Driving seat or passenger seat The information society

Driving seat or passenger seat? The information society and its impact on higher education Professor Derek Law Director of Information Resources, University of Strathclyde

The Background

Global issues Ø Poverty Ø Equity Ø Social inclusion Ø Government/private sector balance Ø Education for all Ø Information rich and information poor

Global Lessons Ø Technology is not patriotic Ø Investment capital is not patriotic Ø The race IS to the strong but also to the swift

Technology and The Inflation of the Internet Ø The World Wide Wait Ø As big as a decent library Ø Poor navigation Ø Inappropriate for scholarship Ø A giant experiment

Educational Change Ø Group work facilitated by technology Ø Nintendo learning Ø Martini learning – anytime, anyplace, anywhere Ø Second chance students Ø Lifelong learning and CPD

The transformation of publishing Ø SPARC Ø OAi Ø Courseware Ø Intellectual Property Rights in teaching materials Ø The personal and institutional website

Building an Internet Culture Ø Resist the Technology Sales Pitch Ø Do not put technology on existing dysfunctional institutions Ø Develop people not machinery Ø Build Internet civil society Ø Email is more important than the Web

Building an Internet Culture Ø Ø Ø Analyse the technical and cultural environment Use technology to amplify existing sharing Don’t distribute technology randomly Education should be directed to social organisation not technology Machinery does not fix social problems and institutions

Changes in the Information Business Ø Old wine in new bottles Ø Good information drives out bad Ø User friendly systems aren’t Ø Recognition that we are producers as well as consumers

Conclusions Ø Tools are just tools Ø Geography is not destiny Ø Bad management is not destiny Ø Avoid mainframe solutions to internet problems Ø Remember that content is king Ø BUT metadata is the king’s interpreter