Knowledge: A Lifelong Necessity

Citation

Corey, F.R. (2000), "Knowledge: A Lifelong Necessity", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 17 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2000.23917aac.008

Knowledge: A Lifelong Necessity

Françoise R. Corey

As he was gathering his thoughts, Mike Fitzgerald, former Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of Thames Valley University and an expert in the field of higher education and technology, removed his jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves. He was ready to attack his subject and the many issues that went with it head-on.

Managing Contradictions

It is clear that technology, knowledge, communication, higher education, access, and information are not simple topics for Mike Fitzgerald, who took great care to highlight some of the many issues associated with them. First, technology is not neutral and, as a result, it creates a lot of contradictions and many mixed messages are embedded in information technology. On the one hand, more students enter higher education; on the other hand, less money per student is available. Care is vital but speed is of the essence. Education is a big business and yet competition is fierce. Universities are encouraged to collaborate and create partnerships but they need to be autonomous and recognized as individual institutions.

Similar contradictions exist between standards and standing. According to Fitzgerald, the standards at Cambridge University are high, as is its standing because it is the best university in the UK and possibly in the world; but the UK is a class society and will create a rank order regardless of the standards of other universities.

Key Points in Knowledge Society

For the first time, we have an education-driven economy focusing on ideas. As a result, we become much more accountable. If we want a successful economy, we need a successful education. If we hold the key to whether an economy is successful or not, people will care. For Fitzgerald, information and knowledge are the building blocks of economic development and this represents a shift from what it was ten to 20 years ago.

On Knowledge Education

Fitzgerald stated simply his views on the relationship between learning and employment. In summary: "If you don't learn, you don't earn" and "Lifelong learning for lifelong earning." However, he expressed concern about the gap between the haves and the have-nots. According to him, the private sector spends a growing amount of money on research that is not necessarily answering society's needs. For example, more is spent on developing slow-growing tomatoes than is spent on research against malaria. Thirty-five percent of Africa's population 25-years old or younger are HIV+; huge amounts of money are spent on HIV and AIDS research, and yet no money is spent researching a vaccine.

Obviously, the gap exists between countries. For example, 95 percent of all money for copyrights goes to companies in the USA and 96 percent of patents for companies in the Third World go to countries in the First World. It exists also within countries. To illustrate this point, Fitzgerald said that by 2003, 68 percent of the workforce within the USA will be 35-years old or younger. It is clear that those without education will have to engage in lifelong learning or lose any hope of remaining employable.

Issues

Technologies and communication should be used to bring people together. Technology can isolate them. The important issue is not the technology; it is the Network. This may be the metaphor for the University of the twenty-first century. We may be able to individuate mass higher education through communication and network. The demand for distributed learning reached $2.5 billion last year and the for-profit sector is growing fast.

The Internet is not a new way of distributing education. A growing number of companies are selling online education but why do we want to put courses on the Internet? Libraries need to remove books to install printers because people print everything they see on the Internet. What is important is that the Internet offers the opportunity to re-orient and re-train people in ways previously unimaginable. Companies such as TrainingNet.com and DigitalThink.com are developing programs for employers and offer programs that should be offered by universities.

The Internet allows us to harness communication and technology to offer a different type of education. We need to go back and think why and how people learn and offer the opportunities to meet the growing demand for education around the world. The key is to help people remain employable. The Internet and new media provide opportunity not because of technology.

Students are not consumers; they are producers. Students are as much responsible for education as we are. We can provide everything, but if students do not make an effort it is wasted. We need to insure that students are responsible for their own learning and the more we push technology, the more we offer a technical fix for increasing demand for education.

The demand can determine the course of higher education. For example, this fall, 27 percent of 18-19-year-olds went on to higher education in the UK, 50 percent in Scotland, and 46 percent in Ireland. If we are going to help people equip themselves, we need to re-think access. If potential students do not have access, they may follow non-productive paths that will then impact society in negative ways. Technological communication offers opportunity to democratize education but not because of the software we buy.

Advantage of Technology

Assessment is the key issue, not class attendance. The Open University in fact has put assessment back on top of the education system. As we move to a knowledge society, we are allowed to re-think how we present our courses. We want a community of learners; we want to focus on individuated (not individual) education.

Pedagogy of the Net

The technology makes you active. Education is something you do, not something that happens to you. Education matters because it is not primarily about knowledge, not primarily about skills, not primarily about competence. Education is about confidence to learn, to ask questions, to grow, to dream your dreams and aspirations. This is not an issue to be considered in the distant future. We have to deal with it now. In a Knowledge Society, we need a revolution, not a technological revolution, but a revolution for inclusion, not exclusion. We have to stand up and fight for what is possible, necessary, and bright. We need to ask what we can do collectively or individually to make it happen.

Despite the crash of his computer and the visible annoyance caused by the time it took the technician to bring it back, Mike Fitzgerald's presentation was thought provoking and it is clear that he took a certain pleasure in expressing ideas which challenge the conventional. Technology will not save education; the audience knew that and enjoyed the constructive views of Mike Fitzgerald, an exciting speaker.

Francoise R. Corey is Director, Academic Technologies, College of Business Administration, California State University, Long Beach. fcorey@csulb.edu