“TLAM Students Interview Women & Men of Success &
Influence with Technology”
Photo: William Jackson, Pamela Canepa sponsors of the Newspaper,
Podcast and Metaverse Club at Twin Lakes Academy Middle School.
Student writers Jenna and Abigail
William Jackson and Pamela Canepa in 2021 started new clubs at
TLAM to promote the growth of reading, writing, comprehension,
blogging, news reporting, content creation with audio, video and
integrating the Metaverse. The creation of the TLAM Newspaper,
Podcast and Metaverse Clubs were born with the support
of Principal Aurelia Williams.
These were the first clubs that involved all three areas of digital
technology for any middle school in Jacksonville, Florida and
possibly the State of Florida.
The students (6th, 7th, 8th grade) of the Newspaper, Podcast
and Metaverse Club of Twin Lakes Academy Middle School had
the chance to apply skills they learned since 2021. Using the
months of February with Black History Month and March with
Women’s History Month.
In a new age of AI, VR, the Metaverse, Digital Arts with
NFTs, the students of TLAM interviewed technology
professionals from WordPress (Web Development)
WJCT (Radio), WJXT (Television) and Metaverse (Spatial)
along with global digital companies.
In February interviewed were Rance Adams of WJXT (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rancea),
Topher DeRosia of HeroPress (https://www.linkedin.com/in/topher1kenobe/) and William Jackson, retired teacher from DCPS and CEO of
My Quest To Teach (https://myquesttoteach.com) to show
the diversity of men in technology.
Rance Adams (co-producer of River City Live) a well-known
Jacksonville community reporter, producer and influencer
was able to directly participate with the TLAM students
with an in-person visit. The interview can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KwkMRiKcyg
Speaking with Topher DeRosia who travels globally speaking
about web development through his company (WEBDEV),
the WordPress global community as a respected and
experienced web developer with his wife (Kate) and
daughter (Sophia).
They manage the Global HeroPress, interviewing people known
across WordPress (https://heropress.com/).
Speaking with William Jackson, CEO of My Quest To Teach, located
here in Jacksonville and recently retired after 33 years in public and
higher education. Mr. Jackson and his wife (Aida) are members of the
World Metaverse Council, GatherVerse Metaverse Community
and WordCamp/WordPress Community as speakers, organizers,
and teachers. March (Women History Month) was celebrated as
“Woman of Success and Influence In Technology,” where women
were interviewed sharing their experiences to inspire girls
at TLAM to enter into technology careers.
The speakers Melissa Ross of WJCT of “First Coast Connect,”
Rose Ashford of “GatherVerse”, Rachel (Win) Winchester “VisualWebmaster.com,” Nyasha Greenn, “Software Developer
at Howard Development & Consulting,” and Aida Correa Jackson,
“LoveBuilt Life, LLC.”
The students of the Clubs have gained valuable knowledge, a
better understanding of how technology will influence their lives.
Stated by Rachel Winchester, “girls and women have unlimited
career opportunities and can be business owners and entrepreneurs.”
All the programs that the students are using are free and available
with tutorials to use and apply if students are interested as future
business owners and entrepreneurs.
The knowledge of Ms. Canepa and Mr. Jackson play
key roles in helping the students to be successful using
digital platforms. Technology opens a number of doors
for students in the future, they have to be exposed,
mentored, provided a chance to use the technology and
teachers allowed to be digital leaders like Ms. Canepa
and Mr. Jackson. Duval County Public Schools and other
school systems in Florida are at key crossroads in
preparing students for their futures.
The influence of ChatGPT, Bard, and other AI bots will
determine soon who is eligible, qualified, and skilled for a
career, who is not and who will only be able to land low
paying, and service jobs. This sounds funny, scary, and
even impossible, but remember computers and AI are
already taking man back to the Moon and soon to Mars.
The future is now and schools cannot wait to change,
they will have to pivot, adapt, evolve and change to prepare
their students for the coming advancements. Soon the
last things on schools collective minds will be test scores,
food fights and low teacher numbers.
AI will be teaching students and not worried about
building relationships only building data points in preparation
for future jobs that may mean “just over broke” as my
grandmother use to call it for people lacking reading,
writing, arithmetic and now computer skills.
Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Web 3,
the Metaverse and even IOT (Internet of Things) will
change career options, education options, and life
options. We are truly in a digital world
with real world consequences.
The use of digital tools must be used to educate first,
empower and inspire second and then allowed to build
creativity, exploration, discovery and to enhance mankind.
TLAM Newspaper Club – https://tlamnpc.wordpress.com/ (4773 hits)
TLAM Podcast Club – https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tlampodcast
(Most listened in the USA)
TLAM Metaverse Club – https://tinyurl.com/4un5wt3m
(Most views from the United States)