Distance Education in Transition - Master of Distance Education ...

"Information" and "Knowledge" - On the Semantic Transformation of Two Central Terms
accessible specialist information. To name just one example: the philosopher Jürgen
Mittelstraß (1994) draws our attention to the fact that the mere abundance of information
can have an effect on the contents and the orientation of the knowledge. For him,
information differs from knowledge through its "inclination to infinite growth and
unlimited variety" (1994, p. 140). New ranges of information, he claims, aroused new
demands for additional information:
"The thing about ranges of information is that the individual searching for
information nearly always receives more than they are looking for, in fact, much,
much more. This includes a great deal of information which he should have
looked for and has now luckily acquired without having to search; but also a
great deal which he does not need and which he his not prepared simply to
ignore, now that he has it." (1994, p. 140).
Following this, he continues, "the substance of traditional philosophical work" begins to
alter, because now research directions and interests in knowledge are influences and
"curiosity and the pleasure in experimenting take a new direction". Even the way in
which knowledge producers work changes:
Where "everything is available on call, the liking for comparisons, contrasts,
overviews grows. More and more collecting, numbering and presenting takes
place, and less and less thinking." (1994, p. 143).
Accordingly, Mittelstraß sees philosophical work as being under threat from "a new
superficiality" (1994, p. 143).
Possible Perspectives
These two outlined examples show by themselves how traditional knowledge might
change as well. Members of the Net generation will proceed differently when producing
and reproducing knowledge and arrive at different results. And even protagonists of
traditional knowledge who do not have relevant experience gained as children and
teenagers will be affected by the change. This will not only change the goals, directions
and methods of knowledge production, but even the contents, perhaps even the
traditional concepts of knowledge. According to this, but for other reasons as well, the
traditional knowledge of the future will also be subject to a structural change.
Results
The understanding of traditional knowledge which was presented above is contoured
and extended through the following excursus:
In many ways, knowledge is always imparted in society, which takes place individually,
depending on the location of its carrier. Knowledge develops in an individual manner
because not only the cognitive preconditions in individuals are different, but also
because the life history of each individual has an effect on the knowledge. Knowledge is
not a fixed quantity but changes its structure and nature through the media which
dominated the storage and reproduction of knowledge in each epoch. The existing
knowledge contents in a defined environmental contribute to the individualisation of
knowledge. Knowledge is created in the minds of individuals through the particular
development and correction of knowledge structures. Knowledge also feeds on insights
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