David Warlick raised an interesting question this week in his blog regarding ethics and contemporary literacy. Many people, including teachers, administrators, and parents, believe teachers should incorporate an ethics lesson here and there to remind students of appropriate behavior in the cyber world. Some would quickly argue that ethics is the prerogative of philosophy, but I would contend that educators could grapple with this issue if we create parameters of investigation. General education teachers should contribute to the resolution of this inquiry, not just information technology personnel.
Warlick outlines four basic concepts in attempting to address the tension between ethics and contemporary literacy:
• Respect for intellectual property (copyright, etc.)
• Respect for intellectual integrity (respect truth)
• Respect for each other (cause no harm)
• Respect for the information infrastructure
Each one of these concepts deserves much thought and an adequate response, which I will leave a few of these to my colleagues. For my purposes, I would like to address the third area of focus: respect for each other.
The most prominent classroom rule in middle and high schools across the country is probably a simple, although often tested, one: respect each other. We ask students to respect each other’s space, feelings, beliefs, etc., and we usually teach students some of the skills that are necessary in honoring this classroom rule. In addition, we often reward students that practice these skills and punish those who exercise inappropriate conduct. Should we not do the same thing in cyberspace?
On the Internet, blogs, wikis, and messages from Facebook and MySpace each provide students a plethora of opportunities to attack other students, and with this type of freedom, I think students should be educated on proper virtual behavior. Perhaps, teachers could set up class blogs or wikis in order to teach proper virtual etiquette. Programs like Enemybook (here’s an NPR interview with the creator of the Facebook paraody) will probably expand over time, but if we teach students how to respond to such programs, they will hopefully fizzle out.
What about the other concepts? What do these mean to you? What has been left out?
Friday, October 19, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Blog Reflection – Week of September 24th
This week, David Warlick once again posed a question that all of us MACers should consider as we complete our education program. With an ever-growing attention toward technology in the classroom, perhaps we should think broader about the 21st century: “But a new century, a new global economy, a new environment of personal power, and a new information and media landscape demand a new culture and even definition for education and being educated” (Warlick, 2007, paragraph 4). Recently, professional educators have been formulating a new framework to prepare future teachers, and while the framework does not, in my opinion, completely shake-up our current understanding of literacy, it does offer some tweaks. In his blog, Warlick asked his readers to address any of the three following questions:
* How would you define the 21st century teacher?
* How would you define the 21st century classroom?
* How would you define the 21st century student?
I’ll take up the first question and leave the other two to my colleagues. In defining the 21st-century teacher, I think an important characteristic to consider will be open-mindedness. Without a doubt, technology will play an integral role in the classroom of the future, and teachers must be prepared to assess these tools and incorporate them when possible. Texts will also change; in fact, some things may undergo fundamental changes, and in order to prepare for future changes, teachers must maintain an open mind.
The second part of the definition would relate to creativity. With an abundance of entertainment venues available to our students, for example, video games, the Internet, DVD players in vehicles, maintaining the focus of our students will be a difficult task. While I believe varied instructional activities and teaching methods will assist us, I think teachers will need harness their creative energies to think about how to integrate more technology into the classroom. I do not think the role of teachers should be to entertain students, but I think it is up to teachers to do whatever they can to keep the minds of their students engaged. Technology, one would think, is one tool that can help teachers succeed in this endeavor, but we must make sure not to inundate our students to the point of distraction.
Finally, teachers must remain learned in their field. Content mastery will always be, in my opinion, a prerequisite to teaching. As the field changes, I hope teachers will remain up-to-speed on what is occurring in their content area, including current research and successful teaching strategies.
Teacher: An open-minded, creative, and learned individual in charge of educating children and young adults.
Any thoughts on the classroom, student, or teacher of the 21st century?
* How would you define the 21st century teacher?
* How would you define the 21st century classroom?
* How would you define the 21st century student?
I’ll take up the first question and leave the other two to my colleagues. In defining the 21st-century teacher, I think an important characteristic to consider will be open-mindedness. Without a doubt, technology will play an integral role in the classroom of the future, and teachers must be prepared to assess these tools and incorporate them when possible. Texts will also change; in fact, some things may undergo fundamental changes, and in order to prepare for future changes, teachers must maintain an open mind.
The second part of the definition would relate to creativity. With an abundance of entertainment venues available to our students, for example, video games, the Internet, DVD players in vehicles, maintaining the focus of our students will be a difficult task. While I believe varied instructional activities and teaching methods will assist us, I think teachers will need harness their creative energies to think about how to integrate more technology into the classroom. I do not think the role of teachers should be to entertain students, but I think it is up to teachers to do whatever they can to keep the minds of their students engaged. Technology, one would think, is one tool that can help teachers succeed in this endeavor, but we must make sure not to inundate our students to the point of distraction.
Finally, teachers must remain learned in their field. Content mastery will always be, in my opinion, a prerequisite to teaching. As the field changes, I hope teachers will remain up-to-speed on what is occurring in their content area, including current research and successful teaching strategies.
Teacher: An open-minded, creative, and learned individual in charge of educating children and young adults.
Any thoughts on the classroom, student, or teacher of the 21st century?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Blog Reflection – Week of September 17th
All right, I have found a new thread to toss into the discussion of whether schools should have technology in the classroom that has the potential for student abuse. Some of our classmates would ask schools for unfiltered access to the Internet; some (especially Liz perhaps) would ask for students to have the opportunity to use their cell phones; and others would probably like to see every class equipped with electronic whiteboards. An opponent to these ideas, however, generally raises the issue of student abuse, but what would it take for students to stop abusing these forms of technology, and more broadly first-rate technology as a whole?
David Warlick, in his blog on September 25th, raises this exact question. He cites a school district in Arkansas that gave unfiltered email accounts to its students. When the technology was first offered, there were certainly students that abused the system, and each of the abusers appropriately received some type of punishment, usually a temporary ban. As the program continued on, the number of email abusers lowered, and after five years, there were no incidences of student email abuse by the semester break. At the end of his blog, Warlick asks, “But I wonder how long it takes for a new classroom technology/tool to evolve from being a new toy to play to becoming another learning tool, another part of schooling, a technology or tool to be worked?”
I would like to elaborate on two possible answers to this daunting concern. First, I think time will probably be the most important factor. As students spend more time with the technology, their initial attraction will most likely diminish, but this will enable the opportunity for students to become more attracted to its educational components. Being somewhat new to wikis and blogs this year, I have never been tempted to abuse either forms of technology, but that’s because I only recognize them as educational mediums. The more time I spend with them and the more often I see my colleagues interact with them, my understanding of their use only solidifies. One thing that I am sure concerns schools, however, is how much time is necessary. For instance, many of us realize the awesome potential of both wikis and blogs, but if a classroom of students continues to abuse them, a principal or other administrator may step in and say, “All right, that’s enough.” How do teachers who are excited and optimistic about relatively new forms of Web 2.0 instill a sense of patience within their administration? How can we convince our administrators that there are educational benefits to come?
Second, I think teachers should take it upon themselves to spend a considerable portion of time educating students about the particulars and potential of Web 2.0 technologies. I suspect that some students abuse technology because they are bored with it. Maybe a student has mastered all of the ins and outs of posting a blog – that takes, what, a whole two minutes? Perhaps, we can encourage students to take more ownership in their blogs and wikis. For instance, we can ask them to start a series of blog posts that are related to a specific topic, and we could ask them to upload at least one picture or video clip that supplements their posts. Students are capable of so much more than I am sure most of believe – let’s push them forward. If students are challenged and limited by their own creativity, I believe less abuse will occur in the virtual world.
David Warlick, in his blog on September 25th, raises this exact question. He cites a school district in Arkansas that gave unfiltered email accounts to its students. When the technology was first offered, there were certainly students that abused the system, and each of the abusers appropriately received some type of punishment, usually a temporary ban. As the program continued on, the number of email abusers lowered, and after five years, there were no incidences of student email abuse by the semester break. At the end of his blog, Warlick asks, “But I wonder how long it takes for a new classroom technology/tool to evolve from being a new toy to play to becoming another learning tool, another part of schooling, a technology or tool to be worked?”
I would like to elaborate on two possible answers to this daunting concern. First, I think time will probably be the most important factor. As students spend more time with the technology, their initial attraction will most likely diminish, but this will enable the opportunity for students to become more attracted to its educational components. Being somewhat new to wikis and blogs this year, I have never been tempted to abuse either forms of technology, but that’s because I only recognize them as educational mediums. The more time I spend with them and the more often I see my colleagues interact with them, my understanding of their use only solidifies. One thing that I am sure concerns schools, however, is how much time is necessary. For instance, many of us realize the awesome potential of both wikis and blogs, but if a classroom of students continues to abuse them, a principal or other administrator may step in and say, “All right, that’s enough.” How do teachers who are excited and optimistic about relatively new forms of Web 2.0 instill a sense of patience within their administration? How can we convince our administrators that there are educational benefits to come?
Second, I think teachers should take it upon themselves to spend a considerable portion of time educating students about the particulars and potential of Web 2.0 technologies. I suspect that some students abuse technology because they are bored with it. Maybe a student has mastered all of the ins and outs of posting a blog – that takes, what, a whole two minutes? Perhaps, we can encourage students to take more ownership in their blogs and wikis. For instance, we can ask them to start a series of blog posts that are related to a specific topic, and we could ask them to upload at least one picture or video clip that supplements their posts. Students are capable of so much more than I am sure most of believe – let’s push them forward. If students are challenged and limited by their own creativity, I believe less abuse will occur in the virtual world.
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