INFO 105 — Spring 2009 — Gerry Stahl & Nan Zhou

You Tube: “Information R/evolution”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM

INFO 105 — Spring 2009 — Gerry Stahl & Nan Zhou

First, some info about the users of this course’s info

Take 2 minutes to interview your neighbor in the classroom

Then stand up with your neighbor and introduce her/him to the class very briefly

Name; something about their interest in information; something they hope to get out or this course

Outline of this week’s class YouTube: “A vision of students today” Introductions of students & instructors Course overview (and Blackboard demo) Form small groups Theories of information & human thinking Re-thinking i-Education at the i-School:

the power of collaborative learning YouTube: “Information R/evolution” Human-computer interaction and learning Information and users YouTube: “The machine is us/ing us”

What is knowledge, info, learning???

The most important documents in history:

Plato, What is knowledge & learning? Shannon, What is information? Chomsky, How do we learn language?

Use, share, understand infoCore issues of information science: How do people use information Make sense of it, Evaluate it, Organize it

Theories of information, knowledge & thought — related to design of computer systems

Idealism, rationalism, empiricism, behaviorism, cognitivism, post-cognitivism

Weekly readings

Before midnight Sunday, post a review of each reading in Blackboard discussion

Before class, read other people’s reviews

Bring questions to class: mysterious words, incomprehensible sentences, confusing arguments

Individua

l assignmen

ts

1. Describe an information system

4. Midterm reflection paper 6. Contribute to an information

system 9. Final reflection paper

Group

assignmen

ts

2. Describe a functionality of your group’s information system

3. Conduct a group literature search

5. Compile a group annotated bibliography of research

7. Define a system limitation 8. Design an innovative new

function for your group’s information system

Group assignments

Wikipedia Google scholar Cite-U-Like Del.icio.us Political blogs Internet Public Library @

Drexel Drexel’s Hagerty Library FaceBook YouTube Other ???

Group assignments Any other info systems? 35 students in groups of 3-

5 = 7 to 11 groups, with

possible duplicate systems Show of hands for systems Write your last name next

to the system of your choice

The Blackboard information systemhttp://drexel.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp

A brief history of thought: info, knowledge, truth & human cognition

Plato’s philosophy

Starting point for Western thought, science & technology

Truth, knowledge, learning, wisdom Education takes the student out of the

common-sense world through stages and the student must struggle to make sense

A world of ideas, concepts, theory that sheds light on empirical sense perception

A brief history of Western philosophy (500 bc–2009 ad) Greek: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle Latinized Aristotelian Christian theology Descartes (cogito ergo sum) Empiricism vs rationalism Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx Behaviorism, cognitivism, post-

cognitivism

Plato distinguished the common-sense world of shadows from the realm of true knowledge, consisting of the general forms or concepts of things

The medieval Christian realms of heaven/earth

Descartes separation of mind and body Empiricism (sense perception &

induction) vs rationalism (logic, predictive science & deduction)

Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx (people constitute the world socially)

Introspective psychology: What do we experience about how we think?

Bias, rationalization, no implicit processes Behaviorism in the 1930’s-1950’s:

Pavlov dogs, Skinner rats & pidgeons learn by conditioned reflexes; drill & practice in education

Cognitivism in the 1960’s-1980’s: The human mind interprets and constructs

understanding of the world Post-cognitivism in the 1990’s-2010’s:

Not a purely rational, individual process of mental representations & models; tacit knowledge, interpersonal interaction, cultural practices

The readings & reviews

Where do they fit in the history of ideas?

Plato? Shannon & Weaver? Skinner & Chomsky?

Implications

Philosophies and scientific paradigms led to: Multi-disciplinary approaches, like

cognitive sciences, learning sciences, information sciences

Different theories of learning, education, scientific method, software designs

There were also larger social changes: war, prosperity, ideologies, technologies, etc.

Questions?

You should have lots of questions now. Many of them will be addressed in the

readings … Then you will have even deeper

questions … (I hope)