Growing Up Online Reaction

I think this Frontline video has shown me that technology’s role in young people’s lives is larger than I thought before. I think that what social networking sites and other formats have given young learners an alternative place to express themselves and find places to belong. The example of the “goth girl” who had an alternate reality online was interesting in the way that she used MySpace to become someone new and also used her creative side in photography. To me and kind of reminds of when some people go off to college and create a new them, they go by a different nickname and create a new persona. In this case the online world was the place for reinvention. Relating to the idea of reinvention one person on the program described the internet as a place where young people can try on “different hats” as place to go through different personas to try on. I think that also has some parallels to going to a new place and being someone different. I also thought showing the two educators with differing views on technology in the classroom was a nice piece. Spark Notes was something that I had used when I was in high school and I used it a few times when I got lazy or forgot to do an assignment, but it had always seemed kind of a cheat. The teacher that didn’t really see it as cheating was a bit surprising. I can see from his standpoint how using the resources available to maximize time and effort is a skill that young people will need in the future, but from the standpoint of teaching literature like the English teacher presented it really defeats the purpose. Both sides were a bit too polarized, I think there has to be a happy median where technology is embraced, but the same time students shouldn’t lose themselves in it.

I think what I’ll do as a future teacher from this new thinking is in general keep more open minded to what my students are doing and embrace the technology they use as something valuable. I think by getting interested in what students do online would help in understanding them better and connect with them personally. I could use that to gain their trust, and with that show them that I really do care since that is an important step in teaching students. In regards to using things like Spark Notes I am keenly aware at techniques on how to use online sources to “cheat” my way through assignments.  I have taken classes with online quizzes and “Googled” my way through them without actually opening a book or looking at notes, so I know some of the tricks. Originally I had thought of just finding ways of stopping things like that from going on my classes, but I think I will try to keep aware of those tools out there and design assignments that also use those tools for learning. For example by designing synthesis questions that have students use a Spark Notes like site for a review or as evidence for a view.