Nomen(Net)Klaturi: Musings on some Political factors affecting E-literacy initiatives
Nader Naghshineh
Dept of Psychology/Tehran University
Iran
Paper: 1/2 hour
Ethics, Economics & Exclusion
The year 2002 had been of special significance for me. It was a year marked by three events: The ITLIT2002, IFLA 2002 and iNAR workshop. I met and talked with many who seem to share my passion for the new vista presented by the re-focussing of technology on people. I could not help but wonder that why some the initiatives could not be implemented in spite of the fact that both the process and content are quite straight-forward. In seeking the answers, I was taken to a territory that normally we care not to deal with it: That of Politics and national policies.
It seems rather obvious at first, but it is not. This is especially so when you wish to define the very success of any e-literacy campaign that is to go beyond your campus. And this it does eventually, regardless of how contained it is designed. There is the question of Truths and tRuths. One being formed through independent associations and interaction with media and information culture, while the other is the permissible forms of realities allowed or condoned by the government in charge. A tremendous effort is being expended to close the digital gap, even in countries that may face literacy problems in a traditional sense. This is mostly due to the potential economic gain represented by some of these technologies?but more than most it maybe the mere fact that an information society could be a surveillance society.
Essentially the success of any information literacy plan on a national scale hinges on how much a government is willing to undergo a paradigm shift from traditional security to human security. The degree of this paradigm shift, determines the latitude open for development of information society, and in turn, the nature of the life-long learning opportunities offered.
Eventually, the government will decide that who will know how to learn. These would form the information literate people who would know how the information is organized, how to retrieve it and how to employ it. With the government deciding who would receive this training or influencing its diffusion to the lower levels, a new class would emerge that would exercise control. They could be termed as an information NomenKlatura or elite. Within such society a distinction between information and knowledge would reside within the purview of policy-makers and bureaucrats. By manipulating the information levels available to the general public, the information seeking deftness could be defined so it would lose its potential as a tool for synthesizing information into controversial knowledge. This would radically redefine the ability of people to grasp and express the nature of their information requirement. It would also affect those skills pertained to critical thinking, even when discipline-based knowledge is concerned.
It is my belief that while the question of cultural and even transcultural effects of e-literacy, especially within developing countries, are to be addressed when making plans for shifting the e-literacy status quo, one should also be aware of the political question. There are times that the Nomenklatura would be displeased by any action that may threaten the status quo. Information Literacy in its purest sense, is all about shifting the status quo. How many governments out there would allow sweeping e-literacy initiative that will have "Knowledge is Freedom" as their central creed.
