Kids, [do] try this at home

John deVille, the Mountain Philosopher, is just back from a week spent teaching computer literacy classes to "mostly minority, mostly low-income" middle-school boys at UNC-Asheville.

John, a history teacher, has been doing this for a while now; he teaches a unit on the history of Western North Carolina, using curriculum materials he has developed, and gives the students work assignments to complete with their computers.

In years past, students have completed their assignments using PowerPoint--thus helping to ensure society of a steady future stream of PowerPoint Rangers to keep us all safe and prosperous.

But this year he taught them how to use Blogger. (And for "dessert," Audioblogger.) Samples of the kids' audio posts can be heard here: 1, 2, 3 (all MP3 files.)

It's a pretty amazing time to be alive. They're giving away printing presses and radio stations, free for the asking.

And I am sure that there is no truth to early reports that, once they started commenting on each others' blogs, the kids started calling each other extremists, simpletons, and Nazis.

Or, you know, dumbasses.