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What is information | Why is
it important
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Do you know what you're talking about? Where do you get your information? How do you tell whether it's any good? What do you do when you find contradictory information? How do you make your own information easy to revise and find?
What is information?
Why is it important?
organized email:
newsgroups and mailing lists
email
chain-letter virus hoaxes
We
live in a designed world, so learn more about information design,
interface design, and graphic design from this collection of Design Guides.
Internet searching: beyond the search engines
to come:
information
quality: the good, the bad, and the ugly
information
systems: archives, asset management, databases, formats
Dead Tree Bookstore --
personally, I still read ink-on-paper books when I can't find the information
online.
The Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age,
by Alvin Toffler, George Gilder, George Keyworth, and Esther Dyson
excerpt
from The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, by Jonathan Spence
"In 1596 Matteo Ricci taught the Chinese how to build a memory palace." Sounds a lot like the World Wide Web, too.
"Revealing
the Elephant: The Use and Misuse of Computers in Education" by Alan Kay
in Educom Review, July
1996
How exactly can we get children to explore ways of thinking beyond the one they're "wired for" (story-telling) and venture out into intellectual territory that needs to be discovered anew by every thinking person: logic and systems "eco-logic"?
Socrates on writing.
He couldn't write himself and wasn't too keen on having others learn. Writers,
he told Plato (who wrote it down):
... will be hearers of many things and will have learned
nothing
... will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing
... will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality
Information Is an Activity
from "The Economy of Ideas" in WIRED
2.03 by John Perry Barlow.
Information is the pitch, not the baseball, the dance, not
the dancer.
Information is a verb, not a noun.
Over the millennia, critical thinking has also been known as logic and clear thinking. It has always been in short supply in the human mind given to superstition, magic, and emotional associations. In truth, we rarely have enough good evidence or the time to sit back and contemplate it.
Topics you'll soon find here:
evidence
data analysis
logic, logical fallacies
quantitative thinking
numeracy
How did the Chinese react to Matteo Ricci's new ideas? "Fabulous and Mysterious Information"
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab's Web Credibility Project
To understand what leads people to believe what they find on
the Web. We hope this knowledge will enhance Web site design and promote future
research on Web credibility. As part of this ongoing project we are:
Performing quantitative research on Web
credibility.
Collecting all public information on Web
credibility.
Acting as a clearinghouse for this information.
Facilitating research and discussion about Web
credibility.
Helping designers create credible Web sites.
According to the International Adult Literacy Survey:
Literacy means more than knowing how to read, write or calculate. It involves understanding and being able to use the information required to function effectively in the knowledge-based societies that will dominate the twenty-first century.
Their survey in
the mid-1990's shows the United States at the bottom of the top-ten nations
worldwide.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) 2000 report,
"Literacy
in the information age," states that, "workers are increasingly
required not only to have higher levels of education, but also the capacity to
adapt, learn, and master the changes quickly and efficiently."
Gerry McGovern of Nua puts it this way:
The information literate:
Recognizes and understands the value of information
Reads a lot, is inquisitive, and is always willing to learn
Has
the ability to isolate where new information is required to solve a problem
Feels comfortable with using information technology
Has
the ability to locate content resources efficiently and effectively
Has
the ability to evaluate content critically and competently
Has
the ability to use content accurately and creatively
Has
the ability to create quality content
Is
independent-minded but realizes that collaboration is the best way to acquire
and develop knowledge
Has
the ability to communicate what they know in an effective manner
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