Interview With My Professor: An Interview With My Professor

An interview with My Professor Lakshmi Amarachinta, a confident woman who teaches computer science in Diablo Valley College, has laid her eyes on the evolution of technology in the past few decades. Drew on her vast knowledge in the computer science field and experience as a social network user, professor Amarachinta not only transformed her students into successful programmers but also taught them the correct way of using networks. After talking with her about my research project, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview professor Amarachinta through email. Starting with narrating her past, professor Amarachinta provided an insightful view about the internet and social networking based on her point of view as a teacher and

Ms.Amarachinta was born in India, the country that is famous for its developed information technology industry. In 1992, she went to college and studied as an undergraduate in India. Guided by a family member and seeing the great need for computer engineers in the future, Ms.Amarachinta decided to take computer science as her major. During that time, internet just appeared in people’s lives as a new invention. There were no social networks, no smart phones, none of those technology products people use today existed at that time. “When I first started [using the internet], nobody used it for entertainment as people do today. The only form of electronic communication was through e-mail, even that was not common in students with other majors”, said Ms.Amarachinta. In fact, it is nearly impossible for anyone who lived in 1990s to imagine the popularity of social networking today; similarly, teenagers who grew up with electrical products could hardly understand the old way of life people used to have. The advancement in technology

She worked in a software industry for several years. “Teaching happened accidently,” she applied for a teaching position in-between her jobs and found a good work-life balance from it. Later, Ms.Amarachinta came to Diablo Valley College and became an official professor in computer science department. When I asked for her opinion on how social networks start to influence teenagers, Ms.Amarachinta shares her observation to explain her point, “there are more young students taking computer science courses in recent years. Some of them take the course just out of interest and many others take it for their majors. Although this is the very first course [in computer science], I often have students who are already familiar with programming.” As she noticed the growth in student numbers and their abilities, Ms.Amarachinta attributes such change to the prevalence of internet and social networking. While she feels glad that more and more teenagers are willing to study in this field, she sometimes worries about their behaviors and online safeties, for the fact that they sometimes get into trouble for what they did on the internet. From small things such as sending an in appropriate photograph to big things such as giving out social security number, teenagers “sometimes use the internet negatively and inappropriately.” Since the internet is accessible for