Week 3

This week we focused on Digital Citizenship. In this particular activity, we participated in some data mining. I chose to see what I could find on myself. Thankfully, it wasn’t a lot!

Overall, I think I have my digital presence on lockdown. I was very proud that my Facebook or Twitter did not pop up at all during my searches, nor did any pictures of myself anywhere except LinkedIn where I had a profile pic. It’s nice to know that my privacy settings are working properly!

The only shocks I had were with PeopleFinders, TruthFinder, and Radaris. My correct age, cities I had lived in, and family members populated quite easily, especially if you knew what states I had lived in. Radaris even had an old address and phone number available, free and right there for anyone to find.

I think my results would differ greatly than that of some students if they were data mining themselves. I grew up right alongside the internet’s evolution and therefore don’t trust it naturally. I value my privacy, and I know there are definitely things about my life I don’t want everyone to see. Putting it all on social media for everyone to see isn’t something I’ve grown up with. Just like we’ve been talking about being skeptical with technology as educators, I think it’s something students need to be directly taught as well. Because the internet is perhaps more intrinsic to their lives, they make assumptions about its nature and how safe they feel within it.

It’s an interesting dichotomy of private/public interaction. Because when you are doing anything on the internet, you are physically alone. Using a computer or smart phone is a physically solitary action. No one is watching what you’re doing, your parents aren’t telling you to “stop messing around” or “stay close”. You are unsupervised. You feel physically safe. BUT the interactions that you make online are completely public, even though you can’t see who is observing you. I don’t think that’s a concept that young minds grasp readily (probably some older minds too), at least not without being trained to think in that way. I’ve seen students suspended or expelled for cyber bullying or posting inappropriate pictures to Twitter. They think they’re alone, they feel like they’re alone. But we can see everything they do. And it can come back to haunt them, sometimes in unfair ways. It’s so important to realize that the internet leaves permanent footprints, and essentially anyone can find your footprints if they try and you haven’t protected yourself.

I enjoyed reading about learning theories in Chapter 8 of the Spector. Last fall, I had taken an online ID class that went more in-depth about learning theories. It’s some heavy stuff, but very fascinating to think about the mechanics behind learning. This was a good refresher.

Personally, I am a fan of behaviorism and humanism. My teaching style involved a lot of stimulus/response, mostly because I found it effective with my students but also gave great results when it came to learning musical concepts. It helped lay a foundation for essential skills, but it always got to a point where it wasn’t enough for a student to mimic an idea or concept back to you. Then you had to level up and talk about why something was the way it was, how it actually worked. But without that foundation, students weren’t ready for the why.

Humanism was definitely a theory that my school ascribed to as a whole. We wanted to create a safe learning environment, because that was when our students really blossomed. I always strove to create an atmosphere where students felt physically and mentally safe enough to take risks in the classroom. A lot of that came from how I ran my class, and how I treated my students. They were free to try out new ideas or ask questions without the risk of me getting angry or criticizing harshly. Some students were harder to reach than others, and had a harder time letting go of anxiety. But as long as I wasn’t going to be adding to that anxiety by being unfair or putting them on the spot when they weren’t ready, I knew I could reach them eventually and get them motivated to learn.