evolving good, continuously changing and
enriching. Knowledge has a human dimension; it is linked with what
human beings do and think; knowledge is created and
developed in and by human beings. Knowledge is both an individual and
collective matter. Knowledge is linked to culture and
technology; there exists not one knowledge society, but, certainly,
many knowledge societies. Some have a lot of knowledge
and can produce knowledge; others are poorer; there are conflicts
about knowledge, territories, and borders. In knowledge
societies, our geographical and political borders are no longer
accurate, new borders are appearing, as well as new territories,
new powers, and new conflicts.
Knowledge societies must not be reduced to knowledge economy: it is
not only a matter of buying and selling knowledge, but,
more fundamentally, to analyse the social changes due to the advent
of knowledge societies.
We are used to describe knowledge in terms of subjects, disciplines:
mathematics, history, literature, languages, etc. But
knowledge is getting more and more composite; the questions addressed
in society, that knowledge must keep answering, are
more and more transverse and complex. Edgar Morin has shown that the
necessary knowledge cannot be listed in the terms
of disciplines, and he has suggested "Seven complex lessons in
education for the future": detecting error and illusion,
principles of pertinent knowledge, teaching the human condition,
earth identity, confronting uncertainties, understanding
each other, and ethics for the human genre.