Web Technology in the 21st Century

1. Web Technology in the 21st Century Bertram C. Bruce Library & Information Science Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2. Outline • The problem of knowledge in health care • New ICT's • Knowledge transfer • Inquiry model for knowledge • Community inquiry laboratories

3. 1) Problem of knowledge in health care • Globalization • Environmental quality • Working conditions • Poverty • Literacy • New technologies for • prevention, diagnosis, & treatment • for information and communication

4. Research versus practice • Knowledge vs. application • Science vs. ordinary knowledge • Producer vs. consumer • Technology developer vs. user • Knowledge as output vs. knowledge as input

5. 2) New information and communication technologies Think of it [Mosaic] as a map to the buried treasures of the Information Age. / A new software program available free to companies and individuals is helping even novice computer users find their way around the global Internet / … an applications program so different and so obviously useful that it can create a new industry from scratch. --Dec. 8, 1993, John Markoff, New York Times

6. Telesurgery • doctors in NY remove a gall bladder in Strasbourg • use joysticks & voice commands to direct robotic arms holding an endoscopic camera & surgical instruments • watch their work on monitors • transoceanic, fiber-optic line connects the control console to the robot

7. Bandwidth: The Matrix • standard telephone modem: 171 hours • ISDN line: 74 hours • cable modem or DSL: 25 hours • T1: 6.5 hours • Internet2: 30 seconds

8. In the future already Science fiction itself has remained the same. We have caught up to it...We are a science-fiction generation. – Ray Bradbury We can’t think far enough ahead anymore. – Ron Shusett

10. Internet bookmobile • millions of books: Project Gutenberg, Liber Liber. the Million Book Project • satellite download • print on demand • high-speed binder

11. Access in India • Hole-in-the-wall computer • Simputer • 1 million Internet kiosks

12. 3) Knowledge transfer models Repository => Dissemination => Inquiry (knowledge construction)

13. Inquiry model • a cycle of asking, investigating, creating, discussing, and reflecting; each question leads to further questions • dialogue (two-way communication) • learning connected to life • active learning based on the learner's purpose

14. 4) The Inquiry Page • Resources for inquiry teaching & learning • Support for communities • Tools for everyday problem-solving (personal websites, to-do lists, events calendars, …)

18. 5) Community inquiry laboratory what happens when a community uses ICTs to engage in collaborative inquiry and to interact with other communities • Research and education on water • Community technology centers • Spiritual health plan • Paseo Boricua • Hull-House

19. a) Research and education on water

20. Saris and cholera • Cholera kills tens of thousands of people/year • Rita Colwell: copepods harbor the bacterium; 200-500x larger • a folded sari cloth can remove the plankton • 65 Bangladesh villages; cholera reduced by half • effective as nylon filters • less diarrhea, cheap and convenient, easily adopted

21. b) Community technology centers

22. c) Sisternet • African-American women • low-income community • use of Prairienet • workshops run by members of the community • identifying information & communication needs

23. “Spiritual health plan” For the Create section -- I would like to accomplish the following goals: Once each week I would like to take at least four (4) hours of the weekend for my own enjoyment. This will include, but is not limited to, things like: going to the beauty shop, going out to dinner or to the movies with my husband, reading my Bible or some other book, or just praying or meditating. … I also will let my family know that I love and support them...

24. d) Paseo Boricua

25. Puerto Rican community, Chicago • Pedro Albizu Campos alternative school • Paseo Boricua Community Library • Puerto Rican Cultural Center • Batey Urbano– all-ages, no-alcohol club, featuring theater, poetry, and live music • SIDA, diabetes, hypertension • park with polluted lake

26. e) Hull-House

27. kindergarten & day care facilities an employment bureau an art gallery libraries English & citizenship classes theater, music, & art classes a Labor Museum the Jane Club for single working girls meeting places for trade union groups a wide array of cultural events Jane Addams

28. Questions • How do people construct knowledge to address their needs? • How do forces of unity and diversity operate in the development of communitites? • How do knowledge, technology, and community co-evolve?

29. Active participation No matter how ignorant a person is, there is one thing he knows better than anybody else, and that is where the shoes pinch on his own feet....every individual must be consulted in such a way, actively not passively, that he himself becomes part of the process of authority…that his needs and wants have a chance to …count in determining social policy. . --Dewey, Democracy & Education

30. Participatory inquiry aims to respond to human needs by democratic processes. Through creation of content, contributions to interactive elements, and incorporation into practice, users are not merely recipients of technology, but participate actively in its ongoing development.

31. Library a collection organized for use => a system to support community inquiry

32. Conclusions • provision of health information => active, two-way, co-construction of knowledge • citizens use technologies to develop healthy communities • new literacy skills develop along through meaningful problem solving • community inquiry provides a framework for democratic change

33. Further information • inquiry.uiuc.edu • www.uiuc.edu/~chip • chip@uiuc.edu • Literacy in the Information Age: Inquiries into Meaning Making with New Technologies (International Reading Association, March 2003)

34. El extremo

35. Malaria and mosquito nets • 300 million malaria cases/year; 1 million deaths • Anopheles mosquito feeds at night • treated mosquito nets can reduce infant mortality by 27% and cut the number of illnesses in half (Tanzania) • $4.30

36. Online sources • WebMD–web-based, news-style articles, commercial • PubMed (NLM)–12 million MEDLINE citations and life science journals; links to sites with full texts • Blogs • Email groups

37. 3) Knowledge transfer

38. New digital tools

39. Computer-mediated work

40. Ubiquitous computing