迎向網際空間新世界的通識教育

The General Education of the New World of Cyberspace

自1936年英國人圖靈(Alan Turing)想出了一個「通用機器」(Universal Machine)的電網腦硬路交體互與軟連結體，即建以構驚了人網的際速空度間不斷創新演變，目前這些數以億計的萬能機器再以頻的寬概充念足，(cyberspace)實體空間。世界文明因此進入一個新的紀元，在原有的實體空間(physical space)之外，我們也已開始在這個嶄新的網際空間從事大量的商務、娛樂、教育、社會、政治、甚至戰爭活動，網際空間也將持續改變人類固有的思考模式、生活習慣、社會結構、道德法律、人際關係與價值觀。

In 1936, English computer scientist Alan Turing proposed the concept of “universal machine”, a decade later, the University of Pennsylvania made a full-functioned digital computer named ENIAC. Today, thanks to the advancement of computer technology, these two components have been greatly improved, combined and became a “general-purpose super machine”. More over, the Internet connects hundreds of millions of these super machines to exchange data and communicate with each other in a fast and effective way, in which big variety of information services are developed, and people’s life are improved tremendously. A new world known as cyberspace has been invented.　 In addition to the “physical space” we are living, people are engaged in doing commercial, educational, social, political, or even war activities in cyberspace. This space is constantly changing the way we think, the life style we live, the social relationship we share with others, the way we view legal ethics, and value systems we have adopted. People benefited greatly from the cyberspace, however, the threats of cybersecurity that could cause severe adverse effects to a country or society follows as well. “Developing global citizens” is the goal of colleges today but what are the literacy and awareness necessary such that the students are able to fit into the cyberspace world? It is an important issue that how does a university to design prospective general education courses in order to help students become good citizens of cyberspace with the essential knowledge. Education is always believed the solution to problems a country could possibly has, and it is also the driving force to push our society to improve. In cyberspace, the citizen’s knowledge, literacy, rights and obligations, the understanding of national and personal security can be taught by the general education in university, including the categories of competence and awareness contents. In this paper, we collect and study plenty of data to analyze the remarks of key roles that general education played during the process of a country’s development, the progress of information technology, the forming and the characteristics of cyberspace, the importance of cybersecurity. The issues of problems we are expecting due to the challenges across the “dual space” is studied in detail, and we conclude this paper by proposing some suggestions for the general education curriculum in cyber-age.