ETC-567 Paper for NAU

Abstract
This paper explores the social and historical foundations of education and how they relate to technology in education.  It explores how technology is initially a response to social issues which reflect personal or social priorities.  As technology improves the priorities shift.  Education is also initially a response to social issues and as it improves it also shifts priorities.  The effect is cyclical and ever changing.  Over time this cyclical process has produced technology that is used in education.  This technology has improved education to a point of concentrating on how things are taught instead of just what is taught.  One social issue, online social networks, is explored and its affects on its participants. 
Social, Historical, and Educational Foundations of Technology in Education
The relationship between social issues, technology, and education is a cyclical process.  The driving force behind these relationships is a list of ever-changing priorities.  Social issues build the foundations of education and social issues are a result of personal priorities.  These priorities shift with time and as these priorities shift, technology evolves (Zagari, MacDonald, 1994, 7-8).  Technology, in turn, affects our perceived needs and the result is a complex cycle of cause and effect.  An example of this relationship is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.  Shifting priorities drive the relationships between education, social influences, and technology.
The term technology can be a bit ambiguous so it would be good to clarify it a bit more.  Wikipedia describes technology as our knowledge and use of tools created by science to control our environment (Technology, 2007).  With this thought in mind the term tools can be synonymous with technology.  Any tool, like a shovel or a calculator, could be considered technology.
Social problems drive technology (Zagari, MacDonald, 1994, 7).  We discover and use new technology in response to social issues.  For example, ancient civilizations needed water – it was a high priority for their survival – which is why so many early cities were built near water sources.  But as populations grew, living near water resources was not always possible.  The amount of water necessary for survival and its location was not always conducive to large populations.  The necessity of water drove people to find other sources of water.  Wells were dug, springs were found, and canals were built.  These sources required better ways of digging and exploring and new tools were developed that would improve this process.  When new materials were discovered, like iron, it was quickly perceived that these materials could be fashioned into usable tools that improved the process even more.  It was the social issue of large populations needing water and human beings’ ingenuity that led to the invention of many useful tools or improvement in technology.  Necessity is the mother of invention.
Social issues are not just limited to our basic physical needs, though.  Other issues like: religion, lust for power, control, social exclusiveness (like racism), improvement in the quality of life, pursuit of wealth, famine, abuse, war, and many others, all influence and even dictate our objectives and goals in life.  These influences shift our list of priorities and those that have a higher priority will receive more attention.  Even so, necessities, like food and water, tend to dictate the priorities.
Social and Historical Foundations of Education
The educational system itself is also the result of social issues (Zagari, MacDonald, 1994, 7-9).  Throughout history, adults would pass on knowledge to their children and experts took on apprentices so that their trade would continue.  It was a way for civilizations to survive and even thrive in their environment.  The culture of education has always been around and even the idea of school itself can be traced throughout the centuries.  When the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock they established a school to ensure Biblical knowledge and integration was part of their new world and the foundation of America was with the thought of “literate citizens” (Bondi, Wiles, 2007, 10).  But coupled with these social influences and progress was the advent of more complex technologies, like the technologies the industrial age brought about.  It required and allowed for a more formal educational system.
The industrial age improved the quality of life for nearly every class of people – especially in the United States where it was thriving (Pannabecker, 2004, 72-73).  New technologies began shifting the necessities of life from growing crops and livestock to mass production of products that could be bought and sold in mass quantities.  The need for money and factory workers began to replace the need for tending crops.  In light of this, new generations no longer needed to be in the fields harvesting – machinery (technology) could do this much more efficiently.  The necessity of food and water was just as high of a priority as before but the necessity to search for and provide for these things had been shifted down.  The priority of earning money had replaced it and this newly-shifted necessity required more knowledge and skill.
Throughout this process the United States government had been establishing a public educational system (Bondi, Wiles, 2007, 10-14).  Now a higher percentage of children, not just the rich, could become literate and learn a useful trade.  The educational system was established in response to the shift in social needs which resulted from advances in technology.  The educational system also forced a new ideology onto the social community impelling them to change their priorities to be more educationally minded.  These changes took time.
As the American educational system matured, educators were able to more accurately identify what was important to learn.  They responded to the social issues and established educational priorities of what was needed to survive in modern society and they set out to help educational systems adapt to them.  At first, the goals varied greatly from place to place (Bondi, Wiles, 2007, 10-14) but as time went by they became more standardized and are now, although they are numerous, are overall very similar and accurate.  As priorities in cultures shift so do the contents of the educational goals.  Some of these goals are always in a state of flux.
The implementation of an educational system had a huge impact on technologies and progress.  Other countries were also introducing educational systems (Marsden, Grosvenor, 2007) and the number of students that were learning when compared to earlier years was extraordinary.  This educated society was able to learn from previous generations and just like previous generations, they were able to improve on those technologies.  But as knowledge grew, the improvements to technology began to move at an unprecedented rate (Pannabecker, 2004, 77-78).  These changes can be represented by a logistical growth pattern like the graph in Figure 2.  When more people started learning, advances in technology began changing much faster than previous years. This rate of change has continued to increase and will probably continue for quite some time.  It would be difficult to predict how long technology will advance at this current rate but currently it appears that it will “never” level out.  It would be based on the total amount of information that could be learned and that number would be astronomical – too big to count.  However, it could come crashing down if some catastrophe occurs. 

Figure 2.  Technological advancements over time.  “a” represents the beginning of the Industrial Age and “b” represents the beginning of the Information Age.  The timeline is not to scale.
The information age is an example of this unprecedented improvement in technology.  Advents like: the computer, the microprocessor, software, methods of communication, and the Internet, changed the way people do things and communicate.  This new technology caused a shift in the priorities of our society and in turn influenced the priorities of education.  Twenty years ago in the United States, almost no one owned a mobile phone or a computer.  Now it is hard to find someone who does not own a mobile phone or a personal computer.  This technology allows for almost instant information availability and contact with anyone almost anywhere.  The thought of growing our own food or searching for water as the main priority in our life has shifted from if we are going to eat to a low priority of what or where we are going eat.
This communications-centered environment has created an environment of information sharing and co-creating.  The Internet has become a place where information is stored, collaborated on, and fine tuned.  The educational system reflects this social influence in priorities and availability of information.  So much information is now available and so many people are sharing, educators are looking more into how (Fragnoli, 2005) we teach and not so much on what (Applefield, Huber, Moallem, 2000, 36).
Educators’ priorities have matured so much that they now concentrate more on the methods of instruction rather than on what subjects (Fragnoli, 2005), although those subjects are still debated.  Most school systems now concentrate on getting away from memorizing facts and ways of doing things to understanding the why and how that information is taught.  Why are these skills important and how are they used in everyday life?  Integrating newer learning theories like constructivism into the classroom is becoming the new priority in the classroom instead of just what is being taught (Applefield, et. al., 2000, 36-38).
Online Social Networks
This latest online technology has also created an entirely new social environment.  There is a virtual society where people never physically meet but rather are able to interface with others through the Internet.  Wikipedia (Social Network Service, 2007) describes some of these networks as, “primarily web based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on.”  There are many programs like FaceBook, MySpace, and even blogs that allow people to create an image of how they want to be perceived by the rest of the world.  This environment is safer than meeting in person because you can present the qualities you think are important and hide those that may not be as appealing.  Many people use these networks as an extension of their physical social networks but there are also many that use this social environment as their only social network.  That raises a big question, are online social networks harmful or helpful?  To consider this question another social network that may be taken for granted will be explored – that is online gaming.
The most popular of all online games in the world is World of Warcraft or WOW for short.  WOW came online in November of 2004 and had 2.5 million subscribers in the first 24 hours of its release and over 3.5 million within the first month.  It currently has over 9 million subscribers worldwide, more than any other online game (World of Warcraft, 2007).  This was a world where someone could create a character and then interact with the program and other characters to develop their character further.  WOW ended up encouraging users to stay online for hours to further their character development and many of these gamers would rarely interface in the real world (Video WOW, 2007).  Their fantasy world was much safer and controllable.  Many of these users checked out of reality and into a fantasy experience, which led to anti-social behavior – at least in the physical world.
WOW also encouraged gamers to form alliances.  They created guilds in which when they weren’t playing the game, they were talking about it through discussion boards and blogs.  They would seek out other players with similar abilities to train with to sharpen their game skills.  Multiple times during the week, they would organize huge raiding parties of 30 to 80 people and fight battles or attack game monsters.  Through these experiences many gamers formed strong friendships and even found future mates.  These experiences also developed organizational and leadership skills and taught them how to participate in small and large groups and accept the responsibilities of the character’s role.
Many of these interrelational skills would have never been developed in the real world.  These gamers’ personalities were way too introverted to allow for that much interaction, but because of this virtual environment where they could be free to express themselves in a non-threatening way, they discovered they did have people skills and even leadership skills.  Many have taken these new found skills into the workplace and have surprised their co-workers, who had stereotypically dismissed them.
Online social environments are just like any other environment – they can have both positive and negative influences into one’s life.  If too much time is spent in just that online environment, one can lose track of reality.  But if time is metered and regular human interaction is occurring, the online experience can enhance relationship skills.
Conclusions
The historical foundations of education have been defined by social influences and technology.  The educational system has matured over time with these influences allowing educators to concentrate on how they will teach instead of on what they will teach.  Educational technology is both a response to these new priorities and its capacities and limitations influence the priorities as well.  Technology should not be seen as a solution but rather a tool that will help educators meet current priorities.  This will spur on development of new technologies and in turn influence social issues.  It will be a never ending cycle.
Online social environments are a new social influence that educators need to understand better.  They need to be careful not to dismiss this environment as only negative or trivial; these virtual environments are just as important as any other social environment, they are just new.  Students that socialize in these environments understand them as a place where they are either accepted or rejected – just like any other social environment.  Educators need to meet them where they are at and better learn and understand how this new social setting works so that they may use it as a viable tool to impact students’ lives.

References
Applefield, J. M., Huber, R., & Moallem, M. (2000). Constructivism in theory and practice: Toward a better understanding. The High School Journal, 84(2), 35-53.
Bondi, J., & Wiles, J. (2007). Curriculum development, A guide to practice (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Education, Inc.
Fragnoli, K., (2005). Historical inquiry into a methods classroom: Examining our beliefs and shedding our ways. The Social Studies, 96(6), 247-251.
Marsden, B., & Grosvenor, I. (2007). David Reeder and the history of urban education. History of Education, 36(3), 303-313.
Pannabecker, J. (2004). Technology and education in history: Who's driving?. Journal of Technology Education, 16(1), 72-83.
Social network service - from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2007). Retrieved September 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking
Technology - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2007). Retrieved September 11, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology
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