Cynthia Vaskis

SLM521 Spring 2004

4/23/04

File: e5ssnake.htm

Questions about the Use of the Internet as mentioned by Clifford Stoll in his “Silicon Snake Oil” book

Clifford Stole is concerned that people are expecting too much from the Internet and are being disappointed when it does not meet their expectations. He thinks we should have a more pessimistic view of what it can provide and believes it is supplying us with sometimes unusable and invalid data. He promotes getting off the Internet and interacting more with people. He thinks libraries will still be around but the Internet and computers are replacing paper documentation and books and most of our libraries materials may be online in the future. He rejects that future and wants others to pay attention to how the Internet in intruding into our world of books, people and non-electronic experiences. These are some questions that the Doubleday publisher puts forth for our consideration in regards to what Stoll has to say.

1. Clifford Stoll is concerned about the use of the Internet and whether it brings us together or isolates us from each other?

When I first entered the software area of Artificial Intelligence programming in the middle 1980’s, people were concerned that the world would be overrun with robots and intelligent machines. That was almost 20 years ago and I still don’t have a robot maid to help me at home or help with the kid’s homework (think of the Millennium Man movie). I think when something is new some people don’t like the change and don’t want to make the effort to really study what it is that is making them so nervous about its use.

The Internet is just one huge global networked database conceptually and it conveys information to those who use it (good and bad data). It can unite us in ways not possible before by emailing people around the world about a topic you are interested in. It can isolate us by making us Internet junkies tied to our computer screens by our mouse umbilical cord. The Internet’s value lies in the “eyes of the beholder” or should I say the “clicking fingers of the user (on the mouse)”. How we use the Internet can unite us or separate us and it is our responsibility to use it wisely so that we don’t waste our time on it but use it to achieve our goals.

I think the concern about bringing us together, or having global communication with others, can be both a good and a bad thing just as isolation from others can be both a good and a bad thing. The Internet can be misused to “snoop” places you shouldn’t go as with some hackers who have accessed private databases illegally or sent viruses out across the world in seconds to infect our computers and waste a lot of people’s time trying to get rid of them. In this case the Internet brings us together in a bad way. We want free access to everyone’s attention in the world through Web pages which brings us together in a good way. In respect to being isolated from others as a “good” thing, people should be concerned about someone getting a hold of their personal information and stealing their identity or bank accounts which can happen through the easy global access to everyone’s computers on the Internet every time you want to purchase something on the Internet. So isolation from others is a good thing when it comes to protecting yourself from thieves who want to steal your personal information, identity and finances. Isolation from others by spending too much time surfing and not doing other important things can be a bad thing.

2. Could the network replace newspapers, books, libraries and teachers in the future?

The Internet is a viable source for news about the world and electronic books are probably here to stay. I think libraries with walls of books will always be here but the books may be in the form of a CD or DVD in the future and you plug it in to a computer or hand held reader with a display. Remember Captain Janeway on Star Trek Voyager where she liked to curl up at night in her quarters to read a “holo” novel on an electronic clipboard that had the book in its memory and probably displayed a visual holograph image as she went through the story. The PDAs, or Personal Digital Assistants, that the schools are obtaining to let each student have a way to use computer math programs and to do reading and writing assignments are a precursor to this “holo” novel electronic notebook concept.

To answer the concern about whether the Internet would replace newspapers is valid since many news companies are going online to get subscribers because people want the news at their finger tips and don’t want to wait for the neighborhood kid to throw your newspaper into the flower bed. We are a society that craves instant everything and our attention span is only as good as the graphics on our display. Yes, newspapers and books as we know them as entities will always be around but probably in a different format (electronically).

An area of Artificial Intelligence called Expert Systems was developed to enhance the learning of novice students or employees in a specific subject matter. The knowledge of a person, who has an expertise in a subject, is encoded into the Expert System’s shell and then becomes a “tutor” to whoever uses it. Many people thought this might replace the “experts” in a field but in reality they only provided a guided learning experience for beginners. The experts in the field (real people) were still needed to solve complex and unusual problems. Just as there was a concern that Expert Systems would replace the “experts” or knowledgeable people, there is a concern that the Internet, with all of its facts and learning tools, would replace the teachers. I have never known a computer to hand out “discipline” when the student wasn’t paying attention or doing their work, unless it just shuts its screen off from lack of use. People will always be needed to interact with people and I don’t think you would be too happy if you only talked to computers all day, every day (as in the Silent Running movie where the only astronaut left on a spaceship with his robots finally decided to blow himself up because he was so lonely and Earth had turned into a sterile electronic environment).

The Internet brings us a lot of data through computers but it is up to the teachers in the classroom to guide the students to analyze that data to form knowledge about that data. The teachers will always be necessary because computers do not form opinions although they can compare data and give computed results. Those results are really the programmer’s view about the data comparisons. The programmer being the person who made the software and who determined what kind of results to display as well as what emphasis to place on the results. Teachers are needed to help guide the students to understand where the data came from and to form opinions about its significance in the world and in their lives.

3. Do computers and the Internet belong in the classroom?

Being a computer programmer I am interested in whatever new technology comes out but only if it can be used effectively to help someone understand the world around them better or help them with their education, work or in their life experiences. I mentioned in a Discussion board session how having laptop computers outside to do a botany or entomology (insects) lesson, to look up diagrams of plants or insects on the Internet, while the students were actually hunting for them (the bugs and plants) around the school yard would really bring the Internet’s power into the (outside) classroom. Yes, I think the Internet could be an invaluable tool but it is not the ultimate educator and as Stoll mentioned, it is not the ONLY tool for educating our students. The teacher should still guide the student’s use of the Internet and make sure they are looking up useful information about the subject being studied and not playing online games or going to inappropriate web sites for the task at hand.

4. Are schools, libraries and businesses wasting their money on ineffective and counterproductive computing systems?

In the teaching field our goals are to educate the students so that they can understand the world they will soon have to operate within. Computers and the Internet can be a tool to guide them in understanding the world but should not be an end in itself. That is why some schools and businesses are unhappy with their computer purchases and money spent on technology because they never had a clear plan for its use. The need for technology to increase production or improve the methods of our work or learning process should drive the purchasing of the equipment, not the other way around where the equipment is purchased and then teachers are told to find a way to use it. Only a carefully thought out plan with specific areas of educational use should be in place before any equipment is purchased. Then, the equipment becomes the solution to the educational problem and not the teacher’s usage of that equipment the justification for having it.

5. Is the Internet’s vast amount of data useful in obtaining knowledge?

Clifford Stoll, the author of “Silicon Snake Oil”, questions whether the vast amount of data the Internet provides is useful information and whether that information can be transformed in some way into useful knowledge. I agree with him in that data is not knowledge. A person needs to understand aspects of data through comparisons to create theories about what the data is indicating. These theories, when tested to be true or not, provide a means to form knowledge about what the data is indicating and its importance to us and the world. An analogy is the global warming situation. Scientists have collected a lot of data about the ozone layer and the affect of it diminishing. Theories have been made, which are still being tested, and conclusions (or knowledge) have been drawn from those theories that indicate how to slow the loss of ozone in the atmosphere. Then people take action based on that knowledge such as banning aerosol cans. It is good to have data when you can use it to better your life or the world around you.

The Internet can provide a lot of data but it is teachers who need to help the students understand how to use that data and to draw theories from that data. This analysis of the data is the knowledge about the world which is valuable. The Internet can provide us with a lot of data but it is up to the teacher to guide the students in drawing conclusions about the data and to ask questions about where the data came from and if it is valid data or incorrect data. Then the students can use that knowledge about the data to learn about the world and to make decisions about their future. The teacher’s job is to bridge the gap between the data the Internet provides and the understanding we want the students to have about the world. It is not the Internet’s responsibility to educate us but our own. The Internet is a valuable tool but not the “ultimate” teacher.

Conclusion

Overall, it is up to the user to monitor and ask themselves what is their reason for using the Internet at that time, whether it be for educational or entertainment purposes. Don’t complain about what a piece of hardware does to you because you are the “intelligent” being here and can decide to turn the computer on or off. The Internet is a bunch of electronic components and does not have a mind of its own unless some programmer created a program to interact with you. If you don’t like what a program is doing to you then your issues should be directed toward that programmer who made it and not the “mindless” network. I think the problem people have is attributing human or “living” characteristics to the inanimate electronic Internet as if it were a viable living creature to contend with. Actually, it is the Internet computer programmers, behind their “cubby hole” walls, that create an “information and communication paradise” for data lovers or create “electronic havoc” with viruses and hacking programs that intrude into our private computer space. By the way, sometimes it actually is the hardware’s fault for things not working so well but it doesn’t care.