Home Random Page


CATEGORIES:

BiologyChemistryConstructionCultureEcologyEconomyElectronicsFinanceGeographyHistoryInformaticsLawMathematicsMechanicsMedicineOtherPedagogyPhilosophyPhysicsPolicyPsychologySociologySportTourism






Who are the well-informed in today's world?

• People with updated information. In our age of rapid obsolescence information degrades quickly. In more and more fields textbooks remain valid no longer than a few months. There should be a recall of any diploma that is over ten years old. A Ph.D. or a master's degree earned twenty years ago simply means that you were trained for the world of twenty years ago. It does not attest to your competence in today's world. In our times the only valid diploma is update.

• People with a multitrack information base. In our world of con­vergent fields the specialist is at a disadvantage. The information rich is a specialist in many fields—a generalise To be well-informed is to understand how information in any track fits into the total picture. For example to be an effective economist today you have to be updated on the regional economy—the global economy—world resources—new sources of energy—emerging technology—changing values—the dy­namics of global telecommunication—global politics—the expanding Space environment—the biological revolution—the longevity revolution—etc.

• People who receive their information from many sources. Infor­mation that trickles down vertically from a fixed source or sources— such as a religious text or a specific political/national/ethnic/ideological source—has little value. Vertical information flow only reinforces ex­isting biases. It is not open—interactive—evaluative. It lacks feedback and correctives. It disinforms.

To be information rich you have to tie in with the horizontal flow of information-—information that flows from numerous disparate sources. Horizontal flow is open and self-refining.

• People who process information intelligently. To have .an extensive information base does not automatically mean that one processes in­formation well. "All facts and no bloody vision"—the late British parliamentarian Aneurin Bevan once said of a fellow party member. Processing information effectively (being well-informed) entails at least the following:

—Jettisoning old information (prejudices—fixed ideas—emotion­alism).

—Learning from mistakes.

—Distinguishing between information with short-range value and information with long-range impact.

—Keeping the Big Picture in focus at all times. How does the new information fit into the total scheme of things (perspective).

Some people do all this automatically. They incorporate information intelligently. Others gobble up large quantities of information but do not ingest it well. Their information does not turn into knowledge. As a rule traditionalists—people who nurse the past—do not process in­formation well. They use new information only to support hardened positions. In a rapidly changing world such people are poorly informed.


Date: 2015-02-28; view: 754


<== previous page | next page ==>
How Information Rich Are You? | Myths about the new information age.
doclecture.net - lectures - 2014-2024 year. Copyright infringement or personal data (0.005 sec.)