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The Citizen, 1998-03-04, Page 22MICROTECH COMPUTERS CANON - HEWLETT PACKARD 10 KING STREET CLINTON ONTARIO 519-482-3363 AUTHORIZED IPC DEALER SOLAR 60 Amp, 6/12 V Battery Charger, Starter and Tester Regular $318.68 '299.95 CHICAGO PNEUMATIC 1/2: heavy Duty Impact Tool Regular $154.75 '129.55 RADFORD AUTO F ARM AND INDUSTRIAL PART Blyth Brussels 523-9681 887-9661 MDL DOORS 887-6974 U Keep the Doors to the Future Open Beautiful Styles to Make your House a Home Available through your local MDL Dealer We are making changes and we need to make 7111101mecii Public Bowling Times Mon. - Thurs. 1-4 p.m. 6-10 p.m. FrI. - 7:45 p.m. - 12:30 a.m. Sat. - Noon - 12:30 a.m. Sun. 1-10 p.m. & Special Times By Reservation Glow in the Dark Bowling Fri. - 7:45 p.m. - 12:30 a.m. Sat. - 8 p.m. - 12:30 a.m. Sun. 4-7 p.m. Moonlight Is A Glow! - all you can bowl! Sat. 10 p.m. - 12:30 a.m. 204 Huron Rd. Goderich 524-BOWL (2695) PAGE 22. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1998. For Teens, By Teens How important is technology to education? By Erin Roulston Every day the classroom is getting more and more technology oriented. Schools are being equipped with computers and telephones and televisions in each classroom. The Internet and other such innovations are important parts of learning in this decade, and will be increasingly important in years to come. But why all the importance on technology? What about it is so important that knowledge in the technological fields is vital in learning? I've been told that technology makes learning easier, more convenient, faster and therefore better. Apparently, technology is somehow supposed to make us all very smart, and at twice the speed. Fat chance. Currently I am enrolled in two courses that are very technologically oriented. They are not my first classes in this field; I took an Internet class last year that taught me all the hows and whys of the world-wide web, but these are definitely the most unique experiences. I am taking a Canadian Literature OA course over the intemet. There is a special web page called The Virtual High School, and on it are the assignments and due dates. Hi, how's it going? What I'm about to share with you are some details about my life. Probably not what you expected to read when you picked up the paper today. I'm going to focus on the issue of drugs, mainly cannabis which is just a fancy word for marijuana, hashish and oil. You may th1nk because you live in a small town you don't have to worry about these problems, but you're wrong. They are everywhere. I know, because I live in a small town. I'll go back about seven or eight months ago, around June; that's when things started to get serious. I was only using a couple of times a week. There wasn't much change in my behaviour because I wasn't into them heavy. After a month or two, around late July, August, I started using more, just because it got easier to get. Then I started to notice some There are short stories and poems, along with the professor's personal comments on the literature. There are essays and journals and novels, just like in the real, three- dimensional classrooms, but all the work is submitted by fax or by e- mail. There are also class discussions. The professor, whom we see once a week at lunch, spoke of how wonderful it is that we can submit our writing to the web page and receive our peers' comments on it. If we can ever figure out how to submit the stuff. We can communicate with our fellow classmates in in-depth discussions through this great new technology called first class mail, if we can get it to work. It seems that our assignments have a tendency to be late. The general complaint is, "I couldn't find the journal assignments." or even, "How do I go about attaching this file to my e- mail?" Believe it or not, this class is heaven when compared to my spanish OAC. This course doesn't have a teacher, it has a TV and a video camera. There is a teacher, in a way, but he is in Goderich, and my classmates and I are in Clinton. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Welcome to Video Conferencing, a wonderful advance in human changes in my motivation and short-term memory. Then school rolled around. Drugs may have helped me cope with problems out of school, but didn't do nothing in school. I found myself skipping class because I didn't want to do the work. But after a few suspensions that jeopardized my credits, I realized I've got to get down to business, which was tough, because all my grades were below 50. So I actually started to try, and managed to pull my grades up. This went on for about two weeks and when I finally started to pass a class I thought I deserved a day off to get high. What do you know, I ended up getting caught and got another suspension which basically blew my credits right out of the water. I gave up and ended up getting high every day, ran up quite the debt and ended up breaking the law to pay it off! communications. Okay, so this is what they call communication these days, holding a piece of paper that says, "If you can see us, move up and down" in front of the camera. This class is hell on earth, mainly because of four things, the teacher mumbles and stands too close to the mic, causing dreadful distortion, he is speaking Spanish, he is in Goderich, and of course, nobody can work the equipment, except for the technician, in Stratford. Let me run you through one day in Spanish OAC video conferencing class. When you arrive you usually have to wait around in the hallway with the other 21 students until a janitor walks by. Because of the expensive equipment the door must be locked, but because there is no teacher, we can't get in. By the time we are let in, the teacher, in Goderich, has already begun teaching the nine students he has there. We sit down as quickly as we can and try to catch up. That is if the equipment is working. It has happened on more than one occasion that he can see and hear us, but we can't see or hear him, or we just can't hear him, or when we can hear him there is a really loud buzz so you still can't hear him, or the camera just doesn't Now, I'm sitting in a detention centre 300 miles from home, for the next 10 months, which isn't anybody's idea of fun. What you just read was only a fraction of the problems drugs caused me, because I let them get out of control. They caused problems with my family, and others, but that's a whole other story. My intention in writing this is to teach others. Or tell them to quit. Drugs are bad for you. I'm just trying to let you know if you don't watch out they can become quite the problem. To all the parents reading this, I'll be straight up with you. Be more worried about your kids out drinking. That's where the trouble is. A lot of kids will try it. Remember you can't change the past; only the future. I hope at least one person reading this got something from it. Take care. feel like focusing. But let's just pretend that today is not one of those days because if it was, you would get a spare and have to catch up tomorrow, because the students in Goderich, all nine of them, are continuing with today's lesson. Anyways, the equipment works, all is well. Except for the fact that we can't get the document camera to work. The document camera is what you put paper on so that the people at the other end can read it on the TV. "NO VIDEO INPUT". After fiddling with that for about 10 minutes, everything is working, and class continues. Then the principal comes in with his cup of coffee and sits at the back of the classroom. He's been hearing a lot of complaints from the students and likely even the teacher, about the inconvenience of the class.. He stays for five, maybe 10 minutes, doesn't see any problems, and then leaves. As soon as he's gone, the entire system goes awry again as we try to turn off the document camera. "NO VIDEO INPUT". No kidding. One blessing about this class, it short. Most classes are exactly 76 minutes long, but when you take into consideration the fact that we get in late (locked door) and then the fact that Goderich is on a different schedule than Clinton, we end up in there for about 55 minutes. Every once in a while senor will bring out his quitarra and we'll sing. There is nothing funnier than Ea Cuccaracha on a four-second time delay. I love the spanish language, and if this is what I have to do to learn it, I guess I can deal with that. I just think that people need to take a good look around at what technology is doing. It is taking all the human contact out of life and forcing us to talk to machines, write letters to machines, learn from machines. What on earth are we thinking if we believe it is valuable that our children associate understanding with computers? And is this really an advance in learning? Is it right that the most important lesson I'm learning in class is that technology in the classroom is a reasonable failure? Shouldn't I be learning Spanish? Gas Bar & Take-Out Ltd. • Chesterfried Chicken • Subs • Pizza • Burgers • Fries • Soft & Hard Eat-In or • Confectionery Ice Cream • Movies to Rent Take-out • Propane • Gas 4887-6951)— Complete your set of Olympic glasses Now only 99' each Corner Turnberry & Mill Streets, Brussels Youth relates real experience