SPECIFIC ISSUES IN
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY,
and SOCIETY
THE INFORMATION AGE
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able
to:
• Define Information Age;
• Discuss the history of information age; and
• Understand the factors that need to be
considered in checking website sources
What is INFORMATION?
INFORMATION
• Knowledge communicated or obtained concerning a specific
fact or circumstance.
• (Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged
Dictionary)
• facts provided or learned about something or someone.
INFORMATION AGE
• A period starting in the last quarter of the 20th century
information became effortlessly accessible through
publications and through the management of information by
computers and computer networks.
• ([Link])
• DIGITAL AGE
• NEW MEDIA AGE
• The Information Age is a true new age based
upon the interconnection of computers via
telecommunications, with these information
systems operating on both a real-time and as-
needed basis. Furthermore, the primary factors
driving this new age forward are convenience
and user-friendliness which, in turn, will create
user dependence.
(James R. Messenger, Theory of Information Age,
1982)
HISTORY
Information
Anxiety
• Human cost of information overload.
• In the words of Richard Saul Wurman (author of
the book 'Information Anxiety'), it is "produced
by the ever-widening gap between what we
understand and what we think we should
understand. It is the black hole between data
and knowledge, and what happens when
information doesn't tell us what we want or
need to know."
Truths of the Information Age
1. Information must compete
2. Newer is equated with truer
3. Selection is a viewpoint
4. The media sells what the culture buys
5. The early word gets the perm
6. You are what you eat and so is your brain
7. Anything in great demand will be counterfeited
8. Ideas are seen as controversial
[Link] information walks ever on
[Link] presence creates the story
11. The medium selects the message [Link]
whole truth is a pursuit
Computer
• An electronic device that stores and
processes data (information)
• Runs on a program that contains the exact,
step-by-step directions to solve a problem.
Types of
Computer
1. Personal Computer
• Single-user instrument
• Known as microcomputers since they were a
computer but built on a smaller scale
2. Desktop Computer
• PC that is not designed for portability
• Workstation: desktop computer that has a more powerful
processor, additional memory, and enhanced capabilities
for performing special groups of tasks.
3. Laptops
• Portable computers that integrate the
essentials of a desktop computer in a battery-
operated package
4. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
• Tightly integrated computers that usually have no
keyboards but rely on a touch screen for user input.
• Typically smaller than a paperback, lightweight, and
battery-powered
5. Server
• Computer that has been improved to provide network
services to other computers.
• Usually boast powerful processors, tons of memory,
and large hard drives.
6. Mainframes
• Huge computer systems that can fill an entire
room.
• Used by large firms that process millions of
transactions every day
7. Wearable computers
• Materials that are usually integrated into cell phones,
watches, and other small objects or places.
• Perform common computer applications such as
databases, emails, multimedia, and schedules
The World Wide Web
(Internet)
• Claude E. Shannon – “Father of Information Theory”
• Internet – world wide system of interconnected networks that
facilitate data transmission among innumerable computers.
Applications of Computer
in Science and Research
• Bioinformatics
• Application of information technology to store, organize, and
analyze vast amount of biological data.
• SWISS-PROT protein sequence database
• Rational drug discovery
• Plant biotechnology
How to check the Reliability of Web
Sources
1. Who is the author of the article/site?
2. Who published the site?
3. What is the main purpose of the site? Why did the
author write it and why did the publisher post it?
4. Who is the intended audience?
5. What is the quality of information provided on the
website?
