Cyberbullying is not something that has always been a part of my vernacular. After reading the assigned articles for this post, my roommate, Cheri, came into the room and we began discussing cyberbullying and how it was not a notion we ever even considered. To our generation, the novelty of text messaging and chatting online was just that - a novelty. We never thought of using those outlets as a means for harming another person. Perhaps that is because we were never malicious to begin with, but I believe it was more that our generation was just excited about all of these new venues of communication.
Cyberbullying, at it's core, is bullying another group or person by the use of cell phones and Internet, namely, blogs and social media websites. As if bullies weren't cowards enough, now they get to hide behind avatars and fake identities. Schools are in an especially difficult situation; it's hard enough to prove physical bullying and now they have to not only prove who the person is behind cyberbullying, but they are not able to do anything about it unless it essentially causes the school to internally malfunction and erupt. Because of free speech and the students' rights to it, the school can do very little if the bullying only affects a single person and does not disrupt others at the school. Doesn't seem very fair, does it? So pretty much, someone out there determined that the functionality of the school as a exponentially more important than that of an individual student. This is about where I cock my head to the side and ask, "What?!" and also where I start to think about what I, as a teacher, can do.
Since the only way cyberbullying can really be disciplined by school officials is if the bullying took place at school, it is up to the teachers and other staff to pay extra attention to the attitudes of their students. Just as we area already trained to do, we should keep a look out for changes in behavior and peer relationships, as well as on-site bullying. Most likely if there is a face-to-face altercation, it will end up online in some form. If a teacher notices anything, I believe that the best step to take would be to talk to the student who is being bullied and go from there.
As a high school teacher, my students will already have ingrained online etiquette that I will be hard pressed to change - as most things, the rights and wrongs of Internet usage will take place when they are younger. However, this shouldn't stop me from letting them know how they should and shouldn't act if an issue were to come up. With the growth of the "www" world, tools on the Internet will become the standard in the classroom - as this class is confirming. My approach to my students should be preemptive and reactive. For example, if my students use a class blog to submit assignments, as we are now, there would be rules about what kind of content is allowed in both the posts and comments - any deviation to those rules would have consequences. Hopefully my school will also have similar rules and they will back me up if I ever have to discipline a student for acting inappropriately. But, this rises another question: Let's say I assign my students a blog entry on the day's reading and they each also have to comment on two other student blogs - keep in mind that this is homework, done at home, not at school. What if a student's comment is derogatory and harmful? Am I able to punish them even though the cyberbullying took place at home? Does it matter that it was done on a class blog or not? Where do we draw the line?
While the schools cannot do much if the daily activities at the school are not being interrupted, I think that they should be able to. What kind of example are we setting if we tell our students that we care about their lives and that we're there for them, but then we turn our backs when something happens outside of class that greatly affects their personal class experience? A 15-year-old is not going to come to school if the night before someone sent out a malicious blast on Facebook about them. I suppose for now, though, "when incidents of cyberbullying or other harassment rise to the level of a true threat (e.g., the speech involved shows a genuine intent to inflict harm), school leaders have a duty to take some action and should look to law enforcement officials for help" (Cyberbullying: Is There Anything Schools Can Do? 2008). But what if waiting to determine if the speech would inflict real harm is too late?
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
You Want to Know More About Me? Just Ask Google!
Since the creation of Google (and other search engines), people have been happily and creepily stalking new acquaintances the minute they get home. Admit it, you've done it, too. And while we're at it, you can also go ahead and admit that you've also Googled yourself (insert tune to "You're So Vain" here). I am right there with you! I have always felt pretty secure in my online identity since there are not many "Crystel Kinnees" in the world, let alone "Crystels." However, I firmly believe that within the last few months, Google took some stalker steroids. While my name would produce merely my Facebook and Myspace accounts, it now displays pages of everything I have ever written on said websites. What the what?!
I give you Exhibit A:
Oh goodness. It's like looking back at hours of procrastination in one simple screen shot.
Luckily, I don't see anything that I would regret as a teacher. Facebook and Myspace (and other social outlets) became immensely popular around my sophomore year of college, in 2004. While in college, I was a member of a sorority and with the popularity of Facebook (pet name: Stalkerbook), came new rules to protect our sorority's image. Everything on our profiles had to be set to private, we were not aloud to use damaging language and we were also encouraged to screen the photographs that were posted - private or otherwise. Thankfully, I followed these rules and as it turns out, this may have saved me many hours of cleaning up after my young adult self.
While one may argue that Facebook and Myspace are tools in which one can use free speech, that only goes so far. Just recently, a school district employee was fired from his job for posting derogatory comments on his Facebook profile (and go figure that Google has failed me and I cannot seem to find the article to link it here). It is a fact that our students will try to find us online and they will try to be our online friends. While I do not believe it is appropriate to have online friendships between students and teachers, and while my profile is very private, it is extremely apparent that students will still be able to dig up some dirt on dear 'ol Miss Kinnee. If the wrong student finds something incriminating, I could lose my job. I think I would rather screen myself online than take that risk.
In the article "Have You Googled Your Teacher Lately?" I found it interesting that teachers actually use social networking sites to communicate with their students "beyond the four walls of the classroom." Further, I am a little shocked to learn that 40% of Myspace users are over the age of 35. As I stated earlier, I do not think it would be appropriate to be online friends with my students. I think there are other venues in which to form relationships with them that are not as risky as social networking. The statistic that 40% of Myspace users are over the age of 35 further supports the amount of online predators and adult cyber-bullies. I want to protect myself and my students as much as I can and I don't think having outrageous social networking profiles and being friends with all my students on them will help.
There is a certain amount of respect in the classroom that a teacher expects in order to successfully manage her students. While it is important to be authoritative, it is also important to create friendships with students, but there is definitely a line to be drawn. For example, a student that is friends with a teacher on Facebook may feel that he has more liberties in her classroom because they are online friends - almost as if he has more rights than those that do not. What happens if said student acts out and the teacher has to then assert her authority? Wouldn't it be easy for the student to get upset, take things off of the teacher's profile and put them out of context? I say, "No, thank you."
I will admit that I am as much of a Facebook junkie as the next 25-year-old, but I do know where to draw the line. I enjoy keeping my personal life and my public life separate - something I will continue to do once I become a teacher.
Happy Social Networking!
I give you Exhibit A:
Oh goodness. It's like looking back at hours of procrastination in one simple screen shot.
Luckily, I don't see anything that I would regret as a teacher. Facebook and Myspace (and other social outlets) became immensely popular around my sophomore year of college, in 2004. While in college, I was a member of a sorority and with the popularity of Facebook (pet name: Stalkerbook), came new rules to protect our sorority's image. Everything on our profiles had to be set to private, we were not aloud to use damaging language and we were also encouraged to screen the photographs that were posted - private or otherwise. Thankfully, I followed these rules and as it turns out, this may have saved me many hours of cleaning up after my young adult self.
While one may argue that Facebook and Myspace are tools in which one can use free speech, that only goes so far. Just recently, a school district employee was fired from his job for posting derogatory comments on his Facebook profile (and go figure that Google has failed me and I cannot seem to find the article to link it here). It is a fact that our students will try to find us online and they will try to be our online friends. While I do not believe it is appropriate to have online friendships between students and teachers, and while my profile is very private, it is extremely apparent that students will still be able to dig up some dirt on dear 'ol Miss Kinnee. If the wrong student finds something incriminating, I could lose my job. I think I would rather screen myself online than take that risk.
In the article "Have You Googled Your Teacher Lately?" I found it interesting that teachers actually use social networking sites to communicate with their students "beyond the four walls of the classroom." Further, I am a little shocked to learn that 40% of Myspace users are over the age of 35. As I stated earlier, I do not think it would be appropriate to be online friends with my students. I think there are other venues in which to form relationships with them that are not as risky as social networking. The statistic that 40% of Myspace users are over the age of 35 further supports the amount of online predators and adult cyber-bullies. I want to protect myself and my students as much as I can and I don't think having outrageous social networking profiles and being friends with all my students on them will help.
There is a certain amount of respect in the classroom that a teacher expects in order to successfully manage her students. While it is important to be authoritative, it is also important to create friendships with students, but there is definitely a line to be drawn. For example, a student that is friends with a teacher on Facebook may feel that he has more liberties in her classroom because they are online friends - almost as if he has more rights than those that do not. What happens if said student acts out and the teacher has to then assert her authority? Wouldn't it be easy for the student to get upset, take things off of the teacher's profile and put them out of context? I say, "No, thank you."
I will admit that I am as much of a Facebook junkie as the next 25-year-old, but I do know where to draw the line. I enjoy keeping my personal life and my public life separate - something I will continue to do once I become a teacher.
Happy Social Networking!
Cell Phones and Google and Wiki, Oh My!
We've all heard our grandparents and parents say it: "Back in my day..." and it it usually followed by an explanation of some task that took much more grit and pure strength than the same task would require us young folk to exert. But really, is it easier for us that grew up with technology than it was for past generations? Marc Prensky would most likely call me a "Digital Native," being that I grew up with technology such as video games, computers and the internet, and my grandparents would be "Digital Immigrants," having not grown up with as much technology. While I might not have to go to a library to gather information on my research papers, I most definitely have to use good judgment and fact checking intuition before I trust my "www" resources. Prensky writes in his essay "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" (2001) that "we can say with certainty that [students'] thinking patterns have changed" as a result of the digital world. He goes on to explain that "Digital Immigrants don't believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the Immigrants) can't." Well stated, Prensky. The old cliché "my way or the highway" is more irrelevant now than it has been in quite some time.
Growing up on the cusp of a technology boom made my high school experience almost frustrating. I was in high school 1999 - 2003, literally in the explosion of cell phones and comprehensive online resources. Families across America began purchasing home computers in the late 80's and early 90's, so by the time I was in my formative early teens, most people I knew owned a computer. The gap between my peers and teachers was astonishing. We had classes in high school that were taught by the librarian and were supposed to show us how to use search engines and online encyclopedias. Yawn. This was very step-by-step instruction that I believe was lost on most of us - especially since many of us had figured it out on our own time using trial and error. Pransky believes the best way to teach the Digital Natives is by "going faster, less step-by step, more in parallel, with more random access" - I agree. Teachers need to stop boring their students because they feel they need to fit in every single step of a lesson and instead, go about it in such a way that makes sense to their skill level and learning style.
I had a college professor tell me that professors are not teachers; they are instructors who show us how to find the information we need to know. Prensky would have liked this particular professor very much since they both agreed that students learn better when essentially left to their own devices. I think I may be joining them in their figurative Independent Learning Club. I enjoyed being given the tools I needed to learn and the opportunity to supplement that learning on my own. As a Digital Native, I could easily complete any assignment without my professor holding my hand each step of the way. I think one of the best ways to learn is through accountability - not only does completing an assignment feel more like an accomplishment, but the selfesteem boost for a good grade on something I did almost entirely by myself is one of the most rewarding feelings I have experienced. "Yeah, that's right. I taught myself all of that and I understand it enough to write a twenty page paper about it." Sweet victory.
Prensky is onto something with his articles on Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. It is easy to say I am a Digital Native and that I will be able to totally relate to my students and understand the technological tools they have at their fingertips - however, this is absolutely false. Technology is developing at an alarming rate and I am sure by the time I have been teaching for twenty years, I will feel the same way as the Digital Immigrants feel today. Prensky puts it best when he states that "it's just dumb (and lazy) of educators - not to mention ineffective - to presume that (despite their traditions) the Digital Immigrant way is the only way." That is one line I should keep in the part of my brain that stores everything about educational theory. As an educator, it is extremely important for me educate not only my students about my subject, but also to educate myself about their digital language.
Growing up on the cusp of a technology boom made my high school experience almost frustrating. I was in high school 1999 - 2003, literally in the explosion of cell phones and comprehensive online resources. Families across America began purchasing home computers in the late 80's and early 90's, so by the time I was in my formative early teens, most people I knew owned a computer. The gap between my peers and teachers was astonishing. We had classes in high school that were taught by the librarian and were supposed to show us how to use search engines and online encyclopedias. Yawn. This was very step-by-step instruction that I believe was lost on most of us - especially since many of us had figured it out on our own time using trial and error. Pransky believes the best way to teach the Digital Natives is by "going faster, less step-by step, more in parallel, with more random access" - I agree. Teachers need to stop boring their students because they feel they need to fit in every single step of a lesson and instead, go about it in such a way that makes sense to their skill level and learning style.
I had a college professor tell me that professors are not teachers; they are instructors who show us how to find the information we need to know. Prensky would have liked this particular professor very much since they both agreed that students learn better when essentially left to their own devices. I think I may be joining them in their figurative Independent Learning Club. I enjoyed being given the tools I needed to learn and the opportunity to supplement that learning on my own. As a Digital Native, I could easily complete any assignment without my professor holding my hand each step of the way. I think one of the best ways to learn is through accountability - not only does completing an assignment feel more like an accomplishment, but the selfesteem boost for a good grade on something I did almost entirely by myself is one of the most rewarding feelings I have experienced. "Yeah, that's right. I taught myself all of that and I understand it enough to write a twenty page paper about it." Sweet victory.
Prensky is onto something with his articles on Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. It is easy to say I am a Digital Native and that I will be able to totally relate to my students and understand the technological tools they have at their fingertips - however, this is absolutely false. Technology is developing at an alarming rate and I am sure by the time I have been teaching for twenty years, I will feel the same way as the Digital Immigrants feel today. Prensky puts it best when he states that "it's just dumb (and lazy) of educators - not to mention ineffective - to presume that (despite their traditions) the Digital Immigrant way is the only way." That is one line I should keep in the part of my brain that stores everything about educational theory. As an educator, it is extremely important for me educate not only my students about my subject, but also to educate myself about their digital language.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Introduction
Hello there! My name is Crystel (pronounced "Crys-Tell," not like the champagne, thank you) Kinnee and I am working on getting my MAT in secondary education with a focus on high school language arts - perhaps I will work on an endorsement on social studies as well. It sure wouldn't hurt anything, would it?
Growing up, my favorite animal was always a pig. What is not to love
? They are pink, kind of fuzzy and are delightfully wrinkly when they are piglets. Every year I would get little pig figurines for birthdays and Christmases. They get me with their smooshy noses every time. *boop!*
Until the next post!
- Crystel
Growing up, my favorite animal was always a pig. What is not to love
? They are pink, kind of fuzzy and are delightfully wrinkly when they are piglets. Every year I would get little pig figurines for birthdays and Christmases. They get me with their smooshy noses every time. *boop!*Until the next post!
- Crystel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)