Jazz to Java

From jazz to Java
How the best job on earth just got better
By Janet Purcell
Princeton Packet Special Writer
Friday, Oct. 11, 1996

Ferdi Serim has had five careers — so far. The Kingston resident is mostly known for his work on the Internet as the Computer Teacher/Coordinator for Princeton Regional Schools. Originally, he was a jazz musician, playing with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie.

And now he is the author of a just-published book, "NetLearning: Why Teachers Use the Internet."

In retrospect, Mr. Serim recounts, his career changes were part of his personal learning curve, preparing him for the present and for what lies ahead as educators crowd the on-ramps to the information highway.

His original love of playing jazz set the stage for his becoming a teacher. "It takes an informed ear to follow what's happening in jazz," he said. "I started teaching music in 1973 because I figured it was better trying to grow some people to hear my kind of music."

Although he began with drums, he moved on to add the flute, vibes and bass, as well as the keyboard which he primarily uses for arranging.




	Computer teacher Ferdi Serim plays drums while his daughter Jasmin and son Ari accompany him. (Packet photos by Mark Czajkowski)

In the early 1980s he moved on to become Artist-In-Residence in 35 different school districts and made his own instruments available to the students. "I've calculated that about 25,000 students have actually played solo on my instruments," he said.

From there he became an Arts Coordinator. "That's where I encountered my first computer and I hated them," he said. "I thought that's what they meant in the Book of Revelations when they said everyone would have a number and computers were evidence that the end times were coming," said Mr. Serim, who attends the Princeton Unitarian Universalist Church with his wife, Joey, and their children Jasmin and Ari.

Nevertheless, he said, "Within a hundred hours I taught myself to think the way a computer thinks and after that we got along just fine. I realized that the skills that were needed as an arranger and composer are the same skills for the symbolic language that computers represent.

"When I was in my Artist- in- Residence career back in the '80s," he continued, "I got people to speak the language of jazz, which is an improv conversation. Now the Internet is also an improvised conversation — it can contain words, pictures, videos and all the emotions that those generate. That's why I think the arts are very important in schools. If you gain facility in those different types of intelligences and languages, you are excluding far less people from things that they may have some type of talent in."

Mr. Serim said working in the Artists-in-Education program during his Arts Coordinator career allowed him to get to know and work with the top musicians of the time. "They cut me a lot of slack because they saw I was sincerely interested in perpetuating the art form by passing it along to young people — and I had sufficient skills not to embarrass them or myself on stage."

During that period he performed with such greats as Frank Foster, Charlie Rouse, Wild Bill Davis and the person Mr. Serim refers to as his first mentor, Dizzy Gillespie, with whom he performed seven times.

"A lot of the stuff I have tried on the Internet I would not have had the audacity to attempt if it were not for his example. He gave me the courage to try anything," said Mr. Serim. "People called him crazy when he first invented be- bop. It's tough being a visionary. You see things other people can't and you finally just have to show them."

It was during that period that Mr. Serim began to see how easy it was to be turned on by computers. "The technology puts you in the driver's seat," he said.

That led to career number four, a systems analyst. "I did nothing then but play with computers for 1,400 - 1,500 hours. I discovered at the end of that

time I could find people would run programs, but I couldn't find people who could construct meaning of the information coming out of the computer. If I couldn't find people who could think with their computers, I could at least help to start growing them."

Hence career number five, Mr. Serim's present position in the Princeton schools and his founding of the On-line Institute, which is a collection of people from across the country who are Internet-using educators, proponents of systemic reform, content area experts and teachers desiring professional growth. According to Mr. Serim, it is possibly the first organization that was born on the Internet and not transported there.

And now Ferdi Serim, along with Melissa Koch, has authored a book and accompanying CD-ROM entitled, "NetLearning: Why Teachers Use the Internet," which promises to give users practical experience they can use immediately to make their efforts on the Internet more productive.

It is different from other Internet books in that, in addition to the basics, it addresses the educational benefits of connecting to the Internet. It also shows educators how others in their field take advantage of Internet features to support their curriculum goals.

"Until now, schools have been like the land that time forgot, but with computers that is all changing," Mr. Serim said. "Students are creating on the Web now and that is going to become as routine as word processing. And teachers are very enthusiastic to pick it up. For me, the best job on earth is getting better because the teachers and the kids keep raising the ante on what's possible and being able to help make things happen is rewarding."

In his book Mr. Serim says, "The Internet has changed forever the way I teach and the way my students learn. None of us is willing to ever go back to the way it was before . . . ."

But when asked what he sees happening next, what his next career may be, he said, "That's one thing I have no clue about because things are changing so fast that I think anybody who thinks they have an idea of what's happening is just giving a forward-looking reflection from the rear view mirror."

"NetLearning: Why Teachers Use the Internet" is published by Songline Studios Inc. and O'Reilly and Associates Inc. It is available in bookstores for $24.95, or by calling the publisher at (707) 829-6500.

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