From Parties to Facebook
Gathering with your friends used to take place at parties, and meetings with people in your industry used to occur at conferences. They still do convene in these face-to-face environments, but now online social networking has added a new dimension to meeting places. Thornburg (2009) discusses transformations in society that are occurring due to technology, and this blog post is an extension of his paper.
The concept of online social networking begun in the late 90's but really began to emerge in the mainstream in 2006. Perhaps one might speculate that the early majority (Rogers, 2003) may have begun using online social networking in 2007-2008.
The upside to this technology is the increased amount of business networking that can take place through such general sites as Linked In or industry specific sites such as The Hospitality Club. Such sites as Facebook bring friends together, and today students are beginning to use their Facebook page as their primary means of communication even above email.
The advantages are quite obvious, but the disadvantages still lurk both children and adults. The news, 60 minutes, and various similar shows have aired specials on predators, pedophiles, and identity thieves who use social networking pages as their playground. (Sample article.)
In the same vein, others are saying that the danger of online predators is not as prevalent as we had once thought. (Article) On a personal note, that article, to me, is unfounded because it says that the number of arrests has only slightly increased. I do not believe number of arrests is necessarily an indicator of number of crimes. Many people do not report the crime due to embarrassment and humiliation. Yet in the same article it discusses how there is a "significant number of sting operation arrests" (Magid, 2008).
The question for this week is: What would make the technology even better, avoiding the pitfalls? Honestly, I do not have an answer and welcome anyone's perspective on that question.
References:
Magid, L. (2009). Online predator study dispels hysteria. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/31/scitech/pcanswer/main4908379.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
Rogers, E. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.
Thornburg, D. (2009). Current trends in educational technology. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/Courses/14936/crs-wueduc8812-3526271/when_is_a_technology_emergent.pdf
8 comments:
Koh,
Your comments were well expressed and delivered. I am full agreement concerning the positive and negative aspects of this type of interchange. The best parts of this medium are yet to come, with increased information sharing and new capabilities that have not been added yet. The down side will be with us as long as there are those among us who try to capitalize on weakness instead of nurturing it and encouraging it to become stronger.
John R. :-)
Yes, John, I think you are right. So it's not just about the format, really. It's about the ethics of "those who capitalize" as you called it.
Koh
Posted by Koh at 6:12 PM 1 comments
Koh,
I like your analogy of social networking as a kind of party. It even includes party crashers in the form of hackers, spammers, and scammers; and overprotective parents who don’t allow their kids to go to the party in the form of some organizations. I was surprised and horrified to hear from a few Walden classmates that they were not allowed to join Facebook because their state departments of education considered it conduct unbecoming a teacher.
Regarding your question about what would improve social networking technology to avoid the inherent pitfalls of online predators, identity thieves, and other dangers, I believe the answer lies not in technology, but in education. I believe that children and adults should be taught to use the Internet, including social networking sites, responsibly and safely. No website blocking software can eliminate threats completely, and I don’t believe relevant life skills can be taught in a contrived playpen that shelters users from the dangers they will encounter in real life.
I read in The Journal that, in Finland, they don’t even have Internet filters on many schools’ computers, but they have very few problems because they teach their children from very young ages to use the Internet responsibly and “The filters are in the students’ heads”. I believe strongly in this philosophy of preparing students for Internet use, especially because some of our students have already bypassed the filter and accessed porn websites simply by typing in URLs for websites in other languages. Our district filters only block websites tagged with inappropriate material in English. I created an Internet Safety and Responsibility Course for K-12 students (http://lisar.eduhost.org). The class, created in Moodle, was being hosted by the Oregon Educational Technology Consortium, but it’s being moved to another server so it’s not available right now. Of course, there is no guaranteed strategy or tool that will make Internet and, specifically social networking, completely safe and problem free. However, I content that education on good Internet citizenship and safety is the best way to deal with the problems inherent in this technology.
Lisa
Villano, M. (2008). What are we protecting them from? The Journal, retrieved from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2008/05/01/What-Are-We-Protecting-Them-From.aspx?sc_lang=en&Page=6.
Lisa
Wow! Great response. I really enjoyed reading it. Regarding the teachers not allowed to have a Facebook page - I think you hit the nail on the head - it's about education. Today's adults and children have lacked in education (in my opinion) on proper usage and online behavior. Recently, where I live, three teachers lost their jobs because of things they had posted on their Facebook page.
When your site is back up, please let me know. I would love to see it!
Koh
Thanks, Koh. I will keep you posted on the Internet Safety site.
Good morning, Koh,
Our Assignment for this module involves a little group coordination: "Create a tetrad of an emerging technology with progressions. All members of your Learning Community should use the same technology to create their tetrads; this way, everyone can observe the different approaches taken by their classmates. Post your tetrad to your blog, including an explanation of how it answers the following four questions. "
Do you have any preferences as to which of the four technologies we should use? Let me know and we can get started.
Have a great day.
I'm replying to all via email.
Koh
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