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Turning Education into Propoganda

How can we trust our schools?
triskellion

I work for a Fortune 100 company (that shall remain nameless) that is a major player in the use of online interactive communities, virtual reality, and immersion learning. Your children have likely used our tools or the downstream results of our research. I am becoming increasingly alarmed at the intrusion I am now seeing by not only the US government in these programs but the corporate sphere as well.

 As you may know, these kinds of immersive learning experiences (in many ways similar to the immersive alt.reality games such as Starcraft Universe and Warcraft Extreme) work at a fundamentally deeper level than anything we grew up with. Full immersion stimulates and activates parts of the brain that you cannot reach through any other means which is why education is more rapid with these tools. 

Thanks to the Non-Intervention in Education Act of 2014, Government and Corporations (and, frankly, anyone at all) were denied any access to these systems to deliver their own ads, messages, or other information. However, efforts are under way now to dismantle that act in the name of "raising awareness of terrorism" and "protecting our children from external threats" -- these modifications they want to make amount to creating a new generation of xenophobes and pro-government drones. Corporations are trying to get in to create pro-consumer messages so that the corporate state cannot be challenged.

We must stand up to this threat and keep these systems completely clear of any influence. Make yourself be heard! 

Oct 08
education,online learning,teaching,propoganda


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  • Sarahbean
    Oct 09
    Government propaganda of schools was intact well before 2014 with children dancing around Maypoles for Earth day instead of really learning anything that would teach them how to make their own informed decisions. With California finally ruling home schooling as illegal in 2012 and making new private schools nearly impossible to open, it has been hard to find appropriate outlets for education. Many churches have employed experiential media systems within their after school teen and youth centers, but still those are often biased and still bestow guilt and collectivism upon our children at the expense of their individuality. We are unsure of where to turn at the moment.
  • TMLutas
    Oct 09
    Don\\\'t fret too much as there\\\'s plenty of content out there to make your own educational program and people willing to give it to you for free. Do a bit of research and you\\\'ll find that even in 2008 you could get lots of it without charge.
  • Megiddo Tel
    Oct 09
    In my area, public schools are a thing of the past. The private schools are only for the elite. Home schooling is the only way.
  • M.Livre
    Oct 09
    There is a little to take from both comments posted here so far. On the one hand, Sarahbean is right in that schools, because of the necessity to answer to a curriculum in the structure they follow right now, don\\\'t have as much flexibility as would be needed to teach more essential skills in times of crisis. Equally true is TMLutas\\\' comment regarding information accessible outside learning places. If there is one thing that information and communication technologies have changed, it\\\'s the way learning places are located - basically thanks for Internet connections and cheaper terminals (or municipal equipments), learning is no longer limited to the school grounds. There is however a necessity to take both comments with a grain of salt. Sarahbean seems to see schools mainly as biased,prejudiced structures. That might be true of some in all countries, but that would mean belittling the role of teachers as a whole and making them no more than propaganda-spitting robots. Like all human beings, teachers have their own points of view on life, the universe and everything and because they are in a position to be heard, they often do not hesitate to speak out. This is especially true in countries where private/confessional schools are not very widespread, and where teachers would not be bound by their contracts to follow a certain behaviour or faith at the expense of the development of their students\\\' mind. As for TMLutas, even though I agree on the point regarding the liberation of educational material from the confines of schools and libraries (much like television did/could have done in its days), there is the added problem that due to the events of the last few years, digital information is sometimes (gladly enough, not most of the time) unreliable. This might be of little consequence when one prepares a soufflé or a quiche, but it can have much more serious consequences when following a first-aid procedure through Augmented Reality glasses or studying for an exam. This said, I can only join our two colleagues in hoping for the best regarding the future of education, and fighting in the trenches of this battlefield for the right of our younger generations to develop their minds free of more biases and prejudices than they might already have.
  • Cobalt Skye
    Oct 10
    Propaganda has always been an issue in higher institution; I\\\'ve seen my fair share of bureaucracy governing schools and I\\\'m sure no one is going to debate that there isn\\\'t any. Here in New York, the trend is toward private and homeschool institution (interesting as it is that California and New York are on opposing sides again). I homeschool my son, using a game-based learning approach, and I use games like Starcraft Universe and Warcraft Extreme to assist in teaching (both of my son and of my university students). I have been appalled lately by the move to place propoganda in these systems, as they are counterconducive to learning. They remove the player from the game, detatch them, and remind them that they are in a game and not immersed in an alternate reality. This I find ironic as the whole point of these new games are TO immerse people into the system. In bringing the player out of the game or forcing this propaganda onto the player, the player will find it difficult to evaluate their learning of the game and apply it outside the game. For example, I use said games to instruct about social groups, psychology, gender, critical thinking, analysis and evaluation of problem and how to solve them. By being propagandized, these games will lose some of their value as a teaching tool, reinforcing reliance on the government, and not fostering a critical thinking approach to problem solving.
  • eek
    Oct 10
    One reason the Waldorf School Movement refused to take $$ from public sources, is the undue influence and lack of stability. Stability and ability to innovate around each child is key to strong education. Waldorf is thriving even more as the central cracks, because it is focused on each child, now.