On a Tuesday afternoon over Google Meets, I sat down to interview Fieldston\u2019s Student Secretary of Technology Alex Goodman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goodman\u2019s journey in the field of technology began at Ethical Culture, when he first learned how to use the coding platform Scratch in fourth grade. \u201cScratch is probably the most simple language you can get in terms of programming, and I would just eat that stuff up,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cI went on to make incredibly complicated projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He later began learning Python and took engineering at Fieldston\u2019s Middle School. When he reached ninth grade, he opted to embark on the four-year computer science track instead of continuing with engineering. \u201cAt the end of the day, I just felt like I was more of a software person than a hardware person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, Goodman’s main duties as Secretary of Technology have included setting up new charging stations, fixing tech issues and helping students navigate the new printing and Wi-Fi systems. \u201cWhenever a student has a tech issue, I try to make as much awareness as possible that they should come to me or that they should come to the Tech Department,\u201d Goodman said. \u201c…We will do anything possible that we need to do in order to get that sorted out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the changes he has already implemented, Goodman has plans for future projects, including a citation generator that he designed in JavaScript. \u201cI\u2019ve got some exciting stuff cooking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Dec. 2, Goodman spoke at a panel hosted by Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization that advocates for child-friendly laws regarding media while also funding research on media\u2019s impact on children. The speakers on the panel were asked about a variety of topics, covering artificial intelligence and teen use of technology. Goodman mainly spoke about his views on the future of AI as well as the uncertainty surrounding it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen people don’t know about something and it keeps getting thrown around\u2026their first reaction, in my opinion, is fear,\u201d Goodman said. He described how the current state of AI is referred to as \u201cnarrow intelligence\u201d because it only has one function. In the coming years, we will start to see more \u201cgeneral intelligence\u201d \u2013 models that are capable of performing multiple tasks, making connections, abstract thinking and self-teaching. \u201cRight now,\u201d Goodman stated, \u201cI don\u2019t feel that what we have is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goodman had a unique perspective on the panel; he didn\u2019t receive a phone until eighth grade. He is satisfied with that decision. \u201cMy opinions on that panel were the reason I was there, not to oversee any sort of technology, not to help fix people’s problems but to actually give my input,\u201d he said. \u201cMy input was the driving force behind my role on the panel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goodman doesn\u2019t have a presence on most major social media sites and advises students to listen to the social media limits that they give themselves. \u201cIf you tell yourself\u2026you want to be on Tiktok for five minutes, do five minutes.\u201d He also encourages students to fact-check what they see online and to avoid trying to bypass age restrictions on sites or apps or get around guidelines. \u201cTrust major corporations at least a little. Trust government legislation, trust years of curated experts grappling with this issue.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As technology continues to evolve, Goodman\u2019s journey reminds us that we must navigate media with precaution and accountability alongside curiosity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On a Tuesday afternoon over Google Meets, I sat down to interview Fieldston\u2019s Student Secretary of Technology Alex Goodman. Goodman\u2019s journey in the field of technology began at Ethical Culture, when he first learned how to use the coding platform Scratch in fourth grade. \u201cScratch is probably the most simple language you can get in terms of programming, and I would just eat that stuff up,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cI went on to make incredibly complicated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":10914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347,644,318,385],"tags":[],"coauthors":[676],"class_list":["post-10913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-features","category-news","category-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot-2024-12-14-at-3.03.16-PM-e1734206683378.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/409"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10915,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10913\/revisions\/10915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10913"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}