Technology: Social Justice

The articles Social Justice: Choice or Necessity by Colleen Swain and David Edyburn and Who Are Today's Learners? by Christine Greenhow, stress the importance of students becoming technologically savvy in order to have successful futures in an increasingly more and more technological world. I agree, that it is critical for students to become comfortable using computers. Our society depends so much on computers and other technologies, that anyone that is unfamiliar with technology can be left behind. For example, if I was easily confused when navigating through websites and lost when using software such as PowerPoint or Excel, I would be at a great disadvantage for passing this online class, Educational Technology. Even though this class is designed to educate college students on uses of the internet and technology to help instruct their students as future teachers, it is assumed that you can navigate through websites comfortably on your own prior to further instruction. This class and other online classes are required at Concordia University in order to graduate. I am sure that other schools have similar situations. If a student was not prepared by his or her grade school with the knowledge of using the technologies involved in taking an online class, then that student's school did not prepare them to succeed at college.

That is kind of harsh, but it is the truth. Technology is a vital skill that all students should be taught. I won't say it is as important as learning how to read or write, but it is certainly more important than practicing cursive. Technological skills are almost 100% applicable to the world outside of school. So, the type of technological skills practiced in school should be comparable to what is used outside. Christine Greenhow writes this in her article. "The researchers argue: '[A]lthough students reported using... technologies in their classes, technology needs of the high frequency users are not being met at school.'" Swain and Edyburn say: "Students are expected to hand-write the first draft of a report so they can type it into the computer when the class goes to the computer lab." This is an example of how technology is being slipped into the lesson plan without being fully utilized to educate or engage students. The more interactive websites and wikis can be incorporated into lesson the more engaged the students will be and the more useful and applicable their knowledge of computers will be.

Now, I must admit that I have been holding back on an opposing side of this technology argument. You see, I think I am actually a bit of a Fundamentalist. I think it is also highly useful for students to practice their typing skills with typing programs on the computer. I think it is a good idea to have students practice organizing their thoughts for a paper in a rough draft, hand-written on paper, especially young learners. Most of all, although I agree that technology can be an engaging method to teach, it can also be a distraction from what the students should actually be learning. I believe there is a line that teachers just need to be careful that they don't cross. I'm not saying that learning shouldn't be entertaining (because I think it should), but I am saying that learning should always be educational. I refer to what Geenhow writes: "They wanted more technologies for learning in school and distinguished their out-of-school technology use for personal or social communication as "more entertaining" than the academically  traditional technology use in school (e.g., word processing, testing, Internet research)." What students would love to do is surf the web, playing silly computer games and chatting on social networking sites, which is great for entertaining but not so hot for educating. If you can find ways of incorporating educational variations of these things, then you could really engage your students. I just don't see social networking helping students meet any of the national or state standards. If you can think of something, let me know.

It is true that not all students have the same access to computers, technology, or the internet, but these things are still a part of their lives or will be in the future. Having students that do not have access to any of these three things, computers, technology, or the internet, is all the more reason to use them in your class. These students need the practice and instruction more than the students who have access to everything at home. As the teacher, you just have to make sure that the assignments or projects that you give a capable of being finish at school where the resources are guaranteed to every student. It would also we good to encourage students who don't have computers or internet access to go to places that have public access to these things so that they can practice their computer skills and become more comfortable using technology. It also wouldn't be too hard, I imagine, to connect students with an after school program that offers these resources. I could possibly even organize an after school club that meets in the school computer lab once a week or so, or book the computer lab for a half hour after school everyday during a week when my students are working on a project that necessitates computers of technology that not every student has access to at home. I think it would be possible to accommodate to these students' needs without being overburdening to me, the teacher.

Cyberbullying

According to www.stopcyberbullying.org, “‘cyberbullying’ is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.”  Cyberbullying only involves minors.  If an adult is involved, it is cyber-harassment or cyberstalking.  It is usually not a single occurrence and it is not uncommon for the roles of bully and victim to switch back and forth.

I do not think that I have ever been cyberbullied.  Well, no, I take that back.  In high school, my girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend sent me a lot of threatening messages on MySpace.  She asked me to not open the messages and read any of them, so I respected her wishes and did not read them.  I do not know if he figured out that I was not reading his messages or what, but he started leaving the threatening comments in the subject area of the message, which displayed on my inbox.  I was not intimidated, and that might have had a lot to do with the fact that I lived in Oregon, and he lived in Utah.  The comments were very annoying though.  I eventually blocked him on MySpace.

Unfortunately there is no way for teachers to regulate the behavior of students when they are online and off site.  Teachers do not even have the time for the work it would take, were it possible, to regulate cyberbullying.  “When schools try and get involved by disciplining the student for cyberbullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right” (www.stopcyberbullying.org).  I guess a teacher can only really know if a student is being cyberbullied if the student informs the teacher.  There are plenty of signs to look for, similar to any type of bullying.  For instance, if the student exhibits repetitive tardiness or absences, then it is possible that he or she is a victim of cyberbullying.  Nothing more can be made than assumptions based on these inferences though.  However, there could be many other reasons for this behavior.

I will give whole-group pre-emptive lessons on netiquette.  I also think that it would be very important to talk about how to respond and react to cyberbullying.  Nancy E. Willard gave some great tips on her “yes” argument in the Should Schools Regulate Offsite Online Behavior? article.  As a teacher I will certainly react to my students’ problems, if they feel threatened by other students.  It is important to maintain a healthy, thriving environment for learning.  One of the best things that I could probably do in reaction to a student being bullied online is to involve the parents.  Really it is their responsibility in the end.

Teachers and Social Networking

This was the fisrt I had ever heard of http://www.pipl.com/. It is kind of a crazy site. I mean, I have actually tried googling my name before to see what pops up. I have only ever found information on a bunch of other people that I have never meet or heard with the same name as me. It is also possible to find my Facebook profile using Google, but you have to know who you are looking for to know which profile is mine. I believe that future possible employers would have enough information about me to figure out which profile is mine. Simply knowing what I look like would help them identify my Facebook.

The thing about pipl.com is that it is specific enough to select a lot more webpages that have information about me. I was surprised to find pictures of me that I had never seen before. There were two pictures that a friend of mine had taken of me and posted on his MySpace. I believe pipl.com pulled up the webpages with those pictures because my name was typed in the caption, and that is pretty amazing! The idea of having pictures of me, which I have not seen, posted on the internet that can be accessed by anyone could be a very scary thing. My lifestyle is pretty PG, so I'm really not worried. However, there remains the fact that someone could see a picture of me that I have not and the fact that it is easy to misinterpret pictures or text without the context.

After reading the article, Have You Google Your Teacher Lately by Heather L. Carter, Teresa S. Foulger, and Ann Dutton Ewbank, I decided to deleted my MySpace account. I did not have anything bad on my site. I wanted to delete it though, because I haven't used MySpace in a number of years. I decided that I didn't want to be represented to others by myself from over three years ago. I don't even use MySpace anymore, and I didn't want to risk having a future possible employer perusing a site made by a teenager and basing their knowledge of my character or personality on outdated information. I wouldn't like to end up like Stacy Snyder and her drunken pirate picture. Although, I think that story was a scare tactic more than anything. I believe the school district when they say that they would not give her the education degree that she was studying for based on her performance in her student teacheing and not on the drunken pirate photo. In the picture I found when researching this case, there isn't even an indicator that she is drunk or pretending to be drunk. I have known people, and student teachers in fact, who blame a mistake they made or a bad performance on something or someone completely unrelated. I believe that is what Stacy Snyder did. The court believes that is what Stacy Snyder did, also. So, I think that it is pretty lame of the authers of this article to omit this information when mentioning Stacy Snyder's story. I understand that their point is to be careful of the information one puts up on the internet for the whole world to find, and I agree. But their example could mislead people to censor their free will and freedom of speech to an extreme that is unnecessary.

As for the free will and freedom of speech for teachers, I believe they are entitled to them as much as everyone else. But, obviously, there will be consequences. Perhaps by speaking his or her mind a teacher will enlighten or influence students, parents, faculty, the school district, or the community in a positive way. On the other hand, what a teacher chooses to say might be hurtful to the community or innapropriate for someone with a strong influence on students' lives to say. In case of the later, their should be consequences for the teacher. I mean, say whatever you want, but you must be willing to accept the consequences of your actions. If there is something you wouldn't say to someone's face, then don't post it on the internet where everyone can see it. It's the same as saying it to their face. If you said something crude to someone directly, you would accept the consequence and the punishment. It should be the same whem posting something on the internet.

What am I going to do to protect myself and my job? I am going to keep on doing what I do in everyday life. I will try to honor and love people around me, whether I'm looking them in the face or I'm staring at a computer screen.

Digital Native/Digital Immigrant

I consider myself to be more of a digital native than a digital immigrant. I haven't grown up with a family computer all of my life, but for most of it I have. I might not be hip to ever new software that is out to date, but I do know my way around enough for technology to be an aid more than a burden.

When I was younger, technology was used as an aid to my education. I remember making slide show presentations for projects or videos for group presentations. These were a lot of fun and helped me get more excited and involved in the lesson. I also remember technology being a negative aid that hindered my critical thinking. When we started using the internet to help us with research papers, I noticed the other students in my class and myself becoming really good friends with the copy and paste tools. It became a lot easier to write papers without really doing any critical thinking about the subject of the paper. Mark Prensky says, In our twitch-speed world, there is less and less time and opportunity for reflection, and this development concerns man people.” I agree. I think that technology has made it easier to produce something of fairly good quality without putting much thought into it. This is too bad, because reflection is a key literary skill. Reflection in general is an important skill for learning anything. After all, studying is just a form of reflection.

“Our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” I think Prensky is exaggerating the necessity of technology in the classroom. I think a teacher's energy, charisma, and knowledge are all much more important than his or her technological skills. I've had many teachers who are great and engaging teachers not because of the technology that they used but because of their personalities and the care they put into teaching. I do believe that technology helps. In my own teaching, I feel that I have been able to engage the students and give my lessons much better flow by use of technologies such as: PowerPoints, document cameras, videos, etc.

I want to continue to incorporate technology in my teaching, and I hope that continuing my education on how to use different softwares and technologies to teach will increase m productivity as a teacher. I am not one hundred percent convinced that technology is making our children smarter, though. Prensky writes: “'Surely they have short attention spans – for the old ways of learning,' says a professor. Their attention spans are not short for games, for example, for for anything else that actually interests them.” Did students use to give just as much attention to their studies as they did their recreations and games before technology? I really doubt it. Of course, students, and all people, have an easier time concentrating on some thing they find entertaining, something that the don't have to work real hard at.

I believe there is a disbelief about the attention spans of students today. It seems that students are either given credit for having really good multi-tasking skills because they can watch television and check their Facebook while they try to do their homework, or they are diagnosed with ADHD. I believe that students today have the same attention spans as they have in generations past. Thy are just spreading their attention thinner. Prensky says this in reference to methodology of teaching. “It does mean going faster, less step-by-step, more in parallel, with more random access, among other things.” I disagree. I think it is still important to teach the decision making process, the scientific theory, problem solving steps, etc. Prensky adds, “Educators might ask 'But how do we teach logic in this fashion?' While it's not immediately clear, we do need to figure it out.” I think we try to hard to find the one-cure-all. I believe that teaching is a mosaic of different methodologies. I agree with Prensky that being current with technology is one of them. But I believe that teaching is so much more.

I am very excited to see what other technological tools I will learn how to implement for successful, engaging teaching!

My First Post!

Aaron Dickerson
Middle School Math
Manatee