With the inception of the World Wide Web in 1989 at the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Switzerland by Tim Berners-Lee, technology now gives educators and the learners we teach access to a wealth of other forms of official knowledge. Numerous opinions, biases and knowledge-bases cause the questioning what official knowledge should or could be.

Noah and the Chain Reaction...

A sixth grader (but to him its ‘going into seventh grade’) named Noah has had a wonderful summer! He has been spending most of his time playing outdoors with his neighborhood friends on their dead-end road and occasionally going over to Ailish’s house to play video games during what has seemed like a dreadfully short summer break. But during the last weeks of summer break, his parents purchased a state-of-the-art Gateway computer with all the bells and whistles. It and all of its components arrived in cow boxes - the perfect decoration to add to the tree fort. Tacking the sides of the cow boxes to the tree fort was an announcement to the neighborhood kids that his family was now on the information highway - something he had been waiting for for months.

After dinner that night, Noah’s mom set up the computer and connected all of the plugs, wires, speakers, microphone, video camera, etc., and he thought the adventure was about to begin. Noah knew that he could click on the little Internet icon on the screen and get to anything he wanted, however, mom, a pathologist at the university and experienced Internet user, is strict about what web sites Noah can and can’t access on the Gateway (which is what the family now calls it).

Noah’s mom allowed that he could begin on the Yahooligans home page to search for information. She knew is would be a great starting place for kids to get to all kinds of young adult oriented web sites. His patience waned as his mom kept on explaining what she wanted him to see and what she definitely didn’t want him to see on the Gateway. She sat there at the keyboard the whole time telling him this and all he wanted was to surf the web! Finally the moment of truth came...

Noah’s mom left the once spare bedroom, now turned computer/library room for a meeting and Noah had the Gateway and the world for that matter to himself. Since he knew that school would begin in only two weeks, he would try to find the web site of the Fighting Dolphins, Wells Junior High. He entered the phrase ‘fighting dolphins’ and after looking down the list of other fighting dolphin schools, finally found Wells Junior High School’s Web site. He felt a great sense of achievement and thought that the school’s web page looked great. Noah found out all sorts of things about his new school, including a photo of Mr. Stanley.

Noah’s heart dropped. Mr. Stanley, whom he only knew by name up to this point, would be his new teacher. He looked like that weird tall guy on that Steinfeld show his parents loved so much. He wasn’t even smiling in the picture. Noah had heard stories from other kids of how mean Mr. Stanley was and he wasn’t looking forward to meeting him.

The first day of school arrived. After seventh grade orientation that morning in the gymnasium, Noah entered room 206, his new classroom. He was quite eager to see what his new class would look like, where he would be seated for the rest of the year, and more importantly, next to whom he’d be seated. Hopefully, it would be Ailish, his best buddy in the neighborhood. During orientation, Noah heard a few other kids mention that they’d be able to use the web after they got their permission slips signed which made him very excited.

Room 206 did not look that impressive until much to Noah’s surprise, there was Ailish, right in his classroom. He felt right at home with his best friend. He also noticed the two brand new computers in the back of the class. He could tell they were not like his at home but that they’d probably work the same way. All he wanted to do was to get into the web and start working.

Noah had completely forgotten about textbooks and workbooks during the summer and at each desk was a thick textbook titled “The American Adventure”. Everyone got a used textbook and new workbook for Mr. Stanley’s first period which was American History. Noah began thinking of searching Yahooligans when he got home to find out more about what he’d be learning in American History. He knew he liked reading about Native Americans and the Wild West and Cowboys so he figured that it would be bearable.

Finally, when Noah was finished with dinner and his dad was finally finished making some kind of work presentation on the Gateway, he asked for permission to search on the Internet for American History ‘stuff’ and was granted an hour of computer time. Noah found web sites on the Civil War, the American Revolution, the National Museum of American History, African American History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Japanese American Internment, an Index of Native American Resources, an online history of the American Presidency, and a few thousand other sites. He had no idea where to begin but since he liked Indians so much he thought he’d start there.

Over the next few months, Noah began to see that his textbook didn’t seem to mention many of the topics he found on the web such as the Japanese American Internment. His favorite subject, the Native American Indian was only mentioned in one chapter... Noah’s concern had grown because he was not being taught what he thought was a part of American History. Noah’s mom encouraged him to talk to Mr. Stanley about his feelings. Noah and Ailish decided to go to Mr. Stanley and talk about it during lunch.

Mr. Stanley was alone in Room 206 at his desk by the chalk board eating a sandwich and going over some kind of paperwork when they entered. Mr. Stanley looked up at Ailish and Noah and much to their surprise he welcomed them in and asked them to sit down if they wanted. They told him right away what they were there to talk about and Mr. Stanley listened intently as Noah expressed his concern over why some of the things he was interested in and had found on the web by doing a search on American History, weren’t going to be taught in the class. They were shocked at Mr. Stanley’s reply.

Mr. Stanley explained that he had no control over what the specific content of the class or selection of the text and work books. He said that the state’s department of education decided what was to be taught and that he was just doing his job the way he had to. Suddenly, Mr. Stanley had a weird grin on his face which made Noah and Ailish very puzzled. Mr. Stanley, knowing that Noah was very good at searching the web, said that if Noah could find some e-mail addresses of the people at the state’s department of education, legislators in their district, and members of the school’s board, that he should e-mail all of them and let them know his feelings. Mr. Stanley even suggested that Noah find a listserv whose focus was on curricula in junior high, and post his concerns to that to see what kind of response he would get.

Now Noah had a mission. It seemed the best idea to be able to use the Internet to find out why he was being taught what he was being taught and why he couldn’t learn about the subjects in which he was most interested. After explaining to his mom what he planned to do with their e-mail account, she allowed that Noah could get to work and spend as much time as he needed. Messages posted and e-mails sent, Noah could hardly sleep knowing that in the morning when he checked the e-mail box, he would have a ton of messages awaiting.

Finally, he woke up at about 6:30 the next morning and found absolutely nothing in the e-mail box. Noah was quite disappointed to say the least his mother explained to him that people probably would need at least one day to read their e-mail and that surely he would have some sort of response when he returned home from school that day. She told him that he would simply have to be patient - the words he hated most to hear from his mother’s mouth.

That day after school Noah and Ailish ran back to the computer room to check e-mail. Noah had never seen such a mess. Sixty-seven messages. Each one created an annoying beep from the Gateway speakers as it downloaded, enough so that Noah’s mom went back to the computer room and much to her surprise, he had not only gotten a response to his questions, but he had received 67 of them! They printed out each one and put them in a notebook so that he could take them to Mr. Stanley to illustrate that he in fact had received an overwhelming response to his e-mails and listserv postings.

The most important response came from the state’s superintendent of education herself! Mr. Stanley was very impressed. Even though the e-mail resembled the much-dreaded form letter he regularly saw cross his desk, it gave him the ammunition to impress upon Noah and Ailish what can be done by a letter-writing campaign. After he explained the process of creating mailing labels and writing a form letter expressing their concern for more academic freedom in the classroom, they got busy.

Every lunch and recess for the next three days was devoted to going to room 206 to work on their project. With Mr. Stanley’s help, Noah and Ailish got their letters stuffed and mailed to all the important people they thought could help give their teacher the freedom to teach.

One week later, Noah’s mother received a call from their district’s legislator in the House of Representatives. Mrs. Roy, who served on the State’s Board of Education was so impressed with Noah and Ailish’s letter writing campaign that she requested their class to present their concerns in a speech for academic freedom in the public school to the House of Representatives.

Again, with Mr. Stanley’s and Noah’s mother’s help, they wrote their speech and took the monumental field trip. Noah, along with Ailish and the rest of the American History class in front of the bunch of adults in the state house, nervously presented his concerns to the state’s House of Representatives and received a resounding applause throughout.

Mrs. Roy and the education subcommittee of the House of Representatives introduced legislation that would allow certain academic freedoms of public school educators based upon Noah’s concern for what was official knowledge. Later that year, the Noah Simms Act was passed and gave all teachers in the state the ability to teach the way they felt best and gave students more of a voice in their quest for knowledge in a democratic society.

Using this simplistic example, we can see how official knowledge can be created and changed in many ways, but it is the responsibility of the educator as well as the learner to question what is being taught and how it could best be taught in various academic situations. The impact of technology can certainly have an influence on what official knowledge can become whether it be from what a seventh grade student can find on the World Wide Web or from a fax received announcing new legislation. We must all attempt to question what is being taught in our schools but we must also pay close attention to the learners of what is being taught, for they are the ones upon who official knowledge has the greatest immediate impact.