ARRANGING THE TERMS ALONG A SCALE

   

    
      The terms Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom are sometimes presented in a form that suggests a scale.

       However, in no sense do these four terms define some sort of linear equal-interval scale. They do, however, help us to discuss the design of an educational system as well as current and potential uses of computers. For example, we all accept that computers can be used for the input, storage, processing, and output of data. But, there is considerable disagreement about whether a computer can have knowledge or be knowledgeable--or have wisdom and be wise.

     In the good old days, in the early history of using computers to do business data processing, computers were data processing machines. There were lots of workshops and courses on data processing. "Raw data" was processed to produce reports that were then analyzed by management to make management decisions. Hourly time sheets of workers were processed to produce payroll checks and summary reports on employee costs.

     Later came the idea of computers processing data to produce information. Payroll data can be put together with other cost data, sales data, and so on to produce information about which products are most profitable. The huge collection of raw data can be processed into reports that facilitate high level management decisions.

   

     Computer Science Departments became Computer and Information Science Departments. Terms such as Information Technology (IT) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) arose because they better described the computer field.

     In more recent years, businesses and others have worked to use computers to process information so that it becomes or is closely similar to knowledge. Knowledge in a person's head is used for posing and solving problems, posing and answering questions, defining decision making situations and making decisions, posing tasks to be accomplished and accomplishing the tasks, and so on. Nowadays, computers make lots of decisions without human intervention. That is, they receive data as input and they process it in a manner that produces decisions and actions as output. When a human does this, we talk about the level of knowledge, skill , and intelligence that the person has.

The graph below reflects the learning journey whereby we progressively transform the raw, unfiltered facts and symbols into information, knowledge, and eventually into intelligence and wisdom.

The discussion in this section leads to questions such as:

1. Can a computer system have knowledge and be knowledgeable?
2. Can a computer system have wisdom and be wise?
3. How should these ideas and answers affect business and education?