Comments on: The Funky Hybrid

By: Killam Without Boundaries : All the World's a Stage...

Killam Without Boundaries : All the World's a Stage... — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:58:07 +0000

[...] enjoy the killing two birds aspect of this)! Thanks Karen!I used my Google reader and scanned Bud the Teacher which led me to a very interesting subject confronting an NYU journalism student and her professor. [...]

By: Chris Hum

Chris Hum — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:06:38 +0000

I love this post, as it raises some extremely critical issues that help teachers to put walls up (or take them down) for integrating technology into the classroom. My fear, though, is the amount of learning that goes on outside of our classroom walls because we have blocked out our students with these walls. And what is this learning based on?
I will definitely agree with Taylor’s teacher in the invasion of privacy for the class. However, if we place this in a setting outside of technology and reflect on a similar situation back in time in which a student is writing articles for a local newspaper about the class or if she is continually discussing the class in public forums such as clubs, a knitting group, etc. , would the issues be any different?
Really what it seems to me it comes down to is the essence of respect and etiquette, or in other words character traits and leadership at the core of our beings. Identifying situations and thinking to ourselves, what is the right thing to do here? How will this affect others? What are my needs and why?
As we move forward in time, and technology continues to expand exponentially, I truly believe that having a strong positive core basis to our human nature will greatly support the growth of positive technologies. But I am sure one has to ask, could it really be this simple?

By: Bill Fitzgerald

Bill Fitzgerald — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:45:46 +0000

Hello, Bud,

Some great questions, and thanks for the pointer to the original post by Alana Taylor.

Two of your questions really nail it:

# How does transparency mesh with some of the more delicate issues in the classroom?
# Where do students’ rights to talk about their experiences begin to conflict with other students’ right to privacy?

I love these questions, as they illustrate the delicious different-sameness in which we currently find ourselves.

These *questions* are very similar questions that we have been struggling with/coping with for a long time, not just in educational settings but as decent human beings: What is the proper balance between my right to my experience, and to share it/teach from it/learn from it; and how does my right to own my experience need to be balanced against a respect for the privacy of others? This (rephrased) question existed well before the internet, before blogs, before instantaneous video publishing from a cell phone, heck, before books. This is a basic question of human existence —

What’s changed, however, is the immediacy, the rich media options that are readily available, and the way content now has a global reach — private mistakes can be very quickly transformed into public spectacles.

But the speed and variety with which we can publish/comment on information should not distract us from the fact that we’re still largely engaged in conversations.

People, as always, are afraid of getting caught looking foolish. If Alana Taylor had blogged positive things about her teacher and university, I dare say the reaction would have been different. However, if educators/districts attempt to control what is already here, they will fail.

While the technology has shifted how we view conversations, we shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that technology has changed human nature. And attempting to control what’s already here will lead to wasteful games of cat and mouse. We should learn a lesson from the wasteful ineffectiveness of content filters.

Resources should be put toward teaching people how to work in this new environment; attempting to shut it off via artificial controls will not succeed.