Networked Knowledge

Networked Knowledge

Meighan Dober 02 Apr 2013 21:17

Something that really interested me in class and also in Weinberger’s first few chapters was the idea of networked knowledge. In class we talked about how many professions have been demoted to just ‘amateur status’ versus having experts in that field. This is because we can all be considered experts in various subjects because we have such easy access to information. People diagnose themselves all the time and trust what they find on the internet more so than their physicians. This concept really surprises me and gets me thinking how our society is going to be in the next generation—especially when it comes to education.

We talked about the remark that we might have to change the way that we are learning in the coming decades. We need to teach ourselves how to utilize this network of knowledge that we all now have access to. Will we, as a society, get to some point when all (or the majority of) professions will be deemed ‘amateur?’ Obviously, this is an incredibly far off and farfetched situation. But, couldn’t this make our society weaker in some terms? It may get to the point where our learning is completely based on how to use this networked knowledge to the best of our advantage. Instead of being taught various subjects in school, we might be taught how to utilize different technologies. If that becomes the case, a need for higher education would seem pointless.

I can’t help but think that this will make us completely dependent on technology. We will have to consult this pool of knowledge many more times that we already do (which we all know is a lot). Today Professor Collier made the comment that he was using dramatic situations for the sake of being entertaining. However, the more I think about the situations that we discuss in class, the more I feel like they are much more realistic that I originally thought.

Re: Networked Knowledge

Victoria Zigadlo 02 Apr 2013 22:24

I think the main reason that we, especially as students, place so much trust in networked knowledge is that we have been consistently told that we will need to rely on knowledge that is more or less obsolete to us — the teaching structure is not update quickly enough to match real-world valuable knowledge.

Take, as a very shallow example, the protests of middle school students who are asked to learn Algebra. The most common response to peculiar equations (at least in my eighth grade class) was to ask, "When will I ever use this? I mean in REAL life?" And while my teachers provided very accurate and compelling answers at the time, I can assure you that I haven't used algebraic knowledge outside of a math classroom since high school, if even then. And then, as a more practical and perhaps closer example, think of the work we as English majors at Virginia Tech have put in to our "E Portfolio." Again I'll rely on personal example so as to avoid generalizations and say that I 100% relied on networked knowledge to complete the E Portfolio requirement because I considered the course work archaic and unworthy of my time or effort because it lacked practical benefit to me.

I'm willing to admit that at least half (if not more) of the blame for this attitude lies with students themselves, who fail to embrace the value of all types of educational tools. However, at the same time there is a considerable amount of pressure in the modern educational system to succeed in all subjects at all costs, no matter how a particular student places value on the subject. It is also true that there is a considerable technological learning curve in the educational system that clouds it's practical application in real life.

Re: Networked Knowledge

Caitlin Fernandez 04 Apr 2013 03:07

4/3/2013

I agree that these scenarios are more realistic than not and I also agree that that is a little bit frightening in terms of our current and future reliance on technology. I do not necessarily think it is a bad thing, however. I understand that it must be frustrating for doctors when patients come in convinced that they have a particular illness, but it can also possibly be a good thing. For example, in Grey’s Anatomy last Thursday, a mother brought her son into the hospital because he was sick. She had done a lot of research online as far as what he could possibly have and brought all this information with her. When all of the tests came back negative, she showed the doctors the options and they went through them discussing why certain ones did not match the symptoms and ended up finding the correct disease and treating it in time. Of course this is just a TV show and not at all real life, but the point is that it does not hurt to try to keep yourself informed before you go into the doctor’s office or anywhere else for that matter.

Additionally, I think this spread of ideas is actually a very good thing. It can be used in classroom settings such as this one to share information among students and professors. There are Facebook groups such as “The Cooler Connection” which allow people to ask each other crafting tips and to give advice – through this group over 30,000 people are able to share ideas and information giving everyone as much access to help as possible. When used in positive ways such as these, I think the shared network of information is a very useful phenomenon.

Re: Networked Knowledge

Keith Pillow 04 Apr 2013 03:46

Keith Pillow (4/3/13)

Alluding to notion of individuals developing into multi-subject experts as a result of networked knowledge, I believe this new sense of expertise is false. The web certainly widens the scope of education in terms of what we can access, but it does not necessarily enhance our ability to learn more. While we are supposedly gaining more knowledge, it seems we are actually losing it. With networked knowledge, the user only engages new academic material on the surface level before moving onto the next topic. We are simply stretching our minds too thin and are thoroughly immersing ourselves in a particular field less and less. One may have knowledge of more fields through the network, but how authentic is this knowledge?

I am in favor of everyone having access to a wide scope of knowledge, but I also am in favor of sustaining true experts. I can’t count how many of my friends have brought up outlandish ideas in conversation (and actually believed them) as a result of the “knowledge” they had gained from a blog or website. The medical example the class has discussed is another strong indicator. Because patients feel they are becoming more capable of caring for themselves, primary care has taken two steps backward. We have begun to degrade our own knowledge by trading in knowledge provided by experts for that provided by amateur educators. Weinberger discusses how networked knowledge has transformed the process of filtering (11). Networked knowledge should be sustained, but the knowledge it provides needs to be prescribed to stricter filtering, limiting the overflow that is plaguing the education process.