PHI THETA KAPPA

How has the sharing of information evolved and what might be its future?

Study Questions

1. How has the exchange of information affected the development of cultures and civilizations? How has the evolution of information changed the world?
2. How have events like the Agricultural, Industrial, and Information Revolutions shaped our information systems? (Consider cave art, alphabets, manuscripts and carvings, movable type, telegraph, telephone, etc.)
3. How does information affect our understanding of history?
4. How do we define “information age?” What are some of the key information ages of history?
5. How will the growth of technological innovation be perceived by future generations?
6. How many of the predictions of science fiction and the entertainment industry have come true? How do they continue to shape our view of the future?
7. How can studying past and current events prepare us for the future?
8. How has access to information changed language and communication styles or venues?
9. How is a “connection to our past” enhanced and shaped by access to information (return to vinyl records, genealogy, scrapbooking, etc., the so-called “lost arts”)?
10. How have advances in information technology changed historical interpretation?
11. What types and formats of information sharing have we lost or are losing?
12. What is the Information Revolution, and how are we learning from using the new information and information formats created?
13. What does the future hold?

Honors in Action

Back to the Future

Investigation of the Honors Study Topic (Research): Research how information was shared and gained in the early 1960s. What sources of information do you use in your daily lives today that were not available then? How would going without them affect your daily existence now? Invite speakers who recall that era to discuss how they got by without today’s access to information. Consider what types of information technology that you use today that will be obsolete in the next decade. Research the availability of this technology in your area. Who lacks access? Plan a community electronics redistribution drive. Does your community have a recycling program? If so, meet with its coordinator to discuss the logistics. Prepare for the meeting through research and determining what information you want to gain from the meeting. Plan a timeline. With whom will you need to work? Where will it be held? How and who will delete personal information from the items before they are redistributed? Who will get them? Will they be able to use them? What will become of any unusable items? Keep records of how many items you take in and how many you redistribute. Report your results on campus and to Phi Theta Kappa Headquarters.

Leadership Role(s): Explore the feasibility of sponsoring this “technology blackout.” How long will it last? Is there any way members who are in online courses can participate and still fulfill requirements of their classes? Are there any essential functions that your members might need to complete during the period that would require the use of modern means and, if so, how can they plan around them? Who in your life needs to know in advance of your intent? How will the chapter monitor participation and compliance?

Leadership Development: Invite a historian to conduct a workshop about historical methodology and the ways students can learn about their own lives and about the future from studying history. Share what you learn with students who will join your Honors in Action project and were not able to participate in the workshop.

Action: Organize your chapter to conduct a trip back in time by going without accessing or sharing information through any means that would not have been available in the early ‘60s. Invite other organizations and individuals to join you. During the week, have participants keep a journal about their experiences. How does it affect their normal functioning in the world? What impact does it have on their interpersonal communications? Did they feel as connected to others or less so, and in what ways? How aware were they of what was happening in the world? What tasks could they not do? Challenge fellow members of Phi Theta Kappa beyond your chapter to join you in this technology blackout. Replicate the technology with middle school students in your community. In what ways did the middle school students react to the exercise that were similar to and different from the reactions of college students?

Collaboration:

• Chapter members
• Students on your campus
• Fellow Phi Theta Kappa members beyond your chapter
• Middle school students

Reflection: Have participants type synopses of their reactions to the week and submit them, then publish them on a chapter website, school publication, or local newspaper. Host a discussion on campus about your “Back to the Future” project. Decorate with a 1960s theme. Discuss what ways of gaining and sharing information are essential in your daily life. What were your reactions and feelings? How significant was the loss of your cell phone or computer? How is our ability to gain and share information different today, and what impact does this have on our quality of life?

Science Fiction

Investigation of the Honors Study Topic (Research): Science fiction and popular entertainment have offered their views of “The Future” for decades. Each group has built its own particular reality, with descriptions and displays of technology, opinions on culture and society, and variations on the future of humanity. At a series of chapter meetings, watch old episodes of “Star Trek” or early 1940s and 1950s sci-fi films. Discuss how the future is portrayed in each. What types of technology and societies did they predict we would have? How is leadership presented? What lessons are inherent in these presentations? Invite faculty members who are scholars in science fiction to discuss how the view of the future has evolved.

Leadership Role(s): Contact local engineering schools or companies, NASA, scientific and agricultural research groups, and others who are planning for and working on future technologies. Work with your college’s administrators to determine what steps you should follow to organize your film series on campus.

Leadership Development: Organize a series of lessons for chapter members and other students on campus regarding planning for research, putting together presentations, exploring legal issues with film presentations in an academic setting, and working with academic and non-academic entities as partners.

Action: Put together a film series, invite students and community members to attend, and have a speaker address the themes in the films. Survey audience members about their perceptions about the evolution of technology and how the entertainment field has influenced our views of the future. Compare and contrast the predictions from the past to the realities of current and emerging technologies. How much of “The Future” has become real? Invite international chapters to work with you on the project and to share information about the ways in which the future has been portrayed in science fiction across cultures. What are the similarities and differences? Prepare your findings for presentation at a Phi Theta Kappa regional event and publication.

Collaboration:

• Chapter members
• Students on your campus
• Faculty and administrators on your campus
• Local engineers, scientists, agricultural researchers, and futurists
• Fellow Phi Theta Kappa members beyond your chapter and region

Reflection: Develop a chapter blog to share your findings and thoughts about the democratization of information and what we know about the past and speculate about the future. Invite your Phi Theta Kappa partners to blog with you and readers to share their ideas about the future from their personal perspectives as well as the perspective of the cultures in which they grew up. Discuss online how the blog has helped you grow as scholars and prepare to be effective leaders in the future.

Bibliography

Aslan, Reza. How To Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror. 2009.
Aslan examines the “good and evil dualisms” on both sides of the war on terror and explains why it is in the best interests of people on all sides to look beyond demonization of enemies. He explores the history of religious, political, and military conflicts in the Middle East and the Western response to the conflicts as well as Islamic extremists’ distortions of their own religion and history.

McNeely, Ian F. Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet. 2008.
Ian complicates the notion that the current Information Age is unique. Instead, he argues that “information ages” have existed throughout history and that previous cultural and technological advancements have spawned information explosions similar to the one we are currently undergoing. Topics addressed include the rise of libraries, the development of monasteries as repositories of knowledge, the rise of the university, the popularity of letters circulated among the intellectual elite, the rise of the discipline, and the development of the scientific laboratory.

Norton, Jeremy. M. From Gutenberg to the Internet: A Sourcebook on the History of Information Technology. 2005.
Norton traces the history of technologies from the 15th through the 21st centuries with a concentration on discoveries made during the 19th and early-to-mid-20th centuries. A timeline designed to encourage research and development is included.

Ober, Josiah. Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens. 2008.
In his third book of a trilogy on Classical Athens, Ober provides a great opportunity for research, contemporary comparison and criticism by exploring the formation of democracy in ancient Greece and the power and promise of that system, which overcame real threats to its existence.

Sen, Amartya. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity. 2005.
In a series of 16 essays, Nobel Prize winner Sen explores the history and culture of India and discusses the ways its heterodoxy and intellectual traditions have shaped Indian identity. He gives readers a rich cultural context for India’s rising power and promise in a world increasingly linked by information and technology.

Widmer, Ted. Ark of the Liberties: America and the World. 2008.
Widmer analyzes the concept of American liberty from the Colonial era through the beginning of the 21st century. He looks at the power, peril, and promise of the legacy of liberty and why it matters to the world.