Personal Statement part 2

Published: December 1st, 2009

I’m finding it hard to write the second half. The personal statement bit was easy. I know who I am, it took me about 27 years to find out. I know I want to teach. Now the part about what specifically I want to accomplish and what I’ll bring to the English department as a graduate student, thats a little more difficult to explain. Perhaps the best way to go about this is work backwards…

I want to teach new media, the convergence of Art and Text in technology. As online applications become more pervasive, what will happen to the written word? Many people fear the extinction of news papers and books. I don’t think that’s the direction we are heading. If anything, the explosion of online news in the form of blogs, webizines, or online news papers will make the same information more accessible and allow better writing and better coverage of the world’s events. As digital books become more popular because of the Kindle and Sony E-reader, it could become easier for new writers to publish works. That being said, people are less likely to slog through pages of text on their ever shrinking digital devices. This makes the artistic layout and design of the text so much more important. In a time when anyone with internet access can host a blog, publish a book, or create a website, the need to write well and understand the trends of how to present that text becomes more important.

New media is also a possible answer to some of our problems faced by decreasing school funding. In the days of “No Child Left Behind,” schools have to provide supplies like paper and pencils, teachers cannot assign summer reading, even to advanced placement classes, because the school would have to provide books for every student. We need to create inexpensive alternatives to traditional educational resources. The internet may be the answer. Imagine a website that uses Flash animation to teach children to read, or teaching art without the cost of paints or brushes. By creating online educational resources that are well-written and well-designed we can revolutionize our educational system. As a docent at the Huntington Museum of Art, I have been involved in tours that are given via video conferencing to schools in rural areas. The limitless possibilities this technology can bring to the classroom has inspired me. I want to devote my own education and experience to creating new methods of bringing knowledge to others.

As I am writing this I can hear the question the English department is going to ask, “What does this have to do with us?”

Honestly, the answer may simply be, “nothing…”

Maybe what I want is a master’s degree in Education.