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STUDENTS: Technology's Value to Me (r)

(written by coldspring@iearn.org, 03/26/1996)

Dear Governors,

My name is Zachary Kostura.  I am a junior student
attending Cold Spring Harbor High School.  I am also the Co-
Senior-Editor of the 1995-96 edition of "An End To
Intolerance," a publication of the I*Earn Holocaust/Genocide
Project, in which I have had a very active part since
September of my sophomore year.
I received the list of topic questions and felt I should
respond in order to help spread the use of telecommunications
in schools around the World.

Topic 2:

a) What is the potential role of the Internet in education?

I feel that the only limit to the potential role of the
Internet in education is the willingness of the teachers to
use the programs in their classrooms.  I know that the use of
the Internet can be assimilated into classrooms from
kindergarten to Graduate School, from American History to
Driver's Education.  Even today, the World Wide Web is a
phenomenal source of information for any and all subjects.
Teachers in my school, Cold Spring Harbor High School, on
Long Island, New York, already suggest that students look for
essay and report topics on the Internet.

b) How has working with technology prepared you for your
future education and career?

In the upcoming years, more and more careers will
require computer literacy and computer skills for employees.
In education, many colleges already give out accounts online
for students attending that school.  I feel that my
experience with technology over the past few years in high
school has prepared me to handle a lot more than I thought I
was capable of.  I have learned how to send and receive e-
mail, "surf the web", produce a magazine containing articles
written by students from nine thousand miles away, cope with
innumerable other technological procedures, as well as use
other aspects of life like critical thinking, making logical
decisions, and deal with cultural and lingual differences.  I
feel that I am much more capable of handling technology, and
expect to make use of it in the future.

c) What information and skills have you learned on-line that
would not have been learned in a traditional classroom?

As I said, I am the Co-Senior-Editor of "An End To
Intolerance."  The magazine's primary focus is to spread the
education and awareness of hate and prejudice to other
schools.  I have learned about subjects on all aspects of
life from Post-War Germany to life in New Mexico on a Zuni
Reservation.  None of this would have been possible without
the use of telecommunications. The teacher in the traditional
classroom can only teach what he or she has been taught.
With the use of telecommunications, there is no limit to what
one can learn.

d) Are there other ways in which your learning has been
enhanced by technology?

My experience with telecommunications has sent me literally
across the world to meet other people and learn about history
in such countries as Poland and Israel as part of our
school's, Holocaust/Genocide Project on I*EARN (the
International Education and Resource Network). I have had the
unique chance to meet Australian and Israeli students and
travel to sites in Poland and Israel with them, and this has
taught me about the history of my country, as well as the
history of other people and cultures. Thank you.