SOCIETY IN THE INFORMATION AGE: ON EDUCATION AND PREDICTION ON EDUCATION

famous of McLuhan’s missives, characteristically straightforward and enigmatic, was “the medium is the message, ” one of the best-known and least-understood insights. It meant that the mere use of a medium has a greater impact on society than does any particular way in which the medium is used. The world changed dramatically when people started watching television, for example, regardless of what they were watching. To what extent does the idea that “the medium is the message ” apply to the use of information technology in education? Support your argument with references to course readings. McLuhan's statement "the medium is the message " was meant to signify that it is not only the contents of a message that has power to change society, but that the medium itself has this ability too (Levinson). The use of information technology in education certainly has changed the way we teach and are taught today. This quiz is evidence for it. Without the school network, I would not read the questions to the exam online; without my personal computer, I would write the answers on a sheet of paper. I would not be able to send the answers via email, I would have to drop them off in your office (I just noticed that taking a quiz and emailing the answers to you is different from writing them on paper. The use of email makes it much more personal, as shown by the use of the word "your". This is definitely a change). When I look back at the past semesters here at Rice, information technology was everywhere. In my two Freshmen Physics classes, we took weekly quizzes online at a website, and our answers instantly graded. In all but one of my Computer Science classes, I submitted my homework by using the "turnin " command; there was no printing, no paper involved. Very few of my classes had homework that was handed out on paper. Most of them, of course, had reading from books, but a majority of them also involved reading articles that were online. Email provides a convenient way to get in touch with professors, teaching assistants and classmates, and instant messaging is even faster and more direct. It is evident that the use of the network to transfer information pervades lif