Wailing and moaning on a bleak Friday Morning:Too Many Questions, Not Enough....
I used to really enjoy reading blogs like a recent one from Will Richardson which poses tons of questions. This one revolved around the issue of school's prohibiting students from using mobile even though they now provide connectivity to the Internet. Very interesting. But, these days when it comes to ed tech, I suffer from "Devil's Advocate" fatigue. I prefer to hear about actual attempts at implementing new policies and programs. Questioning alone lacks street cred with me.
Put up or ....
Speaking of trying new things-- I'm up for that. Imagine my frustration then, when on two different occasions teachers at schools hundreds of miles away have suggested that our classes hook up on a Ning and then failed to follow through on even a first step. This puzzles me a bit, because in both cases they took the initiative. Brainstorming is cool for workshops and retreats. But for classroom activities, I'd rather collaborate with doers.
Positively 4th Street
As Tiger Woods has learned digital information does not dissipate into the ether. A recent experience caused me to consider this fact more deeply as well.
On Facebook I often exchange sarcastic barbs with "friends". But I'm not used to stumbling upon gratuitous insults like the one a friend had posted to his own wall. It was a tired "joke", based on a half-truth. Much worse, it elicited a pair of hyperbolic anecdotes from a former student of ours. She sardonically portrayed me as a heartless beast. No "friend" had my back.
When I revealed that I was masochistically following this thread, the tone instantly switched to chumminess (oh, that's not too phony). What a creepy and uncomfortable experience-- and, I sure didn't like considering that this version of me would remain out there on a virtual wall for family, friends, students or even strangers to see. It originated with my friend's need to come off as oh-so-clever. I've been quite guilty of the same urge. So besides calling out this casual bit of nastiness, I'm giving myself pause for reflection. When I re-engage with truer "friends" on Facebook, I'll be more circumspect, recognizing that any words that fly out of my computer are built to last.
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"a howling moon tonite" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by max_thinks_sees
1 comment:
What do you think of the recent criticisms that facebook has gone too far and relaxed security settings for personal information... and that google is getting "too big" and could morph into something "harmful" with too much personal information? Is our treasured cyber world becoming a science fiction movie?
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