Internet tragedies

Just a warning, this will not be a happy post. (except for the bit at the end, which is mostly funny.)

I've encountered two different news articles today that have caught my attention and got my mind to thinking. One is incredibly stupid and the other is terrifyingly sad.

First the stupid.

The U of M MSA president created a private facebook group making fun of another member of MSA. You can read about it here but in summary, the facebook group was a joke between two members of MSA who didn't like the actions of a third, and created a facebook group. I suppose the lesson to be learned in this situation is that, generally, the internet is not private. The MSA president could have vented to his friend after class, over the phone, or in a coffee shop about his issues, but instead decided to use facebook as his medium. What he thought was merely a joke between friends turned into a scandal because he thought the internet was a private medium. It is not.

Now the sad.

First, read this in its entirety. What is so terrifyingly sad about this case is the girl was led to believe in a reality which simply was not true, and this deception would not have been possible without the anonymity provided by the internet. To this girl, the internet was real, she was talking to a real boy, with whom she felt a deep connection, and when he turned hurtful, I imagine it was like a close friend had slapped her in the face.

What I want to say in response to this is as follows: The internet is very real, and it is recorded. At the same time,anything you find on it can be false. You can be talking the person you believe, or someone else. A photo you are looking at could be accurate, or it could be photoshopped. The person e-mailing you asking to hold onto millions of dollars could be the prince of Nigeria, or it could be a scam.

One of the major problems is that the internet is anonymous. I feel that instituting a system where you explore the internet, but always identified as yourself, would alleviate many problems that occur on the web. In essence, it would more tightly tie the world of the web to reality, and force you to interact with people and places in the same ways you would in real life.

Looking over my post, I feel like it lacks focus, but I've been working on it intermittently over a few class periods, so thats understandable. I'll leave it as is.

I've got sweet bo-staff skills, but....

Ok, so for my social studies methods class, I need to create a lesson plan. I did so, and submitted it, but did not create a specific outline for a lecture I had included in my lesson plan.

As I sat down to create my lecture, I realized something: I have no idea how to create and give a lecture.

Lecturing is an important skill for any teacher. Although it should not be used too often, it is still vital for any teacher to be able to transmit information effectively. I remember in my college classes that teachers had various abilities to create lectures, highlight important themes that tie the lectures together, and to perform the lecture well, allowing for note-taking, questions, response, etc., and the teachers that were able to lecture well really stood out from the pack.

I'm sure that there are skills and information required for creating a good lecture, and I don't know any of that. I would love to have a lecture workshop that gives lecturing strategies, composition ideas, etc.

Powerpoint fun

This is my flipbook cautioning against the perils of flying.

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Virtual HS

So, the presentation on the VHS really piqued my interest. I asked a question about employment, because I really was wondering about teaching in a virtual setting. because, I'm sure as everyone knows by now, I really enjoy technology use. It would really be interesting to try to find different ways to connect with students through a virtual setting? Is it possible to create real connections? What medium could you use? Could you create an avatar system (such as in second life) to aid with communication? There a ton of different ways to approach these issues and a ton of potential solutions.

It would be somewhat strange not knowing how your students acted, their little quirks. I feel like it would be exceedingly formal. One of the things I enjoyed in the classroom is how people interacted when forced to. There is a kind of community building happening in every classroom, that I feel would be lost in an online setting.

I was also turned off because when looking at potential positions, there were many, and they were all part time. I get the sense that the attitude is, "hey, you're not actually teaching, this totally isn't a full time job. Which I think is a conception that could definitely be damaging to people wanting to enter this field.

The trap of technology

After being in the placement for a week or two, I'm starting to see some ways that technology could be a hindrance to a classroom. My mentor teacher uses technology fair amount, and she uses it for good purposes. She has played a few videos off YouTube, things like speeches of Malcolm X. She also uses a lot of multimedia, like documentaries, and will occasionally put up a webpage on the projector and read the text of that. She also occasionally uses powerpoint during a lecture.

There are pros and cons that I've seen in the classroom. The internet and videos give an unique point of view that can clearly be seen. When looking at a description of a person in history, my teacher kept saying "This is a biased viewpoint, don't accept everything it says." This is a good primary source to get an opinion on a controversial figure.

However, there are a few disadvantages that I can see. The technology takes a long time to navigate and set up. When looking for a Malcolm X speech, she loses her previous bookmark, and takes a few minutes to find a video, and then, when she plays it, it isn't what she wanted, so she looks again and finds the video. But, the searching took a few minutes of class time, and if you have many forms of multimedia in one class, you may end up uses 10 minutes of class just switching it around.

The lesson that I'm taking away from my examples, is that an effective teacher should pre-plan the set-up of technology, and that improvisation with technology can be a eater of class time.

Teacher tips wiki

So, I may be creating a reputation of myself as a technophile. Which is, in itself, not a bad thing. I have been humorously been poked at for my excitement for different kinds of technology and being a advocate for them.

But sometimes they have so much damn potential!

My newest foray into web 2.0 is something I'm really excited about, more so than I possibly should be. For a long time I've wanted to compile a list of interesting or innovative teaching activities or techniques that I can use in my classroom. And today, it hit me. I could create a wiki where the content is just that. And people could post and read it and get ideas and comment on others' ideas, in the true wiki form.

If you are interested, the address is http://macteachertips.pbwiki.com. I would love everyone to go and post their ideas right now!

This may be something that only I use as a file to keep track of my ideas.

But..

ideally, I'd want this to be a work in progress for a long time, with a scope that could reach far further than just the MAC program. And, I'm sure that other sites like this exist, and we could also collaborate with their site. But thats an ideal.

Lets see what the reaction is in the first few days.

Movie post

So, I'm feeling a little burned out, so I'm not going int o a lot of detail. I'm excited about making the movie for the class. The workings of I-movie seem easy enough that I can assign a movie project for a class, and it would be fun. I am happy that I can use the knowledge I'm gaining here. A movie project would be an excellent way to get students involved and interested.

I was talking to different MAC graduates, and they talked about how any use of alternate technology and different projects excited the students. So, I'm really happy that I feel proficient in different forms and will look forward to creating different projects.

Creating movies allows students to bring a lot of creative energy into a project. They are allowed to plan and work on their own and set goals and realistic time frames. If the final product is placed on the web somehow, then students will put more time and effort into them with the knowledge that people will be viewing it.

And now, my laptop is running out of juice, so I'll end it here.