Examine like a Holmes (A Closer Look)


This page will be devoted to allowing you a look through the microscope, instead of just sitting aside while that greedy kid from biology hogged it the whole time. This will be all devoted to the simple facts that I have found involving E-sponsibility, how it has and will impact our society, and if it should or should not be used in schools. Now journey forward my friends and my awesome bearded teacher and examine this topic like Sherlock Holmes.

Though some people may beg the differ social media today has had great impacts and effects on our society. Remember when we used to send the mail with horses and on a mule to reach that one Grandmother who lived up in a old mountain cottage away from society. No? Well that's mainly because our technology has made leaps and bounds in the last decade and a half. Hardly any of us even use dial-up connections now a days. This allows us all to be stay in contact to that old friend from high school or maybe that random stranger you met at a party, so much easier. Most people might not think of Facebook as being a valid source of news but from where I stand it’s one of the quickest sources we have. When the death of Osama Bin Ladin occurred last year, or the death of Kim Jong Il I didn't find out by opening up a newspaper or watching the news, because it was already all over Facebook. Social media has useful information and benefits for society that we just need to utilize and accept to better our society.

 When there's benefits there are always drawbacks. One of the biggest and most significant videos that I have seen against social media would be Sherry Turkles's TED talk discussing how we are connected, but alone. She discusses how our society is always plugged in and zoned out from reality that they truly disconnect themselves and even remove some of their own social skills as stated by a student that she mentioned in her lecture saying “’Someday, someday I wish I would know what it’s like to have a real conversation…’” This really impacted me because I've always enjoyed social media and have been able to balance both, and I've always thought it was an easy thing for everyone else. But then I started analyzing and thinking about all the people I know who post 5 things everyday and how their own social skills might differ from my own. The main reason for this might be because people think that the internet can be their safe haven, where they can say anything that they want and not have to deal with any direct face to face confrontation for any mistakes they make. Sadly this is also a misconception because you will have to deal with that lasting impact of whatever you said for the rest of your life, because what goes on the internet can hardly ever be removed from it. 

With the wide range of social media the opportunities are there for so many applications of it into the classroom. When it comes to Facebook you can easily set up groups for better discussion of a topic, and there would also be instances in which it would be useful to get a hold of a teacher outside of the classroom, and Facebook might be faster and easier to some than an email. I personally believe that if a teacher was to be friends with their students on a social media website then they should create an alternate profile. With the stories of teachers posing hateful things about their jobs or other profound things, it would be very unsettling and inappropriate for a student to see it. When it comes to twitter most people think it's just another social media outlet that can be annoying is people over tweet everything they are doing. But one teacher in California named Enrique Legaspi decided to utilize twitter as a means to answer questions. He noticed how some students were struggling because they didn't like to speak out in the classroom so he had all of the students send in tweets with the correct hash-tags and it acted like a small test or survey. This then showed that students who were not as involved felt like they finally had a say. There are many other uses that social media could take the role of in a classroom but these were just to name a few.

For the full video go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w9CnaeaiAE#t=18

One of the biggest downsides that schools have found is the profound cost of what they would have to purchase to keep up with the higher end schools in technology. Personal laptops, projectors, and desk cameras all the norm for our classrooms and some poorer school districts across America just cannot compete. But this hasn't stopped some teachers like Jenna Barclay where she used alternate methods other than computers to teach social media type skills in a classroom setting. She discussed this all in her article titled "No More Excuses: Teaching 21st-Century Skills in a Low-Tech Setting" saying that she tried and tried to get the right resources in order to teach like a high end tech savvy school, but it failed time and time again. She eventually would use alternate methods like paper "tweets" in class and other activities in order to give the same education, while keeping her students active and involved. It's examples like this that show that we don't need the newest gadgets to get the best education.

The are many issues that someone could have against social media in the classroom, one of the biggest would be the obvious distraction. Now a days kids are not as interested in learning as we wish they would be, because their education just doesn't spark their interest. Then again with how the future of the job fields look sometimes I myself question the total importance of school. For this reason teachers try their best to make that connection by using technology that the students would use on a daily occasion, but they sadly fall short when students decide that a YouTube video is so much cooler than that one math game they could play. I remember back in middle school when computers were getting to be a bigger thing teachers would try their best to control the internet by limiting webpages and other similar tactics, but students could always find a way around it. With students normally having a better knowledge of modern technology teachers hardly have a chance on their own controlling a computer. Thus the idea to bring in computers or iPads for students to use and then magically improve all of their test scores is a ridiculous statement.

Netiquette is the idea of unstated and constantly fluctuating rules determining what is and isn't appropriate on the Internet; just as if it was a real world place with distinct rules. This is something that no one today really understands or teaches in a class setting, because no everyone uses the Internet for the same things. Back in my days of elementary school I remember being taught to be respectful, responsible, and safe when it came to making any decision those days. It was simple, don't kick Sally and don't call Jimmy's haircut dumb. But all this normal etiquette is all self taught for the internet and with no rules and hardly any privacy it's easy to find mean things to say. One of the biggest downsides to free thought with no rules on the internet is the introduction of cyber-bullying. Bullying has always been a big issue in our society, but now the issue can't be solved by getting the teacher or having your big brother protect you. Instead no one really can patrol the internet and decide what is right and wrong and young girls normally feel like this when they are attacked over social media:
Yes there will be plenty of emotions at stake, especially when there are threats and attacks sent with the phrase "why don't you just kill yourself?" One has to wonder what mind drive kids to say such horrible things about each other and how they might feel when they do get older and think back on those comments.

There are examples of this type of bullying everywhere these days, and it's sad to see the numerous deaths that come of it. Just recently up in Portland there was a case at a middle school involving an instagram page posting offensive material in order to personally attack another student. When it started the student told her parents and they immediately got involved and notified the police to see if they could help, but they hit another wall. Because instagram is owned by Facebook and has always made sure that any of their customers has the highest of privacy, they didn't want to give out any information about them. It ended up taking 2 weeks in order for the police department to actually get an official response from Facebook with a hint at a possible lead. In my opinion I see a lot of things wrong with this story. First off it's that idea of why would a middle school student be acting so nasty to another person, where are the manners that I was taught all throughout first grade? Next is that when Facebook and other social media sources get a notice of cyber bullying they should be able to understand that it's something that needs immediate action. Finally why is it that only a hint was really given to the police when this situation was so serious. Yes it is true that you should be allowed a certain amount of privacy when it comes to the internet, but when you start posting slanderous things you forfeit your privacy, because you just broke the terms and conditions that you originally agreed to.

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