GE4_SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY

MODULE #7
Prepared by: Corazon Mirla V. Berango, MAN/Instructor

THE INFORMATION AGE

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The Learners will be able to:
1. Define Information Age; and
2. Discuss the history of Information Age.
Sub-Lesson 1.
INTRODUCTION
Our present society is best described as, highly modernized, automated, data-driven and
technologically advanced, as evidenced by the quick transfer and sharing of information.
Tremendously influenced in our society are such areas, communication, economics, industry, health
and the environment. The rapid upgrade of information also has disadvantages, despite our gains
due to the development of information technology.
Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary defines information as “knowledge
communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or circumstance.” Thus, information is a very
vital tool for survival.
The Information Age is defined as a “period starting in the last quarter of the 20 th century when
information became effortlessly accessible through publications and through the management of
information by computers and computer networks” (Vocabulary.com, n.d.). The means of
conveying symbolic information has evolved with increasing speed. The Information Age is also
called the Digital Age and the New Media Age because it was associated with the development of
computers.
“The Information Age is the true new age based upon the interconnection of computers via
telecommunications, with these information systems operating both a real-time and as-needed
basis. Furthermore, the primary factors driving this new age forward age convenience and user-
friendliness which, in turn, will create user dependence,” according to James R. Messenger who
proposed the Theory of Information Age in 1982.
LEARNING CONCEPTS
History
The table below traces the history and emergence of the Information Age (United States
American History, n.d.).

Timeline of the Information Age

Year Event
3000 BC Sumerian writing system used pictographs to represent words
2900 BC Beginnings of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
1300 BC Tortoise shell and oracle bone writing were used
500 BC Papyrus roll was used
220 BC Chinese small seal writing was developed
100 AD Book (parchment codex)
105 AD Woodblock printing and paper, developed by the Chinese
1455 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press using movable metal type
 1755 Samuel Johnson’s dictionary standardized English spelling
1802 The Library of Congress was established
Invention of the carbon arc lamp
1824 Research on the persistence of vision published
1830s First viable design for digital computer
Augusta Lady Byron writes the world’s first computer program
1837 Telegraph invented in Great Britain & US
1861 Motion pictures projected unto a screen
1876 Dewey Decimal system, introduced
1877 Eadward Muybridge demonstrated high- speed photography
1899 First magnetic recording, released
1902 Motion special effects were used
1906 Lee DeForest invented the electronic amplifying tube (triode)
1923 Television camera tube invented by Zvorkyn
1926 First practical sound movie
1939 Beginning of regularly scheduled television broadcasting in the US
1940s Beginning of information science as a discipline
1945 Vannevar Bush foresaw the invention of hypertext
1946 INEAC computer, developed
1948 Birth of field-of-information theory proposed by Claude E. Shannon
1957 Planar transistor , developed by Jean Hoerni
1958 First integrated circuit
1960s Library of Congress, developed by LC MARC (machine-readable code)
1969 UNIX operating system developed, which could handle multi-tasking
1971 Optical laser disc developed by Philips & MCA
1974 MCA & Philips agreed on a standard videodisc encoding format
1975 Altair Microcomputer Kit released: first personal computer for the public
1977 RadioShack introduced first complete personal computer
1984 Apple Macintosh computer introduced
Mid 1980s Artificial intelligence separated from information science
1987 Hypercard developed by Bill Atkinson recipe box metaphor
1991 450 complete works of literature on one CD-ROM released
January RSA (encryption & network security software) Internet security code cracked for a 48-bit
1997 number

As man evolved, information and its dissemination has also evolved in many ways. We no longer
kept them to ourselves but we share and manage them in different means. Information got ahead of us
growing at a rate we were unprepared to handle. It became difficult to collect and manage them starting
in the 1960s and 70s due to the abundance of information. It was in the 80s when the real angst set in
which Richard Wurman called it “Information Anxiety.”
Information became the currency in the business world during the 1990s, being the preferred
medium of exchange and information managers served as information officers.
Presently, there’s no doubt that information has turned out to be a commodity, an
overdeveloped product, mass-produced and unspecialized. Soon, we are overloaded with it.
But one thing is sure, the Information Age will continue to move forward and far greater than
we could imagine.
 Robert Harris in his article “Truths of the Information Age” detailed some facts about it:
1. Information must compete. There is a need for information to stand out and be recognized in
the increasing clutter.
2. Newer is equated with truer. We forgot the truth that any fact or value can endure.
3. Selection is a viewpoint. Choose multiple sources for your information if you want to receive a
more balanced view of reality.
4. The media sells what the culture buys, meaning information is driven by cultural priorities.
5. The early word gets the perm. The first media channel to expose an issue often defines the
context, terms and attitudes surrounding it.
6. You are what you eat and so is your brain. Do not draw conclusions unless all ideas and
information are presented to you.
7. Anything in great demand will be counterfeited. The demand for incredible knowledge, scandals
and secrets is ever-present; hence, many events are fabricated by tabloids, publicists or other
agents of information fraud.
8. Ideas are seen as controversial. It is almost certainly impossible to make any assertion that will
not find some supporters and some detractors.
9. Undead information walks ever on. Rumors, lies, disinformation and gossips never truly die
down. They persist to continue and circulate.
10. Media presence creates the story. People behave much differently from the way they would if
being filmed when the media are present, especially film news or television media.
11. The medium selects the message. Television is mainly pictorial, partially aural, and slightly
textual, so visual stories are emphasized: fires, chases and disasters.
12. The whole truth is a pursuit. The information that reaches us is usually selected, verbally
charged, filtered, slanted and sometimes fabricated. What is neglected is often even more
important than what is included.

REFERENCES

“Truths of the Information Age.” Harris, R. (n.d.) http://www.virtualsalt.com/infotrue.htm.

“The Theory of the Information Age.” Messenger, J.R. (1982).

http://www.informationage.org/briefhistory.html.

“The Information Age Timeline.” United States of American History. (n.d.)

https://www.vocbulary.com/dictionary/information%20age.

Science, Technology and Society. Serafica, J.P.J. et.al. pp. 104-109.

Name __________________________________________________ Course/Year __________________
Subject ________________________________________________ Date Submitted ________________

Questions to Ponder
1. Who are the contributors of the technological advances of the Information Age?
2. Aside from communication, what other aspects of society is/ are being influenced in the
Information Age?

Activity1
Take a look at the timeline of Information Age. Can you add more vital issues, discoveries or
another firsts in the forever evolution of information?

Activity 2
Choose at least 5 truths of information age by Robert Harris. Give definite examples or scenarios
which justify these facts.
GE 4_ SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
Module # 8
Prepared by Corazon Mirla V. Berango, MAN/ Instructor

THE INFORMATION AGE

Sub-lesson 2.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE
The Learner will be able to understand the factors that need to be considered in checking
website sources.

LEARNING CONCEPTS
Computers are among the most important contributions of advances in the Information Age to
society. It is an electronic device that stores data and processes data (information). It runs on a program
that contain exact, step-by-step directions to solve a problem.
Types of Computer
Computers are associated with numerous terms and descriptions. Most people suggest the
dimensions, intended use or the computer’s power. The term “computer” can apply to virtually any
device that has a microprocessor in it, most people think of a computer as a device that receives input
from the user through a mouse (hand-guided directions tool) or keyboard, processes it in some fashion
and presents the result on a screen.
1. Personal Computer (PC) is a single-user instrument. PCs were first known as microcomputers
since they were a complete computer but built on a smaller scale than the enormous systems
operated by most businesses.
2. Desktop Computer is described as a PC that is not designed for portability. The assumption with
a desktop is that it will be set up in a permanent spot. A workstation is simply a desktop
computer that has a more powerful processor, additional memory and enhanced capabilities for
performing special group of tasks, such as 3D graphics or game development. Most desktops
offer more storage, power and versatility than their portable versions.
3. Laptops are portable computers that integrate the essentials of a desktop computer in a
battery-powered package, which are somewhat larger than a typical hardcover book. They are
commonly called notebooks.
4. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are tightly integrated computers that usually have no
keyboards but rely on a touch screen for user input. PDAs are typically smaller than a paperback,
lightweight and battery-powered.
5. Server refers to a computer that has been improved to provide network services to other
computers. It usually boasts powerful processors, tons of memory and large hard drives.
6. Mainframes are huge computer systems that can fill an entire room. They are used by especially
by large firms to describe the large, expensive machines that process millions of transactions
everyday. The term “mainframe” has been replaced by enterprise server. Although some
supercomputers are single computer systems, most comprise multiple, high-performance,
parallel computers working as a single system.
7. Wearable computers involve materials that are usually integrated into cell phones, watches and
other small objects of places. They perform common computer applications such as databases,
email, multimedia and schedulers.
The World Wide Web (Interner)
 The origin of the internet is traced back by several historians to Claude E. Shannon, an American
mathematician considered as the “Father of Information Theory.” While working at the Bell Laboratories
at 32, he published a paper proposing that information can be quantitatively encoded as a sequence of
ones and zeroes.
The Internet is worldwide system of interconnected networks that facilitate data transmission
among innumerable computers. It was developed during the 70s by the Department of Defense, in case
of an attack, military advisers suggested the advantage of being able to operate on one computer from
another terminal. It was mainly used by scientists to communicate with other scientists in the early days.
The Internet remained under government control until 1984.
An early problem faced by Internet users was speed. Phone lines could only transmit
information at a limited rate. The development of fiber-optic cables allowed for billions of bits of
information to be received every minute. Companies like Intel developed faster microprocessors so
personal computers could process the incoming signals at a more rapid rate.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, directors of a Stanford research project built a search engine that
listed results to reflect page popularity when they determined that the most popular result would
frequently be the most usable. Friends, families and other investors contributed one million dollars thus
they were able to launch their company in 1998. Google is now the world’s most popular search engine,
accepting more than 200 million queries daily.
Later, new forms of communication were also introduced. Electronic mail or email, was a
suitable way to send a message to fellow workers, business partners or friends. Messages could be sent
and received at the convenience of the individual. Internet service providers like America Online and
CompuServe set up electronic chat rooms which were open areas of cyberspace where interested
parties could join in a conversation with perfect strangers. “Surfing the net” became a pastime in and of
itself.
The current Information Age has spawned its own breed of wealthy influential brokers from
Microsoft’s Bill Gates to Apple’s Steve Jobs to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
The Internet created a technological divide that increased the gap between the members of the
higher class and lower class of society. Those who could not afford a computer or a monthly access fee
were denied these possibilities. Many decried the impersonal nature of electronic communication
compared to a telephone call or handwritten letter.
The unregulated and loose nature of the Internet allowed pornography to be broadcast to
millions of homes. Protecting children from these influences or even from meeting violent predators
would prove to be difficult. Nowadays, crimes in various forms are rampant because of social media.
Cyberbullying is an issue that poses alarm worldwide, so we need to be aware of the possible harm and
damage due to abuse of these advances in the Information Age.

Applications of Computers in Science and Research

One significant applications of computers for science and research is evident in the field of
bioinformatics. Bioinformatics is the applictio of information technology to store, organize and analyze
vast amount of biological data which is available in the form of sequences and structures of proteins –
the building blocks of organisms and nucleic acids –the information carrier.
The development of a consolidated formal database, known as SWISS-PROT protein sequence
database was initiated in 1986. It has now about 70000 protein sequences from more than 5000 model
organisms, a small fraction of all known organisms. This enormous variety of divergent data resources is
now available for study and research by both academic institutions and industries.
Computers and software tools are widely used for generating these databases and to identify
the functions of proteins, model the structure of proteins, determine the coding (useful) regions of
nucleic acid sequences, find suitable drug compounds from a large pool and optimize the drug
development process by predicting possible targets. Handy in the analysis are these software tools:
Annotator (an interactive genome analysis tool); and GeneFinder (tool to identify coding regions and
splice sites).
From the pharmaceutical industry’s point of view, bioinformatics is the key to rational drug
discovery. It reduces the number of trials in the screening of drug compounds and in identifying
potential drug targets for a particular disease using high-power computing workstations and software
like Insight. This profound application of bioinformatics in genome sequence has led to a new area in
pharmacology_ Pharmacogenomics, where potential targets for drug development are hypothesized
from the genome sequences. Molecular modeling, which requires a lot of calculations has become faster
due to the advances in computer processors and its architecture.
In plant biotechnology, bioinformatics is found to be useful in the areas of identifying diseases
resistance genes and designing plants with high nutrition values.

How to Check the Reliability of Web Sources

The following guidelines can help us check the reliability of web sources that we gather. It is
noteworthy to consider and apply the following to avoid misinformation. (Lee College Library, n.d.):
1. Who is the author of the article/site?
 How to find out?
Look for an “About” or “More About the Author” link at the top, bottom or sidebar of
the webpage. Some pages will have a corporate author rather than a single person as an
author. If no information about the author/s of the page is provided, be suspicious.
i. Does the author provide his or her credentials?
ii. What type of expertise does he or she have on the subject he or she is writing
about? Does he or she indicate what his or her education is?
iii. What type of experience does he or she have? Should you trust his or her
knowledge of the subject?
Try searching on the Internet for information about the author.
i. What kind of websites are associated with the author’s name? Is he or she
affiliated with any educational institution?
ii. Do commercial sites come up? Do the websites associated with the author give
you any clues to particular biases the author might have?
2. Who published the site?
 How to find out?
i. Look at the domain name of the website that will tell you who is hosting the
site. For instance, the Lee College Library website is:
http://www.lee.edu/library. The domain is name is “lee.edu.” This tells you that
the library website is hosted by the Lee College.
ii. Search the domain name at http://www.whois.sc/. The site provides
information about the owners of registered domain names. What is the
organization’s main purpose? Check the organization’s main website, if it has
one. Is it educational? Commercial? Is it a reputable organization?
iii. Do not ignore the suffix on the domain name ( the three letter part that comes
after the “ . “. The suffix is usually (but not always) descriptive of what entity
hosts the website. Keep in mind that it is possible for sites to obtain suffixes that
are misleading. Here are some examples:
.edu = educational .mil = military .org =nonprofit
.com = commercial .gov = government
 3. What is the main purpose of the site? Why did the author write about it and why did the
publisher post it?
i. To sell a product?
ii. As a personal hobby?
iii. As a public service?
iv. To further scholarship on a topic?
v. To provide general information on a topic?
vi. To persuade you of a particular point of view?
4. Who is the intended audience?
i. Scholars or the general public?
ii. Which age group is it written for?
iii. Is it aimed at people from a particular geographic area?
iv. Is it aimed at members of a particular profession or with specific training?
5. What is the quality of information provided on the website?
i. Timeliness: When was the website first published? Is it regularly updated? Check for
dates at the bottom of each page on the site.
ii. Does the author cite sources? Just as in print sources, web sources that cite their
sources are reliable.
iii. What type of other sites does the website link to? Are they reputable sites?
iv. What types of sites link to the website you are evaluating? Is the website being cited
by others?
Examples of Useful and Reliable Web Sources
1. AFA e-Newsletter (Alzheimer’s Foundation of America newsletter)
2. American Memory –the Library of Congress historical digital collection
3. Bartleby.com Great Books Online - collection of free e-books including fictions, nonfictions,
references and verses
4. Chronicling America – search and view pages from American newspapers from 1880- 1922
5. Cyber Bullying – a free collection of e-books from ebrary plus additional reports and documents
to help better understand, prevent and take action against this growing concern
6. Drug information websites:
 National Library of Medicine’s Medicine Plus
 Drugs.com
 PDRhealth
7. Global Gateway: World Culture and Resources (from the Library of Congress)
8. Google Books
9. Googlescholar.com
10. History sites with primary documents:
 AMDOCS: documents for the study of American history
 Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy (Yale Law School)
 Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Colonial Latin America
 Teacher Oz’x Kingdom of History
11. Illinois Digital Archives – the Illinois State Library working with libraries, museums, and historical
societies in Illinois provides this collection of materials related to Illinois history
12. Internet Public Library
13. Ipl2- a merger of Librarians’ Internet Index and Internet Public Library. Special interest may
include the “Literary Criticisms” page which can be found after clicking on the “Special
Collections” link.
 14. Internet Archive – digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form
15. Internet Archive for CARLI digitized resources
16. Librarians’ Internet Index
17. Making of America- a digital library of primary sources in American social history
18. Maps _ from the University of Texas at Austin collection including historical and thematic maps
19. NationMaster – a massive central data source and handy way to graphically compare nations. It
is a vast compilation of data from sources such as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD.
20. Nursing sites:
 AHRQ (www.ahrq.gov)
 National Guidelines Clearinghouse (www.guideline.gov)
 PubMed (www.nlm.nih.gov)
21. Project Gutenberg – the first and largest single collection of free electronic books with currently
over 200000 ebooks available
22. Shmoop – literature, US history and poetry information written primarily by PhD and masters
students from top universities like Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard and Yale
23. StateMaster – a unique statistical database which allow you to research and compare a
multitude of different data on US states using various primary sources such as the US Census
Bureau, the FBI, and the National Center for Educational Statistics using visualization technology
lie pie charts, maps, graphs and scatter plots to provide data.

REFERENCES

“How Can I Tell if a Website is Reliable?” Lee College Library. (n.d.)

https://www.edb.utexas.edu/petrosino/Legacy_Cycle/mf_jm/Challenge%201/website%20reliable.pdf.

USHistory.org. (n.d.) “Living in the Information Age.” http://www.ushistory.org/us/60d.asp.

Science, Technology and Society. Serafica, et.al. pp. 109 -121.

Name _____________________________________________ Course/Year ____________________
Subject ___________________________________________ Date Submitted ____________________

Question to Ponder
1. What other technological advancements can possibly be developed in the future?

Activity
Think of a device with special features that you can develop to help improve the lives of people in
our society. It could be something that you can develop to help in communication, transportation,
health, and the like. Illustrate your device in a short bond paper.