For Thursday, May 27, 1999 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 712 word

Not mentor be

It looks like I'll be taking a year off in my technical expertise next September through June. I've been the technology mentor for BHS for three years now, but according to a sentence in the rules set down by the mentor committee years ago, a person can only be a mentor for three years; then he must take a year off.

Ah, well, I lose the extra money, and that's sad enough, but BHS loses its on-site technical support. Next year when mice stop rolling, monitors waver, hard drives seize up, and viruses crash systems, there will be no one nearby to call. Teachers will have to wait in line for support from Tim and Mike down at the district office, the district tech wizards.

What else is sad is that I had great plans for next year's position: to aggressively attack the ever-increasing problem of digital plagiarism. In growing numbers, kids are downloading other people's literary essays, history reports, and science projects off the Internet and passing them off as their own. Cheating is on the rise.

I didn't know I was ineligible for next year's mentorship position until it was time to apply a few weeks ago. I had been building up a multi-pronged program for addressing the plagiarism issue -- preventative guidelines for assigning outside writing and research, methods for integrating Internet use into research without cheating, and techniques for proving plagiarism when it happens.

I have compiled a long list of web sites containing bootleg essays. I've also tracked down several locations not found on the web, but elsewhere, down the back corridors of the Internet, using programs and protocols popular with students but virtually unknown to faculty -- Hotline servers, IRC channels and FTP sites.

This year my project, in addition to offering technical support, was to deck out our big-screen auditorium, Room N2, as a full-blown high-tech theater and presentation center. I secured a LCD projector, computer, VCR, DVD receiver, and awesome surround-sound speakers from Now Hear This, a generous company out in the Industrial Park. The goal was to provide a facility where, if teachers wanted to show a movie, they could SHOW A MOVIE. The room is not quite done yet. We haven't run the speaker cables, nor have I acquired a secure cabinet for all the equipment. If we don't finish it this year, it will have to wait.

O.K. It must sound by now like I'm pouting. Well, I am. I can't deny it. I love helping teachers and students incorporate technology. I think its critical to education at the turn of a new millennium, and I hate giving it up because of some obscure policy that no one seems to have the power to override.

Let me make this clear: my administrators agree that we need on-site tech support and that the mentor rule is hindering my ability to help. I called everybody I could and they all offered me their sympathies. My principal and certain people down at the district office are presently looking for an alternative way to fund my program through next year. If all goes well, I may be back on track after all.

Let this, too, be clear: the three-year limit on mentors makes good sense. It was implemented so that certain teachers couldn't monopolize the program by applying every year. It was added to encourage everyone to try their hand at mentoring.

If I were proposing a mentor program that was enriching and fun only, like puppet-making or bringing public speakers into history classes, I could take a year off, no sweat. However, tech support is a vital, integral part of a well-run high school, in my opinion. I'm hoping a solution can be found.

If not, I guess I can devote more of my time to researching the stock market. I put my first investments into broadband Internet2 companies. Then I started dumping my loose change into eye laser surgery. It's booming at an eye-popping rate.

Recently, I've developed an interest in fuel cells -- the energy source of the future. Cheap, plentiful hydrogen is the key ingredient. Imagine a cellular phone that runs for 40 hours on a few drops of vodka. If all goes well, I won't miss the mentor money, someday.