Knowledge, Networks & Wisdom

1. Knowledge, Networks & Wisdom Bernie Dodge, PhD San Diego State University

2. Disclaimer ME Wise ≠ An entomologist doesn’t have to be a spider to write about spiders. - Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi

3. T. S. Eliot Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T.S. Eliot's The Rock (1934)

4. Overview • How the net makes us smart • How the net makes us stupid • Why smart ≠ wise • Wisdom, technology and you

5. How the Net Makes Us Smart Or so they say…

6. Net Penetration by Region http://www.internetworldstats.com/

7. AMD’s 50x15 Effort http://www.50x15.com/

8. Number of Net Users Worldwide http://www.internetworldstats.com/

9. Internet Use According to the Pew Internet & American Life Study (December, 2006), each day… • 65% use the internet • 54% read or send email • 41% use a search engine • 31% get news • 28% surf for fun

10. Blogging Stats (2005) • 6% of US adults have created a blog • Age 18-29: 19% • Age 50+: 5% • 16% of all US adults read blogs http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/p/1083/pipcomments.asp

11. Wikipedia Growth There are currently about 2.4 million articles in the English version of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia

12. Facebook • More than 80 million active users • Facebook is the 6th most-trafficked website in the world (comScore) • Over 55,000 regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks • More than half of Facebook users are outside of college • The fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older

18. How the Net Makes Us Dumb Or so they say…

19. What’s Hot? 1. misty may 2. kerri walsh 3. sal the movie 4. sal aunese 5. armor all 6. anthony kim 7. roger federer wikipedia 8. usa jet airlines 9. mark everett 10. nadal wins wimbledon http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends

20. Blogs, Politics & Polarization 94% of political blog readers consume only blogs from one side of the ideological spectrum

21. Is Google Making Us Stupid?

23. These things probably do not make us wiser And they divert us from things that might

24. The Machine Stops

25. Why Smart ≠ Wise And what wisdom is…

26. Wisdom http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/performance/understanding.html

27. Talmudic Wisdom Ben Zoma says: Who is wise? The one who learns from every person... Who is brave? The one who subdues his negative inclination... Who is rich? The one who is appreciates what he has... Who is honored? The one who gives honor to others... (Talmud - Avot 4:1)

28. Ben Franklin • Who is wise? • He that learns from everyone. • Who is powerful? • He that governs his passions. • Who is rich? • He that is content. • Who is that? • Nobody.

29. Maybe Wisdom is Hard to Define But we know it when we see it

30. Who’s the Wisest?

31. Who’s the Wisest?

32. A Short Definition • Wisdom is expert knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life that permits exceptional insight, judgment and advice about complex and uncertain matters. Baltes & Smith, 1990

33. One more thing… Wisdom is rare

34. Amish Saying “We grow too soon old and too late smart.”

35. Wisdom and Age “Wisdom doesn’t come automatically with age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It’s true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place. -- Abigail Van Buren

36. Age & Wisdom After adolescence, no relationship So… building a foundation for wisdom in middle and high school years is critical

37. Maybe our job is to improve the grapes

38. Berlin Model of Wisdom • Paul Baltes identified five factors in two categories: • Basic • Meta

39. Berlin Model Factors Basic • Rich factual knowledge about life • Consideration of general (human condition) and specific (e.g., life events, institutions) features of life matters as well as scope and depth in coverage of issues

40. Berlin Model Factors Basic • Rich procedural knowledge about life • Consideration of decision strategies, goal selection, choosing means to achieve goals, people to consult with, as well as strategies of advice giving

41. Berlin Model Factors Meta • Life span contextualism • Consideration of past, current, and possible future life contexts and the circumstances in which a life is embedded

42. Berlin Model Factors Meta • Values Relativism • Consideration of variations in values and life priorities and the importance of viewing each person within an individual framework, but also the importance of a small set of universal values oriented toward the good of others and oneself

43. Berlin Model Factors Meta • Recognition and management of uncertainty • Consideration of the inherent uncertainty of life (in terms of interpreting the past and predicting the future) and effective strategies for dealing with uncertainty

44. Measuring Wisdom • A teenager learns that he or she has failed a test that is very important for his or her future. • What could one or the teenager do and think in such a situation? • Responses are analyzed for… • Factual & Knowledge about Life • Lifespan Contextualism • Values Relativism • Uncertainty

45. Good News • Clinical psychologists tested higher in wisdom, so… • Wisdom may be teachable

46. Robert Sternberg

47. Balance Theory of Wisdom Wisdom is defined as the application of tacit as well as explicit knowledge as mediated by values toward the achievement of a common good through a balance among intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extrapersonal interests over the short term and long term to achieve a balance among adaptation to existing environments, shaping of existing environments, and selection of new environments.

48. Sternberg’s Advice • 4. Role-model wisdom because what you do is more important than what you say. Wisdom is action dependent and wise actions need to be demonstrated. • 5. Have students read about wise judgments and decision making so that students understand that such means of judging and decision making exist.

49. Sternberg’s Advice • 6. Help students to learn to recognize their own interests, those of other people, and those of institutions. • 7. Help students learn to balance their own interests, those of other people, and those of institutions.

50. Sternberg’s Advice • 12. Show students the importance of dialogical thinking, whereby they understand interests and ideas from multiple points of view. • 13. Teach students to search for and then try to reach the common good—a good where everyone wins, not only those with whom one identifies.