Issues in informatics

1. INFO 782 — Spring 2009 — Gerry Stahl Issues in informatics

2. INFO 782 — Spring 2009 — Gerry Stahl • You Tube: “Information R/evolution” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM Issues in Informatics

3. Outline of this week’s class • YouTube: “A vision of students today” • Course overview (and Blackboard demo) • Form small groups • Introductions of students & instructor • Theories of information & human thinking • Information & education • YouTube: “Information R/evolution” • Information science • Information and users • YouTube: “The machine is us/ing us”

4. “Social theories of information systems relevant to computer support for collaborative information behavior”

5. information systems for group use • as computational artifacts • as informational resources how they are: designed, enacted, diffused, adopted, evolved within social settings

6. post-cognitivist theories • social constructivism, • activity theory, • situated cognition, • distributed cognition, • actor-network theory, • ethnomethodology, • group cognition

7. texts & con-texts • [RCA] Ackerman, M., Halverson, C., Erickson, T., & Kellogg, W. (2008). Resources, co-evolution and artifacts: Theory in CSCW. London, UK: Springer. [purchase] • [GC] Stahl, G. (2006). Group cognition: Computer support for building collaborative knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Series on Acting with Technology. Available from http://GerryStahl.net/mit/. [purchase or download] • [SVMT] Stahl, G. (Ed.). (in press). Studying virtual math teams. New York, NY: Springer. Computer-supported collaborative learning book series, vol. 11. Available from http://GerryStahl.net/vmt/book. [download] • Other readings [download in Blackboard]

8. Weekly readings • Before noon Saturday, post reviews (200-400 words each) of 2 readings in Blackboard discussion • Before midnight Monday, post evaluations (75-150 words each) of 3 reviews in Blackboard discussion • Before class, read other people’s reviews & evaluations • Bring questions to class: mysterious words, incomprehensible sentences, confusing arguments

9. Individual assignments • 4. Midterm reflection paper • 9. Final reflection paper

10. Group assignments • Each week, meet with your group online • in your group’s Blackboard virtual classroom • With chat • With whiteboard for outlining ideas • Prepare to present one of the readings

11. Group assignments • Group A: • Group B: • Group C: • Group D: • Group E:

12. Some info about the users of this course’s info • Take 5 minutes to interview your neighbor in the classroom • Then stand up with your neighbor and briefly introduce her/him to the class • Name; something about their interest in informatics; something about their career; what they hope to get out or this course

13. The Blackboard information systemhttp://drexel.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp

14. A brief history of thought: info, knowledge, truth & human cognition

15. Plato’s philosophy • Starting point for Western thought, science & technology • Truth, knowledge, learning, wisdom • Education takes the student out of the common-sense world through stages and the student must struggle to make sense • A world of ideas, concepts, theory that sheds light on empirical sense perception

16. Western philosophy (500 bc–2009 ad), then social theory • Greek: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle • Latinized Aristotelian Christian theology • Descartes (cogito ergo sum) • Empiricism vs rationalism • Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx • Behaviorism, cognitivism, post-cognitivism

17. Plato distinguished the common-sense world of shadows from the realm of true knowledge, consisting of the general forms or concepts of things • The medieval Christian realms of heaven/earth • Descartes separation of mind and body • Empiricism (sense perception & induction) vs rationalism (logic, predictive science & deduction) • Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx (people constitute the world socially)

18. Introspective psychology: • What do we experience about how we think? Bias, rationalization, no implicit processes • Behaviorism in the 1930’s-1950’s: • Pavlov dogs, Skinner rats & pidgeons learn by conditioned reflexes; drill & practice in education • Cognitivism in the 1960’s-1980’s: • The human mind interprets and constructs understanding of the world • Post-cognitivism in the 1990’s-2010’s: • Not a purely rational, individual process of mental representations & models; tacit knowledge, interpersonal interaction, cultural practices

20. The readings Intro to domains of groups & information • Social informatics • CSCW • CSCL Current (post-cognitivist) theories of information artifacts & systems • Activity theory (Vygotsky, Engestrom) • Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel) • Situated & distributed cognition (Hutchins) • Actor-network theory (Latour) • Group cognition (Stahl)

21. Philosophies and scientific paradigms led to: • Multi-disciplinary approaches, like cognitive sciences, learning sciences, information sciences, social informatics, CSCW, CSCL, … • Different theories of learning, education, scientific method, software designs • There were also larger social changes: war, prosperity, ideologies, technologies, etc. • Can you follow the connections, overlaps, differences, application areas, holes?

22. Questions? • You should have lots of questions now. • Many of them will be addressed in the readings • … Then you will have even deeper questions … (I hope)