As you might know, I am hurling myself down the road to legitimate teachering. Though in my youth I might have entertained the notion of and even participated in things such as “americorps”, “volunteering” or even “teaching” at a “community center”, I am now jumping through hoops to become a state-certified “teacher” (as opposed to lee-certified dabbler with no legitimacy in the eyes of the man). So far it’s been a rather amusing process that’s entailed things such as taking very simple tests designed (apparently) for 4th graders (with questions like: “How long is a pencil?” and “If Suzy did better than 4 students in the class and there are a total of 20 students, what percentage of students did Suzy outperform?”) and sitting down with an “assessor” to assess my subject matter preparedness. It could very quickly become not amusing (like if I’m forced to take astronomy 101 at the local junior college because my course titled “magmatism and the early solar system” from college is not broad enough to meet the astronomy requirement or have taught me things like: the order of the planets, diurnal cycles, and constellations).
By far, my favorite part is the essay writing. I’ve had to write two essays now, one as a part of a test on “technology” and another as a test of my “writing ability”. Essay 1 was on “threats to children in cyberspace”, while essay 2 was a “letter to students explaining why taking a course in (fill in blank) is important”. When I sit down for these writing exercises I do something akin to getting into character. I channel my feeling for educational bureaucracy and mix it with the soul-crushing streamlining that is part of any publicly funded organization and I write. I suppress my intellect and understanding of the nuance in this world and I make a shallow, yet reader friendly, PC essay. It is what I imagine life is like for a writer at a local or national news outlet.
I had a lot of fun with my technology essay because I found a way to both mention and applaud the D.A.R.E. program. I got my score back and was dismayed to discover that I passed all sections except WORD PROCESSING. How, I wondered, would I fail something as basic as word processing? The “task” was to edit a letter. Apparently I was supposed to sign the letter, which I didn’t do. So I failed. Even though signing my name has in fact nothing to do with the task on which I was being assessed, namely the use of a word processor. But whatever, such is the field of education.
For your reading pleasure, here is my essay analyzing the “cybernets” (written on the spot at SJSU).
Internet access is of priceless benefit to children in the learning environment. The monetary costs of the technology are generally low due to the decreasing price of computers and the nearly negligible cost of obtaining internet access. Children are able to use it as a tool for further research to explore concepts that might not be within their primary teacher’s knowledge base, or quickly obtain an informative image and description of certain subject matter. Educators, museums, and researchers are among the people that can easily provide information that is usable for everyone. The universality of the internet is a double-edged sword, however. The ease of access is perhaps both its greatest strength and weakness.
In addition to educational resources, the internet contains information and images of nearly every subject imaginable. One challenge in the school environment is ensuring that children are not exposed to objectionable material. Given the difficulty in monitoring the internet usage of an entire classroom, one common solution to this problem is to install internet filters. These filters make it impossible for anyone using school computers to access unauthorized or unconfirmed web pages. Many places of business also use this method.
Another potential threat to children is unsolicited e-mail or instant messages from child predators. Restricting access to chat programs and web-based e-mail on school computers is one way to prevent this. In general, I believe an important component to safe internet usage is open communication and a frank discussion of the risks of communicating with strangers and browsing questionable material. Indeed, a well-developed internet usage program akin to a D.A.R.E. program is certainly the most pressing need for our technological age.
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