Mark Cruz
										TOK Final Exam
8. Select One new development in knowledge and consider its effect on the discipline within which it has developed, and its challenge to ethics or other Areas of Knowledge. In science and technology, for example, you might focus on the human genome project, cloning, nuclear power, or the IT revolution. In the arts, you might focus on computer-generated art or electronic music. 
				
	In 1889 When Dr. Herman Hollerith patented the electric tabulating machine, he most certainly did not forsee that he had essentially build one of the worlds first computers. Nor did he or could he have foreseen the immense global impact the proliferation of the personal computer has had. He merely made a machine to be used  in the eleventh U.S. census in 1890. In 1896, he founds the Tabulating Machine Company, which later becomes International Business Machines. When the United States Government officially commissioned ARPANET in 1969 it did not know that it had laid down the groundwork for what would later develop into the Internet.

	Regardless of which angle you view it from, the fact remains that the Information Technology revolution has changed many aspects of our lives. Nowadays, it has become extremely difficult to go anywhere without catching a glimpse of the IT revolution in action. People use computers to access a myriad of information on the world wide web. The use their cell phones to check the latest sports scores or to access the internet. Computers and internet access are even finding their way into mundane devices such as the toaster or even the refrigerator.  One company has even developed a refrigerator that will order groceries for you by checking the level of items within itself. Despite how inherently cool a refrigerator that does your grocery shopping for you is, the more important thing to remember is that the computer has changed the ways in which we access knowledge as well as raised ethical dilemmas. 

	Primarily, the computer has affected the manner in which we learn and access information. No longer must school children make those daunting trips to the library to research Andrew Jackson. They can now find more than enough information on the worst president ever by simply typing in the phrase Andrew Jackson into a search box. Almost instantaneously a flood of results will bombard the user. This instant access to information is no doubt a good thing. We can now find the information we are looking for in record time, and devote the time we save into more constructive efforts, such as playing video games or finding a cure for cancer. The availability of this information itself raises several questions.
	Social scientist Langdon Winner deplores the Web's tendency to mix valuable and frivolous material indiscriminately: "The Web's hypertext structure slices through long-standing conceptual hierarchies like a hot knife through butter. Monuments of knowledge, complicated distinctions that took decades to erect, are reduced to a set of endlessly malleable hot links. Over the long term, arranging information in this way may help reveal unexpected connections between diverse realms of knowledge and stimulate the imagination. But for now, there will continue to be a great deal of confusion and futile effort; reports frequently arise of wasted afternoons spent plowing through the Web trying to find that one morsel of useful information amidst the vast reservoirs of gossip, rumor, and political propaganda. Hope springs eternal; with all this horse manure, there's just got to be a pony in there somewhere." Essentially, Mr.Winner asserts that much of the information on the internet is false or has no verifiable backgroudn and thsu is no use to those in pursuit of a greater knowledge. 
	Furthermore, several moral issues arrive with the use of the internet. With information so readily available, many sceptics argue that students now have the ability to plagiarize work with greater ease, or claim to have read a book when in reality all they did was glance at the SparkNotes for the book.  In addition, a vast amount of concern has arisen over the prevalence of adult and pornographic material available on the internet. Many feel that both web site hosts and search engines should be held accountable for links that appear that could be detrimental to the psychological welfare of a child or even an adult. During the late 1990's and the early years of 2000, another controversy arose over the file sharing program Napster. Many argued that it violated copyright laws by allowing users to share and copy music and other copy protected files from the internet. Many psychologists argue that the increase in the use of chat rooms, message boards, and instant messaging on the internet has greatly decreased the need to need for face to face human interaction. They assert that if this trend continues, humans will be nothing more than drones on keyboards. While this scenario is highly unlikely at this point in time, it still remains a possibility. Studies have arisen showing that a syndrome of computer addition is arising in the youth of America. It has been shown that some children cannot function properly without using the comptuer at least once a day. 
	Despite all the negative consequences the proliferation of such technology poses, it still has had an enormous positive influence as well as potential for growth. The internet can actually increase the amount of human interaction by allowing users who are thousands of miles apart to communicate almost instantaneously for little or no cost. More importantly, the Information Technology revolution has allowed for the free exchange of ideas between both societies and individuals. It is now possible to submit your own ideas and theories for review by thousands of people across the globe. Scientists can share data and experiments with their worldwide colleagues with much greater ease than was possible beforehand.   The scientists who are mapping the human genome project have made their findings readily available to the public in hopes that some will be able to use it to better mankind. According to their website, they hope to complete sequencing the genome in 2003, the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick. The distance learning lab at our own school is a shining example of how technology can have a positive impact. Students who wish to take a class such as Advacned Placement Comparative government that is not offered at Princess Anne High School can elect to take the class through distance learning. Through the use of technology, a teacher can show overheads and interact with students who are miles away at several different high schools. Furthermore, what the internet can do is encourage experimentation in teaching, research and outreach and create new models for communicating. For instance, some humanities professors discovered that the quality of writing went up after they began publishing students' term papers on the web. Professor Harley, a teacher at Berkley was quoted as saying
"When the writing became public, students felt more pressure to write better," Other studies have indicated that students who may be shy to speak up in class have no problems voicing their opinions online. Indeed, the Information Technology Revolution has affected many of the realms of knowledge. One writer at a college campus made the following observations: 
 Peek into a math classroom and see students working out problems using interactive CD ROMs.
Sit in on an art history class and hear a guest lecturer visiting via a teleconference monitor.
Type in the address for a campus web site and sit back and hear an in-depth interview with an international figure. No longer solely the domain of computer science, technology has found its way into a wide range of classrooms, from medieval studies to the history of humanities.