Virtual sanity

Josemaria Claro, 26, graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2009, with an AB in Psychology. Fresh off college, he taught at an exclusive school and is now a volunteer-teacher in a technical-vocational school for the poor.

MANILA, Philippines - Add as contact?

It is the question that everyone seems to be answering nowadays. And the question is always met with excitement or nostalgia as one relishes the thought of connecting with a funny friend or a sweet classmate from way, way back.

It was apprehension for me though, five years ago, when a student asked to be a friend in my Yahoo Messenger. At first, it was the worry that my privacy will be invaded and worry at the thought that my very inquisitive students would hound me with their questions as long as I’m online. Then again, I thought it was cool to have a student as a contact. Little did I know, that single click would make me begin to see what it means to be a teacher in the virtual age.

Now, when one views my Multiply or Facebook page, its almost always my students who react to anything I post. It’s the cool guy in class who I compete with in Typing Maniac. It’s the reserved students who have the best houses in pet society. My students have even made my co-teachers to represent one facet of a personality in their self-made personality quiz, “Which faculty member are you?” Happily, there were nothing negative in their description of their ideal teachers and it was very interesting to see the different pictures of a teacher they see in each one of their mentors.

At its most shallow level, through the Internet, specifically, the social networking websites, teachers have become friends to their students and vice versa, as they try to outdo each other in the various games in the Internet. From experience though, I can say that the cooler the game, the harder it is to beat my students.

The teacher has also become a person of interest outside the classroom. They are no longer the talking one-dimensional beings in front of a green backdrop. Through their YM or Facebook stats, students have since begun to understand their teachers as people with anxieties, rants, weird hobbies and shallow pleasures.

As a teacher though, the best thing about connecting with students through the Internet is the opportunity to see their potential. It’s a great joy to see my students blogs filled with essays that will never be graded. It is here where I get to see what my students’ lives are as they try to fuse their family, lovelife and barkada with the schoolwork and academic requirements I give them, and somehow draw meaning from all of these.

And so, Jamiroquai was wrong. Technology humanizes. Even more surprisingly, it has done so in the conservative world of education. Well, I’m sure he was not all wrong. An immature teacher who refuses to recognize that there must still be some sort of a divide between teachers and students will be a headache to school administrators. Fortunately, my experience in my school has generally been positive, the best thing being students and teachers are no longer boxed into this and that.

With technology, teachers are no longer the center of knowledge. And yes, while information has been wildly scattered in the world wide Web, what my experience has taught me is that despite this madness, students and teachers have used technology to make sense of this virtual insanity.