Social and Cultural Challenges of the New Communication Technology Used in Education Oriented Activities

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1 Social and Cultural Challenges of the New Communication Technology Used in Education Oriented Activities Dan Chiribuca, Iulian Pah, Daniel Hunyadi Faculty of Sociology and Social Work University Babes Bolyai of Cluj Napoca Faculty of Science University Lucian Blaga of Sibiu 1 Mihail Kogalniceanu Street, Cluj Napoca ROMANIA Abstract: The internet represents an infrastructure as well as a communication medium that challenges key dimensions of the social structure, social practices, access to formal education, production and dissemination of the information and scientific knowledge. The paper addresses some of the most actual issues related to new communication technology impact upon both socialization processes and formal education oriented activities with a special focus set on the following topics: the internet impact as concerns the inequalities in access to education, the limits of the internet and e-learning programs as concerns cross-cultural oriented professionalization, the challenges due to internet as regards the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge. Key words: impact of new communication technologies, technology and formal education 1. Introduction With the recent explosion of new technologies, especially digital media, the internet and computer mediated communication (CMC), a set of fundamental changes have become more and more evident, regarding the patterns of media consumption, information use and communication interactions, which has direct implications upon socialization processes and formal education activities. These are the increased accessibility of new communication technology and individualized consumption associated with this process, diversification of channels, both in form and content, and the enhanced autonomy of the information consumers in relation to the content producing agencies. The enhanced accessibility of media equipment, doubled by the development of new communication technologies have led to the shift from some traditionally collective consumer practices to individual practices [1]. At present, the process aims especially at television consumption. If we refer only to children and teenagers, now even in countries with emergent economies, most of them have a television set in their room and at least daily access to internet. Individualization is a result of technological progress (portable new media technology) and a consequence of transforming social practices in order to adjust to the changes in technology. Another change lies in the fact that means of mass communication are less for the masses. There are several dimensions that contribute to the emergence of this situation. On the one hand, mass media is far from being a homogeneous category, the term being used for a wide variety of products and content: CDs with classical music, but also hip-hop, the Harry Potter books and films, but also James Joyce s books or the Bergman films, political analysis magazines, academic treatises and porn sites. Beyond the structural diversity, the new technologies have made it possible to have reduced scale communication, focusing on specialized audiences. These are in contrast with the traditional means of the mass media: national journals or magazines, television channels for a compact, homogeneous, undifferentiated audience. On the other hand, both the old media (newspapers, radios, television) and the new one (computer-mediated communication, the Internet, mobile telephony) have become more diverse and they continue to diversify their forms and contents. The phenomenon is simultaneously ambivalent and multidimensional: specialization and specification of content is doubled by homogenization and unification [2]. Extreme segmentation made possible by the development of new communication technologies is ISSN: ISBN:

2 doubled by the re-definition of the relation between the producer and its audience. The Internet allows to access information in a relatively independent way from the institutionalized producers. Passive audience is changing into an active audience both in relation to the content broadcast, and in relation to the agencies that produce the content. Increased institutionalization of production and distribution of media messages is doubled by an individualization and personalization of the production and distribution of these contents. The audience has turned into audiences, and the consumer can always and easily become a producer-author. At present, there are blog authors with bigger daily audiences than national televisions or newspapers. One of the radical effects of the new communication technologies (the Internet, mobile telephony) is the reconfiguration of some fundamental structuring dimensions of the social space: public-private, work-spare time, homeworkplace, physical space-social space, masculinefeminine, and so on. Previously defined by some distinct boundaries, these dimensions are now increasingly overlapping, and their limits are blurred. Changes are so recent that some of the social practices and norms associated to them are not yet completely clear. As concerns the process of children s and adolescents socializing, the electronic media allows for the unification of the previously distinct social spheres. Television, and more recently the Internet, brings children and adults in social situations which in the past were distinct, and allow children access to aspects of the social world which were previously hidden from them or made difficult to access. Television allows children to be present, - socially, if not physically in the interactions of adults. By unifying social spheres which used to be separate, the media wipes away the boundary separating public and private space, thus breaking the traditional link between the physical and the social space. Thanks to the media, groups which used to be isolated are no longer separated, and aspects of the group identity which used to depend on physical places or direct interaction and the experiences provided by them are now permanently under the influence of the electronic media. As far as the formal education activities are concerned, the internet and CMC redefine, in their turn, some of the fundamental aspects of the traditional relationship between school, teacher and student, in terms of access, relations and roles that each of these three parts has. Some of these dimensions and the way in which they are influenced by the internet and CMC represent the main topics of this paper and will be discussed in the following paragraphs. 2. New communication technologies and the equality of access to education There are some structural features of the new technologies of communication that represent consistent arguments that support the postulation of a causal relationship between access to them and equalizing access to formal education. At least apparently, internet and e-learning programs represent a way of democratization of access to education, as they reduce considerably two types of constraints that are associated with traditional programs: space conditioning and the obligation to be a long period of time (months, years) in the same location where the educational programs are organized, on the one hand, and financial costs that are usually associated with traditional education. Exponential increasing access to the Internet is the main argument in favor for the idea that social groups previously excluded or marginalized, at least in terms of access to formal education, may become beneficiaries of educational services offered by specialized institutional agents. Nevertheless, this relationship is not so simple. Firstly, even if rates of Internet access have exploded in recent years, access is far from being generalized, even in Western societies. The so-called digital divide draw attention to divisions within and across societies according to those that have access to digital technologies (including the internet) and those that do not [3]. Lack of access is usually associated with disadvantage in financial, educational or cultural resources, but it is not unusual to consider age or ethnicity as relevant variables defining the gaps. Accordingly with Livingstone [3] there is a risk that increasing internet penetration exacerbates rather than reduce inequalities. The internet is different than other media or consumer goods, not only because it requires recurrent costs but also in terms of diffusion patterns, from its early adopters to the mass consumers [4]. It is also because digital exclusion is strongly associated with traditional forms of social exclusion by socioeconomic status, region, deprivation, etc. The concern, then, is that exclusion from these [internet-mediated economic, social, political, cultural] networks is one of the most damaging forms of exclusion in our economy and in our culture [5]. Secondly, equal access to digital technology does not mean identical patterns of consumption. ISSN: ISBN:

3 There are two aspects which are worthy of a further discussion for this matter. The first one is operational and it concerns the differences in using technology among the different social groups. The issue of inclusion does not refer solely to technological access, but also to the cultural matter that comes from the way in which technology is used in the context of equal accessibility. Equal access is not equivalent to the identity of consumption practices. Differences in access also reflect the differences in the use of the Internet for educational purposes. Educated people are more information oriented, while the less educated seem to be interested more in the entertainment functions of the internet. Even among young people, who are characterized by a more homogeneous access, the differences regarding the modalities and the frequency of the internet use are maintained. The second aspect concerns the determinants of these differences. From a structural-functionalist approach, the use of digital technology is not homogeneous as a consequence of the underlying social structure of society. If we apply the knowledge gap theory [6,7,8] in the field of digital technology, the differences in use are due to differences in resources, such as communication skills, prior knowledge, selective use of information: in comparison to the less educated peopled, those with more education are more able to manage communication in general and to use and interpret information, People with more education generally possess a broader range of topics relevant for the informational use of the internet; education correlates strongly with a general pattern that concerns the pragmatic use of active information seeking. The main conclusion of this approach is that new technologies (Internet, CMC, mobile telephony) cause reproduction of social inequalities, they maintain or even increase inequalities. It is difficult to contest that new communication technologies, such as the internet and CMC systems, are often designed to offer new rules, novel resources, and innovative capabilities and thereby enable disruptive changes to the existing interaction patterns. Nonetheless, these changes do not interfere with segregation patterns which already exist. There are studies that point out that the social context that is, preexisting social networks, groups, and inter-group boundaries significantly constrain the flow of information across intercultural CMC groups. Another consistent finding in CMC research is that communication technologies may be effective in overcoming geographic and time barriers, but they do not necessarily make cultural and social boundaries disappear [9]. Information tends to be "sticky" and "captive" even in computer-mediated environments, because various social and cultural contexts constrain the flow of information across borders [9,10]. 3. The internet and content challenges in education oriented activities The cultural dimension of the proffesional competence in a globalized world The phenomenon of globalization rises a series of problems specific for educational activities, particularly those carried out in universities. Regardless of how we define the process of globalization, as interdependency or similarity, it represents a great challenge for formal education, especially in universities, because purely technical expertise that is specific for a specialization (program degree) should be corroborated by cultural competences which are essential for the proper use of technical information in the context of varying significances. Local-global or general specific are examples of polarities that make even purely technical problems have cultural dimensions and be impossible to solve without a contextual adaptation. A pre-requisite for any higher education institution in the contemporary society is to provide not only technical expertise, but also global competence. According to an international panel of experts, a working definition for the concept of global competence is: having an open mind while actively seeking to understand cultural norms and expectations of others, leveraging this gained knowledge to interact, communicate and work effectively outside one s environment [11]. The internet as a medium and e-learning programs along with CMC are apparently the most cost-effective ways available both to universities, corporate entities as well as single professionals, in order to acquire the type of competences required to identify and implement local solutions for general problems. There is structural tension between the requirement of a cross-cultural approach and the communicational content channeled through digital technology. A cultural approach of a technical problem is not possible without a proper understanding of the message meaning. The problem is that information and meaning are quite often different things. Information can be operationally assessed by refering to using its capacity to reduce uncertainty in relation to objective factual data. It is the result of a transfer relatively independent from the context of communication, while the efficiency ISSN: ISBN:

4 of communication is dependent on the accuracy of the transmission and on similar linguistic codes used by the transmitter and the receiver. The problem is that in the case of a meaning-orientated communicational interaction, the message becomes a text whose meaning is constructed by the interaction between the participants to the communication process, and the context (social frame) in which the communicational process takes place. The meaning results from interaction, it is an output as well as an outcome of it and definitely not given as such; in the process the context and the specific features of the interaction (social space, time, normative frame, social roles, and so on) are much more important as meaning generators than the plain linguistic content of the message. The Internet and CMC are without any doubt very effective tools in communication which aims to transmit data and information, such as for example technical specifications of a problem, but remain extremely limited when it comes to interactions orientated mainly toward the construction of an adequate frame of interpretation. But quite often technical data without a cultural relevant meaning are of little use in solving problems, at least when the problem involves a social stake. To the extent that professional education necessarily requires openness toward a cultural approach of the purely technical data of any specialization, the internet and CMC represent instruments that are unable to cover all the requirements of an efficient and complete professional formation. Moreover, besides the role of transmitting competences and expertise, school has also the mission to transmit normative models. Using the internet as exclusive educational interface or reducing massively the direct, face to face interaction between teacher and student can erode and even void the normative component of the learning process. A further argument that supports this assertion is that, because of the novelty of the latest communication technologies, the axiological and normative models are still insufficiently structured and, therefore, vague and ambiguous. The very recent example of the Japanese woman who killed her virtual husband and was consequently put in jail for her crime is a relevant media fact that demonstrates the cultural lag between the technology development and the social practices which define the use of technology [12]. If empirical research will confirm the validity of these assumptions, the very important practical consequence should be aimed at considerably reducing the application of e-learning programs and the need to redefine these programs through the use of internet and CMC as complementary instruments for face to face interactions. From the specialized expertise to ignorant competency One of the most important effects of the explosion of Internet access is that specialized knowledge has ceased to be the exclusive attribute of licensed professionals. Highly specialized professional knowledge, previously accessible to a limited group of experts, has now become accessible to the general public. Ordinary individuals have now the education and cognitive competence to search, identify and use in situations of ordinary life specialized knowledge that traditionally define extremely exclusivist areas of expertise: such as medicine or law. The public access to specialized information does not constitute a danger to the formal status of the expert. The roles of the expert are changed and because he or she ceases to be the exclusive owner of expertise, it is no longer sufficient to provide solutions but he or she is forced to argue, and not rarely is he or she required only to confirm the validity of solutions proposed by the client who is not an expert. The Internet facilitates access to specialized information not only because it can transfer it to the public, but also because the fact that, as an educational tool, it allows to provide information in the forms of print, image, audio and video. User ability to rely on each of these formats has increased, as the internet and related technologies have developed. Because people learn in different ways, a multimedia learning environment with high user control, such as the internet, allows people to choose a means of learning that is consistent with their own learning abilities. [6,7]. Together with the exponential development in the production of scientific knowledge, this phenomenon represents a major challenge for universities as specialized teaching agents that have a triple role: to validate legitimate knowledge, to produce new knowledge and to form experts. It may be very possible that the internet be the main cause of the change of paradigm that we have been experiencing for some years, and the reform of the educational programs through cutting down an important part of the traditional academic disciplines and orienting the university courses toward matters that are relevant for the nowadays context: explosion of specialized knowledge (the amount of professional information) to an extent where their non-triviality, relevance and utility for the real world ISSN: ISBN:

5 becomes questionable; specialized information becomes accessible to those that are not experts. 3. Conclusion In spite of the indisputable impact that the new communication technologies have on the production and dissemination of specialized information, their development, use and the increasing accessibility do not automatically mean a radical change of the elements defining the educational processes. This statement is valid both when we take into consideration the extended phenomenon of socialization, and when we refer only to the transformations associated to formal education. The theme is very important for the social research with a direct impact on public policies that concern education, because there is a strong correspondence between information, knowledge and social power. Inequalities in knowledge lead to exclusion from social resources and inequalities in social power. Although they influence radically the access to education and information, the new communication technologies cannot guarantee a complete democratization of access nor by canceling the gaps given by the social context, or the unequal distribution of capitals that mediate access and school performance. The offline social structure constrain the use of technology, and even technology, in its turn, defines and redefines new social structures. A different, but very important, challenge is the ability of new technologies to cover the basic requirements of professional formation in today s society. The need to form technical competences capable of operating efficiently in specific cultural contexts can be a structural shortcoming of the computing educational systems. The cost-effective transmission of information through Internet and CMC may be offset by structural incapacity of these communication means to mediate the significance frames that are needed in order to correctly process the information. Thus, even if the transfer of technical competences would not be affected, the replacement of face to face direct interaction, fundamental for the traditional education, with technologically mediated interactions may irreversibly alter the role of promoting normative values and patterns, which would cause technical expertise to be impossible to use, or even destructive. The third challenge raised by this article refers to the consequences of the public access to specialized information and the huge production of specialized knowledge on the way in which universities must redefine their role as specialized educational agents. References: [1] Sonia Livingstone (1999). New media, new audiences, New Media Society, Vol 1(1): [2] Chiribuca, D., (2007). Mass media and its influence on socializing process, Studia Universitatis Babe-Bolyai. Sociologia. Vol 1: 3-13 [3] Sonia Livingstone, Ellen Hesper (2007), Gradations in digital inclusion: children, young people and the digital divide, New Media Society, vol.9: [4] Rogers, E.M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations, Vol. 4. New York: Free Press [5] Castells, M. (2002). The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press [6] Bonfadelli, H., (2002). The Internet and Knowledge Gaps A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation, European Journal of Communication, Vol 17(1): [7] Eveland, W.P., Jr. (2003). A Mix Attributes Approach to the Study of Media Effects and New Communication Technologies. Journal of Communication, Vol 53(3): [8] Beaudoin, C. E. (2008). The internet's impact on international knowledge, New Media Society. Vol10(3): [9] Hichang, C., Lee, Jae-Shin (2008). Collaborative Information Seeking in Intercultural Computer-Mediated Communication Groups, Testing the Influence of Social Context Using Social Network Analysis, Communication Research. Vol 35 (4): [10] Espinosa, J. A., DeLone,W., & Lee, G. (2006). Global boundaries, task processes, and IS project success: A field study. Information Technology and People, Vol 19(4), [11] Hunter, B., White, G. P., Codbey, G., C., (2006). What Does It Mean to Be Globally Competent, Journal of Studies in International Education, Vol 10 (3), [12] Mari Yamaguchi (2008), Woman jailed after killing virtual husband, Asociated Press, October 24 ISSN: ISBN: