The image on Flickr is a wonderful opening for a discussion about the Internet. The road is open before us, beckoning, pulling us onward, down to an uncertain but beautiful future. On the right, however, is a fence with barbed wire, limiting our actions, informing us about a limit to our sojurn.
Perhaps that the best way for we teachers to envision the Internet--endless possibilities, but clear limits. The Internet has seemingly limitless information, but it does not provide truth. There is abundant data, but who is there to turn data into knowledge? There are limits to the extent this technology can empower us--for certain tasks we need. But there are other tasks--tasks of encouragement, of relationship, of personal communication--that it cannot perform as well as a human being.
So I will walk down this road, keeping my eyes focused on those tools and information that will help me and my students, but also aware that there will be limits that only through personal engagements with my students, will we find truth and beauty.
M.B.
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