Posts made by Cindy Underhill

Alice Macpherson wrote,

Can we tailor how others see us?

That's a good question! The way each of us perceives another person or situation is influenced by so many factors (context, experience, values, worldview, etc, etc) - that won't change. However, I wonder if (at some point) the way we view what we find on the web will gradually change - as we become more saavy about data mining and internet searches, but also as we become more accustomed to seeing ourselves reflected online.

Wendy Kraglund-Gauthier wrote,

Yet, who are we if not a mosaic of our interactions with self and others?

Such an interesting question...in the "physical" world, we learn how to interact/socialize and (to some extent) reflect. We learn through observation, trial and error (lots of them) especially when we're young. Yet, in the "online" world, we want to sanitize, ban young people from "wasting time" there. So, how will they learn those social cues (different from the ones they learn face to face)? Those interactions take time to learn (at least they did for me).

Cindy

In his excellent article Footprints in the Digital Age, Will Richardson makes this point about social networking and content creation on the web: "This may be the first large technological shift in history that's being driven by children." That's an interesting thought - and a bit scary for us as well as (I suspect) for them. This supports some recent survey data that we collected from 68 grade 9 students in that virtually none of them reported to have been taught how to use the web from teachers or parents. Most reported they were self taught, some reported they were taught by siblings or friends.

What does that mean to us as mentors, parents, educators? Richardson suggests we must walk the talk and "own these technologies and be able to take advantage of these networked learning spaces" ourselves.

It sounds like many of us (participating in this forum) are integrating these approaches into our practices - what's the next step?
At the risk of appearing to be talking to myself, thought I'd share this in the hope of generating more of your thoughtful comments:

Why might people be uncomfortable with the concept “you are what you share”?
* it may challenge what you’ve grown up to value. Consider the person whose career and livelihood is built on a reputation for her published work based on original ideas – competition is what has been the arena in which she has operated through academia and in her career. Now, she is expected to share her work, online, with others?
* it can make a young person feel like a mistake is irreparable. Consider a teenage boy who is exploring his sexuality and sends a racy text to a girl he likes. That girl forwards it to a friend who sends it to another friend and so on until the whole school knows. What has that young person learned about sharing?
* people share for many reasons – some of which are not what you might call honorable. Does it matter – as long as they are sharing?
* mixed messages in schools and institutions – you are what you share but if you share, you’ll be a plagiarist and you’ll be punished or (we’ll catch you) because we use Facebook too!

The value implied is that sharing online is good – and not sharing is a barrier to creativity and democracy. While we may believe that (hold that value)– we need to help young people think about the implications of sharing for themselves so that they can exercise their right to share what they want, when they want and with whom they choose. We don’t have all the answers for them. Many of us are struggling with these implications ourselves. The best we can do is go with them – help them work it out in a way that helps them build the skills and critical thinking capacities that will give them confidence to face the storms born out of human foibles that are bound to occur when participating in visible, shareable online spaces.

Thoughts?



This statement is deceptively simple, yet it may be at the heart of the sore spot with the concept of open sharing (think patents, copyright, intellectual property, etc.). Yet, at the same time there is a long tradition of collaboration in research (consider the world wide collaboration in the field of human genetics). As Norm Friesen points out in his Chapter on Critical Theory:
"behind the natural or obvious truths are clashing social and human interests."

So, here a few questions to ponder prior to the discussion over the next few days:
  • why do you think some people might be uncomfortable with this statement?
  • what value(s) are implied?
  • what might be some implications re:digital identity?
And, as you have already demonstrated, you'll likely have many more interesting questions of your own - feel free to start a new thread if this topic isn't meaningful for you.