Growing up on-line

Big Ideas

            While viewing chapter 1 my attention was drawn to 3 “Big Ideas”. 

1.      “The Internet is the new Wild West; nobody is in charge.”

2.      “It is where they learn about life.”

3.      “Schools are struggling to keep up.”

            I think these statements hit the mark with great accuracy.  I mentioned in class that some schools like Portage HS are promoting technology by allowing students and teachers to have their own devices in class for educational purposes.  However, yesterday (Sept 16, 2011) I was substituting in Wisconsin Dells and while I was preparing to show my vuvox biography to classes, which I did, I discovered that almost all of Google was blocked.  Access to all blogs was blocked, Wikipedia was blocked and many other sites that we use in class every day.  When I am in Portage, I can use any tool on the Internet and so may students.  Filters monitor what people are doing on their system such as the filters do at P. J. Jacobs in Stevens Point, but students have free access to use the Internet as a learning tool.  In these schools teachers are teaching students how to get more from their Internet.  Sometimes, I do watch the students stretch the rules but I only see them playing games and looking at tattoos.  Adams-Friendship is more similar to Portage but some sites are blocked, particularly You Tube.  I compare this with putting a fence across the southern border of the United States.  I have been there in the spring when along the Texas border hundreds of people walk back to San Antonio to embark for all points north in Estados Unidos,  Hey, they are coming and you can’t stop them.  I don’t want to stop them.  They (and It) will improve our economy and enrich our lives.  I wish people would get out of the way and let the Progress Train roll.

Questions

            My viewing of other chapters raised several significant questions for which I have no real answers but they deserve a ponder or two.

1.      Is using the Internet for shorter ways to information cheating?

2.      Is privacy a thing of the past?

3.      Does going on-line stimulate people to open up?

4.      Is the Internet the new pinball machine?

5.      Do teens use social sites to come of age?

My thoughts on these questions tend to insignifify (another new word I made up) any serious concerns these questions might arouse.  After reading about wikis, I don’t think using the Internet is cheating.  However, I think we need to teach students about editing and using primary literature.  I like to share publishing experiences with students so that they can learn that writing is neither right nor wrong but that it can always get better.  James Michener has a good book describing his publication experiences, “The Novel”.

I find the book to be quite poignant because I realized while reading it that he was writing this novel autobiographically.  However, it would be a tough book for most HS students.  On the other hand, parts of it could be converted into plays that students would understand quite easily.  Privacy is not a thing of the past because the Internet is a new kind of privacy or at least it provides illusions of privacy.  That is why one narrator in the video said, “They can act out and be fantasy people on-line.”  I do not agree with the statements in the video that, “There are no more small towns and no more safe places.”  I know that television and adult stores took care of that long ago.  Children have always gone to places their parents knew nothing about.  Regardless, the 1960’s ensured that sin was available to all in the United States.  When kids play games on-line, the Internet is the new pinball machine but I still like those old pinball machines.  I have vivid memories of a certain machine that was easy to win free games on.  How many of you knew that pinballs were used widely for gambling when it was legal to do that?

Child Predators

            The video did good to point out that this subject relative to the Internet has been exaggerated.  I agree that children do things to themselves that are more dangerous such as drinking too much alcohol, driving too fast and experimenting with a variety of things.  But, the video could have mentioned that there are many kinds of predators on the Internet.  I suppose the producers did not because the subject was about youth.  The video stated that parents don’t know about their children’s private lives.  I say, “So what!” Parents never have known much about the private lives of their children and the Internet has nothing to do with that.  It is just another way to talk to friends secretly.  I also think that in relation to the privacy issue mentioned previously that most young people and many older folks are dangerously naïve today.  A friend once told me that the difference between us is that I always looked for the good in people while he expected the bad.  He said that was why I was frequently blindsided and disappointed in others.  Answer the following questions and think about them; really think about it.  Did the government of Pakistan help the United States locate, monitor and kill Osama Bin Laden?  What makes you think what you think?

Cyber Bullying

            Many of us grew up with the jingle;

                        “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me”

Who would have thought that this was a logical fallacy?  So, words can hurt people, especially those who are sensitive and the young.  As presented in the video, the way e-mail and Internet bullying can seriously harm others relates to the most simple brainwashing techniques that are used by governments in criminal or military interrogations, and that we use all the time to socialize children.  If you tell a person something often enough for a long enough time, they will come to believe it.  People loose the ability to really think independently.  For example, every day, every child in the United States on every school day says the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.  How difficult is it for you to consider the possibility that your country might engage in criminal activity against other people?  Can you think of another country that might be a better place for you to live?  During the Viet Nahm War we learned to think about such things.  I, however, was a slow learner.  I was really brainwashed by the system.  That is why I am so disgusted with Governor *******.  And, I am so very disappointed in the Wisconsin Teachers Union.  Most of you will start new jobs at less than $10/hr with poorer benefits than the Union had previously gotten for teachers.  You have been told over and over not to expect a lot of money.  Educators make a big mistake by telling you that.  Part of your professional health is being able to be financially secure.  We need to teach more about that whenever we train professionals.  Medical schools have long taught their students about making and managing money, for example.  So, I am not being a rebel in this.  So, brainwashing and bullying are one in the same and each can hurt people in different ways.  I think the real danger associated with cyberbullying is that it is silent.  So, there is less chance that another person will hear it, especially a parent or teacher, and be able to intervene before there is an everlasting hurt or worse.

The Big Message

            Can the next generation live without the Internet?  Yes, of course. It is not the addiction that it seems.  I know this because I have friends who have stopped having television for financial reasons.  I don’t use it much anymore for other reasons and I don’t miss it.  How should schools regard the Internet?  I say, embrace it.  Rise above your fears and get with the program.  Learn to be better at using it than the youth are so that you can teach them how they can use it to make their lives better.

     http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/