Abstract
As an Art education major, I was somewhat daunted by a recent job offer requiring me to teach in the Career and Technology Studies department. As a recovering technophobe and lover of scissors and paste, I was cautious of this ‘Brave New World’ of computers. I perceived post-millennial teens to be cyber savvy know-it-alls, largely due to the way in which they were portrayed in the media. As well, if the ads were true, teens weren’t the only ones riding the new technological wave; Cisco Systems 1999 television campaign presented a global Utopia of citizens united through surfing the net. Shot in a series of exotic locales, the Cisco ads featured various cultural ambassadors garbed in ethnic dress asking the western TV audience “Are you ready?” Ready for what, you ask? Well, the Internet, of course! Cisco shows us a (fake?) Greek grandma tending her flock of sheep and she’s asking you if you’re ready for the new information age! Get with it, dude! If Mongolian nomads were hip to on-line education and instant messaging, I could only imagine the dizzying cyber heights being reached by upper middle class teens in Canada!
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