STAKING A CLAIM IN THE FUTURE
Cyberspace
by Kara Griffith
Technical Advisor:
Steven J. Loomis
For thousands of years mankind lived with an oral tradition…Somewhere around the two thousand BC mark the alphabet was discovered, and we moved then into a scribal tradition… and in 1873 when it was discovered that light could be converted into electrical impulses, those were the dawning moments of the electronic medium, and life has been radically altered since that time.—Ravi Zacharias
*All italicized words are listed with their definitions at the end of this article.
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rom the Tower of Babel to the present, the world’s course has been set by how people communicate. But while speech started and stopped the Tower’s growth, those in control of Hollywood and television have directed the course of this century. Since the widely influential media is dominated by those who intentionally propagate a secular perspective, Christians have been unable to shape this media age.
But the current media age is changing into the Age of Cyberspace. The advent of the modem, which connects computers to the phone lines, means that ever-increasing numbers of people are using the Internet, bulletin boards, and online services, to communicate with others across the nation and the world, The Internet has the potential to become the principal medium of communication between humans—for school, jobs, business, and entertainment. As Christians who lament the secularity of the media, now is the time when our actions will show whether we really want to set the course of the next century. If we wait to become computer literate and active, the Age of Cyberspace will be controlled by the secular world. If, instead, we hold Christian values to be important, we must rush to the new territory and stake out our claim of computer involvement. Then we can work on building the new country up from the inside instead of battering, futilely, at its hostile doors.
Computer Literate?—Yes, You!
For many Christian families, there are two stumbling blocks on the road to computer literacy. One is the image of computers as glorified Nintendo machines. Computers can indeed be both entertainment and a waste of time but, if used correctly, they can offer great opportunities for educational and even spiritual growth. The other stumbling block is the mentality that the ability to use a computer is a gift that you have to be born with. Like the quality of patience, skill in using computers takes time and practice to develop. But knowing how to use computers effectively is not an option for anyone who wants to influence society. It is a prerequisite.
Educational Options Expanded
Home schooling families who doubt the usefulness of a computer should take a field trip to the educational section of a computer software store before making up their minds. Computer software is available to teach or help review most high school courses. Higher level math or science will no longer be a problem for home-educated students. While most good software is commercial, some Shareware is helpful and easily available on bulletin boards or through the Internet.
Curriculum Online
A few curriculum writers have utilized the bulletin board market by putting their curriculum on HOMER (HOMe Education Resource Network). This allows students to call HOMER through their computer to “read their textbook,” answer questions, and take tests on-line. The Calvert pro-gram has put its K-8 curriculum on HOMER. CYBIS courses are offered at elementary, high school, and college levels. Several colleges have put high school and college courses on-line as well. Most of the courseware uses a pretest to start the students at their level of competency, instead of forcing them to study material with which they are already familiar,
Online education allows home schoolers to gain access to courses they might otherwise be reluctant to take at home. Even though it is secular curriculum, since it is being studied in a home setting, parents can read it along with their children and train them how to evaluate it if necessary. HOMER could be especially valuable to missionaries since it can be accessed (for approximately the same fee) from almost any-where in the world.
The online courseware market is relatively undeveloped as yet. Comparison and tailoring to a student’s needs are limited since only two major curriculums are offered. Right now if a student used HOMER as his sole curriculum source, it would be little improvement over the educational aspect of public schooling. The courses are written from a secular perspective and are textbook-oriented, since hands-on learning is limited by the medium. (This could change as virtual reality becomes more prevalent.)
The future of this medium, however, is tremendous. HOMER (according to Scott Somerville in his article “A Peek Into the Future” in the 1993 Winter Practical Homeschooling) “is intended to be an open forum for any and all accredited educational software.” Right now secular curriculum dominates the new online market. To stake their claim in Cyberspace, skilled Christian curriculum writers and programmers must collaborate to create online courseware, now, while the market is most impressionable. This will benefit Christians and increase the competitiveness of Christian curriculum since the current market offers few options.
Homework Help!
Since HOMER provides a message area for users to exchange notes, students who are stuck with a biology problem have a chance at finding someone else who has taken the course and knows the answer to their question. But for those who don’t use HOMER, or who have a tougher or more urgent question, options do exist. The Internet and commercial online services are good places to ask questions, since hundreds or thousands of people read the messages. According to Preston Gralla’s arti
cle “Need Homework Help?” (Published in FamilyPC Sept/Oct 1994) America Online is the most helpful. Most commercial online services have student message areas (where homework questions are sometimes answered) and resource centers, but Gralla found America Online’s Academic Assistance Center to be the best place to get help. The Center is staffed by a volunteer team of teachers between 6pm and 12pm each day. Gralla said that “stuck” students can page a teacher with a description of their problem and either get an answer immediately, or get an appointment for help at another time. The Academic Assistance Center also offers several reference options which allow you to download information and read it on your own.
If you have Internet access and need homework help, try emailing your question to ERIC. AskERIC (Educational Resourcelnformation Center) is a federally funded service which (according to Preston Gralla’s article “The Family Internet Primer” in the Nov./Dec. Family PC) guarantees a response to all academic question within 48 hours. When I posted a sticky physics question, I didn’t get an actual answer for eight days. The day after posting, however, I did receive several messages telling me how to sign up to several physics Iistservers where I could post my message and get help from physics aficionados. Listservers, found on the Internet, exist on hundreds of topics, and since the Internet is foremost a con-necter of universities, educational topics abound.
Although many of these services take time to get a response, you can ask questions of thousands of people at once—without being rude. The specific message areas on bulletin boards and online services make it easy to find the particular group of people who are likely to know the answer to a question. Even better, the math and physics questions that scare home-school moms the most are the ones that some corn-puter whiz is most likely to know.
Connectivity
Beyond education, the second exciting aspect of being “on-line” is the ability to be connected with people all over the world. The Internet has the potential to make letters and even phone calls obsolete. Letters posted on the Internet from the West Coast can reach the East Coast in minutes. Since the Internet was originally a connection between universities, nearly every college student (whether at a secular or Christian school) has an Internet (sometimes called an e-mail) address. This makes communication between high school friends who have gone to different colleges, as well as between students and their parents, fast and cheap. “Chat” modes let any two Internet users—any-where in the world—type back and forth as if they were talking on the phone. It isn’t as personal as a telephone conversation since voice inflections and tone can’t be heard, and it’s limited by each typists speed, but it’s cheaper than a long distance call.
Bulletin boards and online services with message conferences provide much the same service as the Internet’s listservers and newsgroups. Each conference, listserver or newsgroup is focused on a particular topic—Physics, home schooling, For Sale. Users interested in the topic can read or post relevant messages. There may not be many home schoolers in town, but you can communicate with home schoolers from Florida to Washington online.
Home-school conferences, particularly, can be a valuable resource. While some conferences are oriented toward home-school teens, the ones for parents are the busiest. Parents on the conferences I’ve followed have asked for curriculum evaluations and have usually found at least one person who has used the material in question. Some shared problems and got advice from those who had faced similar situations. Home schoolers who were about to move asked about the laws regulating home-schooling in their future state, and got phone numbers of sup-port group leaders in the area. Online support groups aren’t a replacement for real ones—they can’t schedule field trips, nor can the members get to know each other as quickly. Advice from people you know personally, since you can weigh their experience and biases when considering their advice, is more valuable than that from the relative strangers who may appear online. But online groups have their place. Families who move into a new area can use them to link up with local home schoolers. Other families, who either live in an area without a support group, or who don’t have sufficient time to attend the meetings, can use a half hour of free time they do find to read and write messages online. To stake their claim in Cyberspace, conferences and listservers should be set up for each kind of home-school curriculum. Moms could trade tips for using it effectively, and ask about aspects they didn’t understand. Students could use the conference as a homework help center (and find out which Saxon math problems really are wrong). Writers of the curriculum should frequent the conference, both to answer questions, and to get ideas for improvements.
Computer-Pals
Message conferences change the way people meet each other. You can form friendships based on common interests, without worrying about personal appearance, race, background, or age. Because those interested in debating politics may have a variety of backgrounds and values, people meet online who would never cross paths in person. Home schoolers are often accused of being reclusive. While this is usually untrue, there are types and classes of people whom home schoolers rarely meet. Bulletin boards are a controlled way of becoming exposed to other segments of society.
Message conferences make it possible to learn about different areas of the country and the world from those who live there. While most international messages come from English-speaking countries, several educational conferences are set up for French, Spanish, and German speakers. Last year I practiced my German by reading messages between German and American students.
The disadvantages of online friendships are similar to those of online support groups. Your knowledge of people is limited by how they choose to represent themselves. However, it is also possible to get to know people better than you might in person since the computer seems to make discussing substantive issues more comfortable.
Evangelism
Home schoolers tend to have few non-Christian friends since most of their relationships are formed through home-school groups or the church. While it is wise to have Christian friends as your influences, it is also appropriate to have and to influence non-Christian contacts. It is difficult to establish relation-ships with some kinds of people since they spend their time inappropriately or in unedifying environments. Bulletin boards allow you to witness to many of these people in a controlled environment.
Some people online are foul-mouthed, and some bulletin boards and avenues of the Internet offer adult files. These are places and people to avoid, and this can be done by changing where you “go,” or activating a screening device on an off-line mail reader. However, many people online are hurting and need someone caring to talk to. More important—they are often willing to discuss substantive issues. I’ve debated issues of different sexual behavior with both heterosexuals and homosexuals. I’ve also discussed more spiritual issues with non-believers online than I have in person. The relative anonymity of the medium makes conversations less threatening. If some-one doesn’t like your messages, they can quit writing at any time.
While discussions can come up on any conference, many conferences focus on debate of philosophical and theological issues. These are excellent proving grounds for you to practice defending your faith and beliefs. Frequent discussions online will expose you to many conflicting views, and you will become more familiar with your opponents’ side than many of them are. Discussions online are unique since they provide time to consult parents and concordances before you must respond to a challenging argument.
Debaters have dual opportunities to witness. The first, and most straightforward, way they can witness is by defending true beliefs to those who read their messages. Additionally, they can witness by disagreeing graciously. Many online writers get angry when their point doesn’t seem to be getting across, or if they perceive themselves as having been insulted. While their angry, insulting, messages are called flames, Christians who don’t respond in anger demonstrate the light.
To stake their claim in Cyberspace, Christians need to take online relationship witnessing seriously. Because of 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (NIV),” apologetics classes should be offered (on-and off-line) by people who know why they believe what they believe.
News on the Loose
When HR 6 (the bill containing the amendment requiring all teachers to be certified in every subject they taught) was a concern to home schoolers across the country, many methods were used to spread the news. Especially effective for reaching home-schoolers unattached to a support group were the home school message conferences. The conferences I followed during the period before the bill was defeated were swamped with messages alerting readers to the contents of HR 6.
Bulletin boards and the Internet are effective at spreading news quickly, and far. Foreigners call CompuServe and read news that cannot legally appear in their country’s newspapers. News can be typed into the Internet by first-hand observers of catastrophic events before reporters have an opportunity to file their stories.
To stake their claim in Cyberspace, Christians need to make sure the Internet stays unregulated by the government. While immoral things are enabled by the system, the immorality does not intrude on people who don’t seek it. In the future, as government regulation of religion may grow, a resource such as the Internet will be indispensable to connect Christians and home schoolers across the nation. The Internet is an example of democracy at work. It must stay free to stay useful.
Cyberspace is the Next Frontier
When the United States was growing, “slavery” and “anti-slavery” proponents moved to the new territories, hoping to create a majority of citizens who would legislate their position when a state was formed. If citizens from the anti-slavery side had populated more states, the Civil War might never have been fought. Christians face a similar situation in Cyberspace. This largely untamed frontier is rapid-ly being populated by people from all backgrounds and philosophies. Will we have a part in influencing the future and shining the light of Christ in this technology? Now is the time to become computer liter-ate and active. Now is the time to stake our claim in the future of Cyberspace.
KARA GRIFFITH, a senior home schooled since kindergarten, has been online for two years. Besides writing and computing, she tutors public school students, plays violin, and searches for college scholarships. In the future she hopes to attend Taylor University and then freelance write while home schooling a family of her own.
Definitions
All terms in article which are italicized are listed with definitions here:
America Online: One major commercial online service.
BBS: Abbreviation for bulletin board.
Bulletin board: Commonly abbreviated as “BBS.” It’s like a giant building, which you enter by calling with your modem. You move from one room to another by typing on your computer. After you’ve typed in your name and password, and read any news updates tacked up on the “wall,” the first, centralized, room you enter is called the “Menu.” From there you see doors to rooms where you can copy Shareware computer programs, play games, “chat” live with other callers, or read and write letters in conferences.
CD-ROM: The acronym stands for Compact Disk—Read Only Memory. Also used to describe the compact disk player. A computer CD-ROM (usually just called a CD) is identical to a music CD, but is used to store the same kind of information as a traditional floppy disk.
Chat: Computer chatting is similar to a telephone conversation, but is done by someone on computer while logged onto a bulletin board, online service, or the Internet.
CompuServe: One major commercial online service.
Courseware: Term used by HOMER representatives to describe curriculum for school courses offered online.
Cyberspace: The composite “world” of people one can access via modem, so termed because it isn’t confined to any particular location on earth.
CYBIS: Not an acronym, this name encompasses all the courseware offered on HOMER (except for that already associated with a particular curriculum such as Calvert). Much of it was developed by Control Data Corporation in collaboration with the University of Illinois and other universities.
Download: To copy a file from a bulletin board to your own computer.
E-ail: Short for electronic mail e-mail is a letter sent over the Internet (sometimes through CompuServe or another online service), an adjective describing a related object, or a verb describing the process of sending a message over the Internet (“I’ll e-mail the list to you”). An e-mail address is the label which tells the Internet where to send a given piece f e-mail.
Files, Adult: Files with pornographic content. Although bulletin boards are legally required to withhold access from children, some boards disregard the laws. The files are graphics, but must be downloaded in order to be viewed.
Flames: Nasty letters, or insults.
HOMER: The HOMe Education Resource network from University Online, Inc.. This bulletin board offers various accredited curriculum online to callers willing to pay a fee. HOMER also offers a 1-800 hotline for questions related to the system.
Internet: The Internet is made up of hundreds of thousands of computer networks connected by telephone lines and modems. Messages and files can be exchanged between any two computers on the Internet, and an Internet user can log-in to many BBS’S and information centers.
Listservers: A combination of a news-group and a mailing list. Each listserver is oriented around a particular topic, but instead of being “stored” in a central location, they all appear automatically in the internet mailbox of each user who signs up.
Modem: A piece of hardware which connects your computer to your telephone line. Instead of transmit-ting voice signals, the modem can place a call and transmit the characters you type on your keyboard. The message goes through the phone lines to a BBS, the Internet, or another computer whose modem decodes the information and acts on it. The connection between modems is usually audible—funny bleeps and hisses signal the initial exchange of information.
Newsgroups: Same in function as a conference on a bulletin board, but accessed through the Internet.
Offline mail reader: A program which allows you to read and reply to messages downloaded from a bulletin board. These save money if the bulletin board you use charges an hourly fee.
On-line: Can mean merely “on computer” but in a BBS context means “accessible while your modem is connected to another computer, the Internet or a BBS.”
Online services: Bulletin boards which typically charge users a monthly or hourly fee and provide services such as files, games, conferences, Internet access, reference services, online newspapers, weather, and/or shopping. Most services allow you to use a mouse to choose items from the menu. The major commercial online services are America Online, CompuServe, Delphi, Genie, and Prodigy.
Shareware: Files created by computer programmers who encourage you to copy and use their work. Some authors ask that you register the program if you intend to use it regularly. Others give you unlimited use but charge for additional levels or similar programs.
Upload: To copy a program from your computer onto a bulletin board.
Virtual reality: Sometimes abbreviated VR, this is experiences simulated with computer technology. In sophisticated VR, users wear goggles with computer screens in the lenses showing a scene as they would see it if there in person. Users can manipulate their (apparent) surroundings by moving their hands which are inserted in computerized gloves. This can be used to allow users to “walk around in” their kitchen as it would appear with a proposed remodeling.
Getting On-line for Beginners:
What does it take to get on-line? Only a computer, a phone line, a modem, and communications software. If you bought your computer recently, a modem is probably already installed. If not, they cost $50-$75—not much to pay for all the free information that can be accessed on-line.
Modems have two important distinctives: internal/external, and their speed (called baud). Internal modems are installed inside your computer—harder to do yourself, but taking up less desk space. External modems are easy to hook up and to trade between computers, but are also more expensive. When ~ choosing between speeds, try to get a modem that is at least 9600 or 1 4,400 baud. 2400 baud modems are still possibilities, but they are slow and are becoming obsolete. Speed may not mean much if you are only going to read online, but a 14,400 baud modem will down load a file in 20 seconds that would take 10 minutes at 2400 baud.
Unless you are familiar with com ports and interrupts, you may need to have someone else install your modem in your computer. When this is done, you will have to connect the modem into your telephone line. Since you can’t use the phone while you’re online, you’ll have to disable call waiting, if you have it, before calling a bulletin board. (In most cases putting *70 at the beginning of the number you dial will work.)
To make calls with your modem you will also need communications software, This almost always comes with the modem when you buy it, but is also available at most computer stores. If you know someone with a modem and communications software, they can download Telix, or some other Shareware communications pro-gram off most local bulletin boards.
Once you’ve installed your modem and gotten communications software, all you have to do is load the communications program according to its instructions or the file called “Readme.txt”. (You can read the “readme” file by loading it up in any word processing program.) The first time you use it, the program may ask you to set some of the default settings—such as telling the program what kind of modem you have—and then you’ll be ready to make your first call. Enjoy! —Kara Griffith
Resources
The resources mentioned in this article can be accessed via the following phone numbers and addresses (All numbers are voice numbers—not computer accessible numbers— unless designated as a bulletin board number):
HOMER
Hotline: 1-800-529-1606
Bulletin board number for downloading HOMER access software: (612) 482-5607
Fax number: 612-482-5603
Write to: IMSATT Corporation; 4201 N. Lexington Ave. ARH256; Arden Hills, MN 55126
Internet
You can get some form of Internet access (mail only, at the most basic level) through all of the major commercial online services, but only Delphi currently offers full access. You can also ask your local university or college if they will sell you an Internet account.
AskERIC:
E-mail academic questions to: askeric@ericir.syr.edu
Homeschool newsgroups on the Internet:
alt.education.home-ed.misc
alt.education.home-ed.christian
Online services:
America Online 1-800-827-6364
CompuServe 1-800-848-8199
Delphi1-800-695-4005 (617-491-3393 in Massachusetts)
Genie 1-800-638-9636
Prodigy 1-800 776-3449
(Home schoolers will find Jason Rippetoe’s comparative review of America Online, Genie, CompuServe and Prodigy in Vol. 2 No. 2 of May Pride’s Practical Home Schooling magazine a very helpful resource in choosing a service. To order, send $5 to Home Life, P.O. Box I 250, Fenton, MO 63026-1 850.)
Caution to Parents: Just as young children shouldn’t explore a big city alone, they shouldn’t be allowed to explore Cyberspace unsupervised. Since pornography, inappropriate discussions, and unsavory characters exist—in cities as well as parts of Cyberspace, parents should explore new territory with their children and train them how to set wise limits.