Allen Mooneyhan

Socio-Culture Foundations of Education

Final Exam

A 2025 Community College

Dr. Mitch Holifield

Arkansas State University

May 4, 2001

A 2025 Community College

            Chris was excited about what would be happening in class today.  This would be his last class of the 2025 Spring semester before finals started.  The instructor had stated that they would spend the day on a discussion about a controversial new procedure that was said to greatly enhance personal education.  This procedure had been met with opposition from various political and religious affiliations.

            Chris walked into the classroom and took a seat toward the front near the door.  He had only been sitting for a few seconds when the podium at the front of the classroom flickered, then flickered again.  Then suddenly there was a shimmer of light and the professor appeared behind the podium.  His name was Professor Jack and virtually everyone on campus loved his classes. 

            Chris was not actually in the classroom but was at home experiencing his education through an Internet connection.   Several years ago, technology had been developed that would allow users to experience virtual reality through the Internet.  This technology had quickly been adapted to meet the demands of education.  Through the invention of a wireless device that could be implanted within the spinal cord, it was now possible to experience a direct connection to the Internet without the risk of infection.  This device caused the body to experience temporary paralysis so that the body remained motionless during the experience.  The device was also a transmitter and receiver, which enabled it to interpret attempted movements and transmit them over the Internet so that the user actually experienced what was happening much like would be experienced within a dream.

Many had opposed the implantation of the transmitter/receiver.  Various groups were at odds with each other over moral and ethical implications of implanting such a device into the human body.  This was evident in the views expressed by those of both functional and conflict paradigms.  Functionalists believed that technology would be used to benefit all people while those who adhered to the conflict ideology believed the new technology wold be used to promote the status of the elite in society.

Functionalists believed that this technology would improve the situations of those who were willing to put forth the sacrifice and effort necessary to become more successful.  They believed the device would liberate all people by providing them with enhanced opportunities to succeed.  Furthermore, they believed that the use of this technology within education could facilitate the learning of skills and talents in order for one to earn credentials needed for life in today's society.  Finally, they believed that this technology would help individuals train for jobs they would become involved in and would help promote a healthy respect for authority within society.

The conflict ideology, on the other hand, was one which expressed concerns with the new technology based upon the belief that it would enhance the status of the elite class and would promote their power.  Those who held this view believed this technology, and education in general, served to repress the majority of people and perpetuate the status quo.  They believed that this device would help to predestine the status of individuals within society and would serve to produce compliant workers.  Finally, they believed that the use of this device would promote the inflation of credentials requiring individuals to respond unquestioningly to authority in order to use the device. 

While most citizens fell somewhere on a continuum between beliefs of the functional and conflict paradigms, those who fell to either extreme were usually the individuals who managed to get the message they believed out to the public.  The entire population was exposed to charges from both sides such as "This device will enable the perfect opportunity for job training for all people", and "This device will enable those who are in power to repress everyone else within society".  These charges stirred up distrust and weariness among citizens irregardless of where they stood on the issue of the implantation of the transmitter/receiver.

The turning point of the debate seemed to come at a point when it appeared the device would never be allowed to be used in a human being.  To the surprise of many, a group that had been advocating reform within public education signed on in support of the transmitter/receiver and its implantation into human subjects.  This organization was the National Association of Conservative Educators (NACE) which had fought for fundamental religious rights within the school system for many years.  The assurance of what had become known as "safe passage" was what had convinced the leaders of NACE to support the development and implantation of the transmitter/receiver.  Save passage refers to the allowance of an individual student to proceed throughout his/her education within the public school system without having his/her personal beliefs influenced by the school.  The NACE had been convinced that if this device was in use, a program would be developed that would supply a sufficient education for students who sought "safe passage".  They would be able to gain a quality education while being exposed only to those aspects of education that did not refute their personal beliefs.  After the announcement was made that the NACE was in support of the device, it was only a matter of time before it gained enough conservative support to become largely accepted within society.

            Professor Jack welcomed the class and explained what they would do.  They would be discussing the emergence of a new device that would actually allow storage and retrieval of data by the human brain.  New technology would allow this device to be implanted within the spinal cord where it would act in conjunction with the transmitter/receiver.  With this device a student would be able to simply store information on the implanted device which could be accessed by the brain.  Therefore, rather than learning specific material through traditional and novel means of experiencing education, one could simply store information needed and access it when the need arose.

Professor Jack asked the class what they thought of such a device and each student responded in turn.  Most were accepting and excited to hear of a device that would make access and retrieval of information more prominent than the learning of specific concepts and facts through experiences.  Several students, however, were opposed to the idea.  They expressed concern of what would happen to the individuality of people.  One concern was that of reducing the human brain to a set of information that could be stored on a device for access and retrieval.  This, they felt, would reduce the individual person to a bio-mechanical being that would be assessed based on their amount of storage capacity rather than their individual uniqueness.  Finally, by scientifically reducing the human brain to a storage device, society devalued the human being causing human individuals to be in less demand and technology to be in greater demand in every aspect of society. 

As the discussion seemed to be concluding, Chris asked Professor Jack what he thought of the use of a storage device that could be implanted within the spinal cord and would allow individuals to store information that could immediately be accessed.  Professor Jack responded by stating that he had seen many new technologies over the years, most of which people had been afraid of when they first appeared on the scene.  He continued by stating that the emergence of Internet 1 (which was now considered archaic) in the late 1900's had brought with it significant apprehension and fear among its initial users.  He then explained that in educational terminology, his philosophy was what many called progressivism.  He clarified this remark by stating that he believed education should be progressive in that new practices, procedures, technology and other innovations should be evident within and throughout education.  He indicated that education is an ever-changing process, which attempts to understand and prepare students for an ever-changing world.  He finished the discussion by indicating that, as a progressivist, he believed that it was not only acceptable, but also necessary to at least explore the opportunities provided to society by this implanted storage and retrieval device.  Therefore, he supported moving forward with the mass production and distribution of this device.

Professor Jack then asked if anyone had any additional questions before concluding this class for the semester.  There was no response from the students in the classroom.  Professor Jack then stated that class was dismissed and that their completion of this simulation had been logged onto the database.  He indicated that, since the storage device was not yet operational for use by humans, they needed to be certain to study for the upcoming final.  The final would be the last time they met for the class and upon its successful completion the database would update the students' files to indicate additional credit earned as a result of passing this class.  Then, with a flicker of light, Professor Jack was no longer standing behind the podium.  With this, the students rose from their desks and walked out the door and into a room where they could either end this virtual reality educational session or participate in another class within the same session.

In conclusion, possible implications of such a storage device will be explored.  To say that things within our current educational system would change with the introduction of both the transmitter/receiver and data storage device would be an understatement.  Although there is no way to be certain exactly what implications would occur that would affect education, several possibilities can be foreseen. 

First, there would be a change in the focus of education from a group focus to an individual focus.  With these devices the student could log into a specific program which could actually be an IEP for that student.  Once numerous software versions of learning environments were completed, designing an IEP may become as simple as choosing and briefly modifying an appropriate existing program.

Second, how would the initiation of these devices impact security in terms of controlling what is to be stored on databases and devices that will become part of the knowledge housed within our students.  It would be imperative that sufficient security measures were developed and utilized that would protect individuals from the threat of accessing information that could be dangerous to them as well as their privacy.

Third, what would be the result of removing the focus from uniqueness and individuality and placing that focus on the capacity of storage included within each person?  Would this cause society as a whole to decrease the value of the individual in favor of one who can perform better and more efficiently?  This would lead many back to the idea of scientific reductionism mentioned earlier within this work.  People, quite likely, might become reduced to a set of facts and capabilities which are used to evaluate them.

Finally, who would control the use of the device in terms of its acquisition and implantation?  Would the costs associated with such a device ensure that those who received these devices were the "haves" who could afford the device and its implantation or would it mean a restructuring of our system replacing capitalism with a form of socialism in which everyone received equal shares of resources.

One can anticipate through exploration of any of the previous implications that the impact upon education would be drastic.  There is no certainty that the present educational system would remain in existence.  Public education could become replaced by workplace education in which employees would have the information needed to do their jobs stored on their data devices in a matter of seconds, thus preparing them for their jobs within a company.  As the storage capacity of the data storage device increased, the storage of information traditionally learned over many years of education might be loaded into the human being in a matter of seconds.  This may result in the purchase of knowledge rather than the gradual process of education in which students learn the information through experiences.  Would the potential freedom from the constraints of many years of schooling in our traditional system be worth giving up the individuality and uniqueness characterized by those who succeed in acquiring knowledge by the shear force of their personality and persistence?  The functional sociologist would probably believe the risk to be worth the benefit because he/she would believe it to serve and enhance the opportunity of all people.  However, the conflict sociologists would likely believe not only that the risk is too great, but that it was yet another means of promoting the elite class while maintaining the status quo.

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