Reflective Analysis

HERACLITUS: THE CYBERSPACE IMBALANCE

We live in a time of changes, the arrival of the internet, smartphones and social networks have transformed the world in a short time.  Today, all changes are fast and spontaneous; hence, they are seen as a danger in conservative political schemes. This acceleration corresponds to the message of the most revolutionary philosophers, Heraclitus, whose best-known statement says' no one can step twice into the same river, for the second step, has already changed. Everything is process, verything is changing.

His philosophy, dating back to 535 B C. which is priceless is easily applies to this time of innovation and imbalance. As a thinker of Ephesus, a Greek colony. Heraclitus did not fail to value and appreciate the knowledge, which went into that stream and that ignited the universe. According to Heraclitus, nothing is permanent, except the same permanence of changes.

At this time, the most important capital for the development of a society is knowledge. The human beings who love wisdom must be familiar with many things, because the tightness in certain specialty cannot comprehensively approach the space of social changes.

For knowledge to get to people quickly and effectively there must exist a means of efficient and innovative transition and this way is the technology that has allowed all revolutionary changes which get to a large number of people in just seconds , moreover lot of information is broadcast worldwide at the speed of light.

Thinking  about the planetary changes of our times, in the technological, economic, political, educational and cultural revolutions, is to be placed on the same elapse of time and there is where we can find Heraclitus so when we live in permanent imbalance, we agree with the opinion of the universe , which is a real way to exist, to build and live the life that disappears when death comes, which is the balance of a complete eternity. We are children of time and ponder this as Heraclitus as a child playing with dice and therefore, the child is the kingdom.

A UNESCO report entitled; 'Towards Knowledge Societies' reaffirms the statement of Heraclitus about changes. Knowledge, technology and institutions are increasingly at risk to be labeled as obsolete. Today's culture is built based more on the model of creativity and renewal in the model of permanence and reproduction. (Ibid., 62)

Comparing these data with those proposed by Heraclitus, we could establish that for him everything is change, imbalance, and struggle of opposites, which are part of the human condition. These flows of changes thought by Heraclitus are found in the discourses about the society of knowledge in the cyberspace era.

According to studies by UNESCO the great novelty of the contemporary world is the valuation unprecedented, in everything that changes and is innovative. The transformation prevails symbolically about the permanence, and the breakdown of the community, although this sometimes creates an impression of instability and inequality.

Taking into account the comments made by UNESCO and the philosophical contributions made by Heraclitus we can conclude that in society today knowledge and information vary per second, so you have to be updated if you want to stay ahead with the social transformations of societies, we have to keep digging and updating  our knowledge through the use of technology, the internet and cyberspace.

NIETZSCHE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND CYBERSPACE

According to the author of this article, we confirm that we are living in a world where technology has played a relevant role for the advancement of humans in a new world where knowledge is reachable for users. New technology has allowed men to open their mind to new information, which can be purchased in a very practical way, because with a click you can know what is going on in the world.

Knowledge is for life and learning is unlimited because we learn everything. Learning is a the decision of each individual; we are the ones who decide when to continue learning. These skills are all around us, every cell phone, every television, every computer and electronic tablet that has access to the internet and information is a source of knowledge. Recent technological devices are the sources of pleasure and consumption of modern society, as expressed by the author.

For this analysis, the author has compared Frederick Nietzsche with his time thinking and what he thought of education of Germany and the criticism he did to professionals and educators who after pursuing a career didn’t ever open a book again, and this because they believed they knew everything when in fact, their knowledge died academically speaking and stayed in the past, living the present.

Nevertheless, we are in an era where knowledge sprout and many professionals remain in the past. Previous knowledge were more limited because people did not have access to them. However, we all have access to knowledge through technology.

Nietzsche attacks the finalists professionals because they worked to accomplish a goal and after they reached it they lied down and end up as poor professionals, these kind of people are not interested in permanent preparations, although now there is more knowledge, many professionals remain as mediocre in a world of knowledge, with many technological devices. Nietzsche valued a lot the contribution of science in the acquisition of knowledge.

According to the author, the new era of knowledge, is based on images and these images bring along knowledge. The computer is full of pictures and images, which offer us numerous informations, most of the time we feel more attracted to the picture than to the information it contains. Knowledge empowers people who make a good use of it, knowledge gives more power than money because with the knowledge you can get money, however those who have money and don’t have knowledge take the risk of losing all they have.

Nietzsche was a critical of higher education in his country, because at that time people (or the studious) only studied once and after the graduation they forgot innovation and getting more prepared, which is vital for anyone who transmits  knowledge, because there can be a point where the apprentice could have more domain of current issues than the teacher.

Educator these reviews are for you, so do not stay in the past and move forward, to the future with current knowledge that is the most important because what was true long ago today may be a fallacy nowadays. In innovation is where good teachers are known. Teachers must be well prepared, because we are leading curious and eager to learn students who have all the information with a click.

THE DOMINICAN NATION IN THE ERA OF THE CYBERWORLD

The author begins this important article giving references and referring to the history of the digital era concerning our Dominican Republic. In that order her gives us a tour along Dominican governments since independence in 1844 to the present, he points out those who have been dictatorial and democratic so we could have a reference of these governments on the wonderful world of the internet.

On the other hand, the author refers to the digital range that still exists in the Dominica Republic, as well as the factors affecting this phenomenon, referring to the economic and social differences that influence in the access to information technology and communication. In our country, we have many technological advances that support us every day, we have to point out  that developed countries have a huge advantage ahead of us, and it's not because we are poorer than any other country, but for adverse situations and developments. We have a need of cooperation from our own government. We have many natural resources so we still do not understand why we are poor, and even recent studies have shown that we are richer than some developed countries, but our administration does not let the world notice it.

Having an education spread by radio would be the most practical way and at another point of view '' Easy '' for our lives, and even developed countries already have a very high percentage in the context of the development of technologies for education, we would like to see the way in which our country can develop in the same way others countries did, it is said that  we should think in digital education not in instrumental education, where students think that computers are simple devices that only serve for the handling of different Windows operating systems, this means that we must understand that digital education leads us to learn from an essential way, in social and psychological terms.

We know that the Dominican Republic is holding new literacy projects for communities in low morale and economic position and mostly, for those people still  besides age want to fulfill their dreams of being  able to write  and read, and carry on a project  one day was interrupted for some particular reasons, radio education should be implemented for these people who still have knowledge of something but cannot develop for high expense, and most of them can’t afford it.

We have a government that has struggled to maintain its investment to education of 4% of 100%, because education has no limits, so we have been able to step forward and this is a positive change, our current president Danilo Medina, keeps his word and meanwhile he is working properly way but with certain difficulties, having a society with knowledge of new technologies could help us develop as a country that grows personally and morally, because we would have better brainpower and this is essential for a human being.

We still think that the possibilities are immense but it is responsibility of the government and society to put this issue in practice. (FUNGLOBE), La Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), el Instituto tecnológico  de  Santo Domingo (INTEC),, la Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) , la Universidad Abierta para Adultos (UAPA), los Centros APEC de Educación a Distancia (CENAPEC), la Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) y la Universidad del Caribe (UNICARIBE).These institutions have been involved in everything related to events on this educational morality and celebrated the International Congress on Information Technology, Communication and Distance Education and participating in conferences Virtual-educated.

These institutional actions should be accompanied by individual efforts, where teachers understand that education is for life and based on 4 pillars, learning how to know, how to do, how to be and how to live together. These ideas are reinforced by the Ministry of Higher Education, where it is pointed out that:

Information Technology and Communication (ITC), which can be seen as a set of scientific and technological disciplines that avoid  the creation of new alternatives to improve learning and knowledge processing, so the teacher will understand that cyberworld where the their students are inserted and become their tutor.

Translation made by:

•  Enemencio Peña R
•  Andrés Beato
•  Welligton Vázquez
•  Deny Pérez

The Original text was written by: Dr. Andrés Merejo