3q1gqu68w - STS 100 - MODULE Readings 4 - Information Society

STS 100: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, & SOCIETY
College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Education

Prepared by: China Shayne M. Andaya
MODULE 4
Information Society
Brief Introduction or Description
This module intends to introduce the historical background of information age in society.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the module, you should be able to:
1. Determine the human and social impacts of the developments in the information age;
2. Discuss the evolution of technology from the ancient times up to the present; and
3. Illustrate how social media have affected their lives.
Pre-Activity - Before Reading Questions/This part may also contain motivational activities
1. What is the difference between disinformation and misinformation?

2. What can you do to prevent misinformation in your community?
INTRODUCTION
I. The Information Age
The Information Age started in the last quarter of the 20th century. The driving factors of this
new age are convenience and user-friendliness, leading to user-dependence.
Bioinformatics - application of information technology to store, organizes, and analyze vast amount
of biological data.
Information - knowledge communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or circumstance.
Word - a combination of sounds that represents something. Words are made up of sounds that
transmit message. These messages are the informations that we intend to share. Words are informed
with meaning given by the speaker and intended for the listener.
Information Anxiety - human cost of information overload, produced by the widening gap between
what we understand and what we think we should understand.
Internet - worldwide system of interconnected networks that facilitate data transmission among
numerous computers.
Claude Shannon - Father of Information Theory
Advantages of information technology
 Globalization
 Communication
 Cost-effectiveness
 Creation of new jobs
The Role of Language
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Language is the principal method of human communication, consisting of words used in a

structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech, writing, or gesture. Through language,
ancient people preserve their community's history, customs and traditions, memory, unique modes of
thinking, meaning and expression. They also use it to construct their future. The importance of
language is that it is one of the primary means of interaction and communication.
In the human quest for understanding the natural world, the ability to name and classify objects
found in nature was seen as a first step in knowing. Thus, the scientific search for truth early on
recognized the usefulness of language and the ability it gave to make sense of nature. The
importance of language is that it is one of the primary means of interaction and communication.
Greek Language
Science, from the Latin word scire (meaning to know), is one kind of knowledge the Greeks
wanted to understand.
For the ancient Greeks, language was an object worthy of admiration. Words have power. Their
fascination at the power of words and language leads to questions such as:
 How it possible is that one's idea can simultaneously exist in his/her mind and in another’s?
 How is it possible that human beings can communicate through words and thus form a
community?
 Does the power of the communicated word come from the speaker of the listener?
Unifying factors
If someone unifies different things or part, or if the things or parts unify (have something
common to all), they are brought together to form one thing. Some unifying factors that brought
people together include language, culture, history, etc.
Plato’s principle of “One and the many" refers to the underlying unity among diverse beings in the
natural world. Biologist illustrated this principle using a system in differentiating between genus and
species. Many species belong in one genus. The genus is the generic name whereas the species is
the specific name.
Example: Animals like zebra, horses, and donkeys which belong to the same Genus “Equss.” These
zebra, horses, and donkeys are the specific names of the species.
Mathematics as the Language of Nature
Technology in the modern world is the fruit of science. Because the scientific method helped people
discover how nature behaves, they were able to control nature with technology through
Mathematics as the language of nature. Nature can be understood because it speaks in the
language of Mathematics and the human brain, to a certain extent, can comprehend this language.
The Printing Press
The ability to think and conceptually comprehend nature and the principles it follows
eventually leads to science. The power of eidos (idea) would be witnessed in the succeeding
development in the West. Due to their warfare and conflicts, languages were preserved. Throughout
this dark, the importance of the word _ the power to be informed as a human being - led to the
transmission of ideas through hand copying, that later on led to the invention of the printing press.
The World Wide Web

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World Wide Web (WWW), the leading information retrieval service of the Internet (the worldwide
computer network). It was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee as a way of addressing data processing
and information sharing needs among scientist for the European Organization for Nuclear Research
Activity - After Reading Questions/Discussion Questions:
1. Which developments in the information age about significant changes in the way you like
today?
2. How did the transmission of information evolve from the ancient times up to present?
3. How did the printing press change the course history? What ideas were spread using the
invention?
4. Social media is a technology which facilitates the sharing of information, ideas, and other
content in different parts of the globe. If social media was deactivated for a month in the
country, what could possibly happen?
5. Social media also poses risk especially in the dissemination of false information. As a
student, how will you use social media to ensure that you do not propagate inaccurate
and reliable information?
Learning Tasks:
1. Reflection Paper
2. Quiz #3
3. Individual Video Project: A Day Without Technology
Reflection
I learned that ____________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
I realized that ____________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
References:
McNamara DJ. (2018). Science, Technology, and Society. Quezon City: C&E Publishing. pp. 39-45
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STS 100: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, & SOCIETY

College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Education

Brief Introduction or Description

By the end of the module, you should be able to:

1. What is the difference between disinformation and misinformation?

I. The Information Age

Information - knowledge communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or circumstance.

Claude Shannon - Father of Information Theory

Advantages of information technology

The Role of Language

Language is the principal method of human communication, consisting of words used in a

Mathematics as the Language of Nature

The Printing Press

The World Wide Web

Activity - After Reading Questions/Discussion Questions:

I learned that ____________________________________________________________________________________

I realized that ____________________________________________________________________________________

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