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02/14/2007
Undeniably, the Internet has made the
dissemination of information and knowledge to a
previously unprecedented degree. It enables people
to not only transmit information at instant but also
store and access massive information and data.
Today, with a relatively low subscription fee,
almost all academic journals published in the world
can be accessed via the Internet, not to mention
enormous sites which provide free access of
information, knowledge and data.
With all of these features, does the
Internet really promote the advancement of
knowledge? Do people read more than before the
Internet was present? Long time ago, when the
television was invented, perhaps people asked the
same question. The tube may stimulate people to
think when they see real events presented before
their eyes. But, is it really so?
Studies have shown just the opposite. In
the US alone, where the ratio of television sets per
1000 population is about 0.94 and where
children, ages 2-17, watch television on average
almost 25 hours per week, watching TV over 3 hours
per day contributed to a significant decline in
children’s reading ability. Studies also found that
children who watched more entertainment television,
watched fewer informative programs as they got older
and used television more to entertain and as a
leisure pastime. As Neil Postman in Amusing
Ourselves to Death wrote, “television's
conversations promote incoherence and triviality;
that the phrase "serious television" is a
contradiction in terms; and that television speaks
in only one persistent voice—the voice of
entertainment.”
Long time ago, Marx wrote, “in changing
the technical world, man changes his own nature”.
There is an interaction between society and its
technologies. Society creates technology, and the
development of society, to a large extent, is
brought about by technology. Which brings us to a
question, will the information technology improve
the advancement of knowledge in our society?
Unfortunately, the presence of the Internet might
help the degradation, instead of an improvement, in
the quality of our education. This is due to at
least two reasons.
The free information and knowledge on
the Internet poses a negative consequence. In a
country where the commitment to respect and protect
copyrights is still loose, the Internet could worsen
the learning process. It could trigger plagiarism
among students, teachers and professors which
virtually adds nothing to the existing knowledge.
Even in developed countries, where copyrights are
protected, the negative effects of the Internet on
the advancement of knowledge are no less serious.
According to a recent study using Turitin.com, a web
database dedicated to detect plagiarisms, about 30%
of a large sample of Berkeley students was
identified as plagiarizing directly from the
Internet. Tests, Schechter, and Eder reported in
2002 that some estimates there are 3000% more sites
that provide materials for students than there are
sites to authenticate student work. Given the loose
protection of copyrights, the percentage of our
students who committed plagiarism could be well
above the case in Berkeley.
So, when people are using the Internet
more extensively to get information, they are not
necessary think more systematically and creatively.
Paradoxically, we may be living in an information
society, but we are not necessary becoming a
thinking and learning society.
The other problem is the transition from
printing to virtual knowledge. Before the Internet
was invented, the developed countries have already
lived in a reading and printing culture. In the US
for instance, thousands of new books are published
every year. There are numerous libraries with
massive stock of books. From elementary school,
students are already taught to write essays and give
speeches in front of their classes. It is an
expressive society in which expressing their
thought, either verbally or written, is an important
part of learning process.
Ours is not a reading society—yet.
Reading books has not been a main interest in our
society, let alone writing. Even professors and
teachers at universities and colleges have limited
skills in writing. The number of books published per
year is very low. Our libraries are too few and
their stocks of books are also very limited. To make
matter worse, our culture is not an expressive
culture and our education does not really encourage
students to write and express their thoughts
systematically.
When developed countries move from a
printing knowledge to a virtual knowledge, there is
only a little shock. Most of the information stored
virtually on the Internet has already been available
in print. That’s not the case with our country.
When we are presented with a virtual knowledge, we
are experiencing a significant shock. Suddenly,
students or the Internet users are overloaded with
information and because of its suddenness and its
massiveness they become lost in a desert of
information.
Whether the Internet can improve the
advancement of learning process in Indonesia or not,
it depends on whether we can move into a printing
and virtual knowledge at the same time. Reading
books stimulate and demand thoughts; writing
opinion, papers, or books even demands more of
them. Therefore, the challenge is whether we can
promote a learning culture or not. Publications of
original thoughts or creative thinking should be
supported, promoted and appreciated. Public
libraries with reasonable stocks of books should be
built in medium and large-size cities. Above all,
our formal education has to be able to stimulate
students, from elementary to university level, to
write their thought and ideas systematically.
At the same time, we have to build and
maintain our commitment to respect copyrights.
Plagiarism not only impedes critical thinking, but
also discourages further creative explorations of
knowledge. This is the hardest part because no
matter what punishment is, plagiarism will always
exist. At best, we can minimize it by simultaneously
punishing plagiarists severely while giving
appreciation for original or creative thoughts.
It is a reality that only by building a
knowledge-based society can we compete in today’s
increasingly competitive world. While the Internet
can be an extremely important instrument in
realizing such society, it can also become an
impediment. To be able to take the advantage of the
great potential of the Internet era, we must do
first the basic: to develop a learning society.
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