2008-1-SSK13.Essay.2

Second/Final Essay: A Reflective Essay

This essay gives you the opportunity to reflect upon what you have learned in the past 12 weeks. It is intended to be a formal version of a journal of your experiences, thoughts and understandings of the Unit. You might choose to focus on one aspect of the course and give a detailed assessment of the process: telling the reader what state of knowledge you brought to the course; what your expectations were of that aspect; how effective you thought the information and learning process was; how your interaction with other students influenced your experience; and how the teaching affected your experience. Alternatively you can reflect on a number of aspects of the course or give an overview of your whole experience. This does not have to be a specifically academic piece of work to the extent that you will be supporting your point-of-view with the view of an expert; but it will be academic in the sense that when you are discussing and offering a critique of the unit you should support your observations with examples from the unit and/or from interactions that you have had, either with students, the teaching staff or the content. Nonetheless feel free to bring in academic material where you thought the Readings/text was either good or bad. In these cases you will be referencing the material you cite. You are also free to refer to other material from the wider Readings that you thought were more relevant or useful; or offer suggestions from your own research.

You are free to write it in any of the writing styles that we have covered in the course (i.e. journalistic, blog, as a Facebook entry, media release or academic).

Write a 1000 word essay describing the understandings that you have built up in the last 12 weeks of undertaking Learning and Communication Behaviour.

Reflecting on SSK13

John Elliot (#6530419)

In answering the question I will discuss two themes covered to some extent during the course: the first of these themes being the triad of data, information and knowledge; and the second being globalisation.

I have been a practicing computer programmer for over eight years. Consequently the joint topics of data, information, and knowledge are not particularly new to me. I understood before commencing SSK13 quite a bit about data vs. information, and the difficulty of knowledge representation. Indeed, I would say that my state of knowledge regarding these topics has exceeded from the outset what has been covered in the course.

I'm familiar, for example, with Shannon's theory of information. I understand that "information", "entropy", and "randomness" are synonyms, whereas "data" is merely that which occupies time and space. I have both an engineer's and a philosopher's view on the data/information bifurcation, and I was frustrated to see something that is so clearly and crisply defined be sloppily addressed in some of the coursework of a tertiary institution. I am aware that the societal state of knowledge on these topics is emerging slowly, and even the academic community struggles to adapt to the world as lit by contemporary understanding.

The division of information and knowledge is not one I'd ever drawn out so much in my own thinking as the division of data and information. The information/knowledge bifurcation is far more delicate and fuzzy than is data/information. I quite enjoyed reading about perspectives on this topic, with a view to them being "interesting" more so than "correct". An old motto of my family is "soyez sage", which means, "be wise." I've reflected often on this, and also on the sentiment of Ecclesiastes:

I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

It is worth mentioning that as a computer programmer in the present day, I concern myself always with the difficulties of knowledge representation; with the difficulties of, and foundations for, the application of formal models to physical, social, or financial problems; and the impossibilities inherent in communication using symbols of any form. The theme of data/information/knowledge is therefore just an aspect of what I have concerned myself with every day for more than a decade – it's my home turf.

In short, the stroll along the topic of data/information/knowledge did not offer anything particularly new for me, but held a level of interest nonetheless.

Regarding my second theme: globalisation. My experience of this theme throughout the course stands in stark contrast to the above. On this theme I was essentially ignorant on entry into SSK13, and realise at the end how little I still know of this vast amorphous topic.

The year to date has been a tumultuous time for me, both personally and professionally. The backdrop of SSK13 over this period has been interesting, and relevant, in many ways. I feel I have been joined to the lives of others by a tenuous electronic thread, which, thin as it were, has nevertheless held some interest, and some value.

Notwithstanding its broader social relevance, for a variety of reasons relating to personal and professional circumstance, the subject of globalisation has been particularly relevant to me, almost serendipitously so, over the past twelve weeks.

Professionally I've been working on information systems that help join Australia to itself, and to the world. Much of my work happens in response to the pressures created by a world in the process of economic globalisation. Increasingly I've found myself on the front lines of this process.

Personally I've been undergoing a process something like "reintegration", having "rejoined society" to a certain extent after what has essentially been a prolonged period of isolation and disengagement.

Therefore, from both a personal and professional perspective I've been faced by a kind of "realness". Events have had more of a significance to them of late, and I've felt more like a player than a witness. Whereas my attitude toward socially constructed reality has typically been one of contemptuous observation, of late I've felt more engaged, as of cautious and unavoidable participation.

To be confronted at such a time, as I have been by my SSK13 assignments, with realities of intractable political, social, economic and scientific problems, as globalisation and the environment, has been at times horrific, and regularly depressing.

I felt frustrated throughout the course, as I've had very little time to apply to my studies. It was frustrating to have to prepare essays on subjects that I knew very little about, and in the end to be forced to write from a position of profound ignorance. How much can one possibly come to know about their topic given a research period measured in mere hours?

One of the points made in the coursework was that everything is run like a business these days. That is, people are increasingly aware of the economic value of things. I realised this during the course, as I make decisions to work on my uni assignment, even as I write this sentence, losing $80 per hour in opportunity cost. I'm acutely aware... wait. That's about a thousand words. Thanks, I've learned a lot.