The Next Generation Teacher

Today, something historical happened.
The next generation teacher has arrived at CSL. Somewhat ironically, he was the substitute teacher for our ethics & religion class. The "regular" teacher, an overweight old lady with a mood as unstable as nitroglycerin and an overabundance of affection for dogs hasn't shown her face since Christmas. (We hope you're getting well)
The NGT (next gen teacher) started out with an introduction about himself, and wastes no time dropping the bomb: he is doing his master's on the cult phenomenon World of Warcraft. As you can imagine, even the most inattentive guy raised his head to that.

Quote from Alex who was playing around on his ipod touch "What's happening? I heard Warcraft!" ("...Oh, WORLD of warcraft."-resumes playing on touch)

He brought us poor bastards a peak into the future of education. Some schools have already started, but its an all-new concept for a school like ours. (You know, ghetto, cheap, low-budget, antique desks and only well-known because of the stupid geniuses who go there.)
In the future, there will be cellphones (iphones in his example) and laptops for every student. Wikipedia will no longer be taboo but rather the starting point of every class and of every subject. Video and picture reports will be abundant. Students will be learning about how to post an Wikipedia entry, about how to advertise their point of view on facebook efficiently, and learn how to properly make an Youtube video. Hmmm, Julian could really use a Youtube video making 101 course.(There was going to be a link to his *adjective deleted* videos but I think he deleted them all)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette)
Maybe we will be teaching our kids about netiquette one day. (Omigod, us having kids, what a scary thought. *shivers* Oh, by the way, you can do your english etiquette around the world project on netiquette if you'd like.)
Netiquette certainly would become necessary soon with all the flaming, trolling, and increasing number of dumbshits ejaculating their worthless bits of obscenity on every web page, forum, and blog they find. The comment button on any page is like a huge, irresistible beacon to them. They see one they will ache to click it, just to add their 1 millionth of a cent's worth. Newsflash: You don't need to write 'fuck' or 'gay' or 'fag' or yo mama jokes everywhere. Trust me, they aren't at all in danger of extinction! Go protect the whales! Or turn 'round and 'round until your green and join the *expletive deleted* environmentalists.

The NGT had even included a little rant (I'm a fan of rants) about present day teachers and their views about computers, Internet and technology in general.

The high point of his rant (translated from french):

"Of course teachers of today show an aversion to technology, Wikipedia, cellphones and computers, they don't even know [what the fuck] is Tetris! Pacman was the best they ever knew, and even that, it was for pro-gamers only."




Hopefully, more and more teachers will be like this guy. Maybe then, the reform might actually work, and dropout rates might decline for a change. You can't go wrong with Youtube and Facebook. Just ask Obama.
(Still one problem: It's colorful in Canada, it's cotton paper, and it has various important historical figures and numbers on 'em.)