McCain Campaign

As a fellow military veteran I am always interested in McCain's political life. I chose to investigate his website and his presence on U-Tube (minus the Bomb- Iran slip). I looked at McCain's website and his You Tube links on the day that he announced his bid for the 2008 Republican Nomination and the subsequent presidential office. On his website he is clearly looking for potential voters such as myself to donate, inform themselves, and become an active member of his campaign. His You Tube announcement (which could be accessed from his website) clearly was meant to announce what most of the people who kept tabs on him knew, that he was running for president. I envision McCain using You Tube to just rebroadcast his speeches and his ads. Dean 04 really opened up the use of the WWW and the tools available to a new generation of voters. Many people called his campaign grassroots but I like to refer to it as CyberRoots. I will never publish my political views in order to keep my instruction and influence as a social studies teacher separate from my personal life, but I am still receiving emails from both the Dean for Democracy campaign and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth organization. We are on the fringe of a new voting generation. Many young Americans feel out of touch with today's politician. People like Jesse Ventura and Howard Dean have proved that while the AARP may be a large lobby group the young people of this nation are as formidable of a force and they must be reached if you would like the office you seek.
In a similar way that presidential hope-fulls can reach a focus group with the use of the net so can classroom teachers; however, they must be more careful. Last year, in my first year teaching, I ran into a student outside of school on the second day of the school year. I was taking a train to meet my father in the city for a Yankee's game. This student asked me for my MySpace address. At first I was adamant that I would never use one to communicate to my students as I have another medium through E-Chalk; however I reflected on the situation if I was not in a tech. savvy and fortunate district as Pelham. If my district did not have the means to support a system such as E-Chalk I would most certainly use MySpace as a class page posting assignments, announcements, messages to students, and extra information meant to engage my students. The net has many tools to assist in communication and learning that we are only beginning to harness. We must do so with a cautious enthusiasm as our profession demands that we place the safety and welfare of our students above anything else.. even the quest for knowledge; and , with proper training our educators can accomplish this.