reets,

Some questions about education in 2072.

Why would people bother to get through vocational school if they can get a chip that does it for them, and guarantees a job? Tough job market, get a new chip.

Why would educational institutions have exams? Anyone could have an internal commlink with enough data even off of the Matrix to ace the test. With the help of a commlink, a student could do science problems or be able to explain complex historical events in a comprehensive manner, without actually understanding what they are saying.

Plagiarism continues to play the cat and mouse game, until someone figures out to use a text which can only be found in hardcopy form. Students still plagiarize each other.

What other issues would you see with 2072 among higher education?

Well, I only have a partial answer. IRL you get a lot of Math classes that really, once you're done with them, you'll be using a calculator to do. Derivitaves, integrals, etc. Pain in the ass to do by hand, but you learn it anyway. One of the most important reasons is that it shapes your mind. I can't do an integral by hand anymore, totally forgot how. But my mind has been shaped to think logically and solve problems, just like for math.

I belive this is the same answer given in Unwired, but skillsofts only allow you to repeat specific tasks. Anything creative you can't do. That's basically saying you can never do added-value work. A chiped accountant can produce figures and stuff, but can't analyze them and propose new directions to take or gain insight from them.

So schooling should focus on creatively understanding results more than obtaining them. You'd see the basics of how to obtain them without being seriously expected to ever do this after school. What you'd learn is the added-value stuff.

I think it's been mentioned in a few of the books, theres a large "chipped" workforce out there. These folks probably don't require alot of education and are at the bottom of the pay scale. Also remember mention of literacy being at an all time low as most people just need to understand some basic icons to get along.

Through the entirety of engineering school, every test I took was open book. However, if you don't walk in the door with a command of the material, being able to read it on the spot won't help you. Similarly, every class had a design project and the more advanced ones required that we do our own fabrication. If you don't understand the principles, you can't apply them in a creative manner. Non-original solutions are already fairly easy to spot. When instructors are familiar with the most common lines of skillsofts and the solutions they will present to a given problem, it will only get easier to spot the cheaters. It's just like the professors who used to read the Cliff Notes and only test their students on the items not covered in them.

It is kinda funny that the "useless" basic computer/typing class we have today is considered the most important class in the SR universe. The ability to surf the matrix would be more important then learning English grammar.

Hey, somehow the OP made a double-post and the discussion ias split in two. Maybe we can correct that as long as the topic is still fresh!

Since there are only 5 replies in this branch (including mine), I´d suggest any new posts to be made here