Before I begin on this assignment I feel the need to share a piece of tragic information about me and my family. On December 26th my eleven year old step daughter died. We learned through the GBI autopsy that she had a spleen that was 2 cm in diameter (the average spleen is about 11 cm). I know for a fact that my wife would not be a functional as she is right now if blogs did not exist. Less than one week after Anna's passing we had learned about her spleen from the medical examiner and my wife started the task of sifting through thousands of articles about spleens, septic infections, and child loss. One of the first websites she came across was a blog of a woman who had lost her 15 month old daughter to asplenia (lack of a spleen). Within a day of posting a comment on her blog my wife and her began a correspondence that has, in my mind, been monumental in helping my wife 1) learn about the condition that took our childrens' lives and 2) cope with child loss better. Blogs, quite simply, are extremely valuable.
This is the blog that my wife found.
http://sophiespleen.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-post.html
Now onto Thing 2 in earnest.
I went to the Cyberbullying blog http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2007/09/an_open_letter_about_cyberbull.html and can completely see both sides of the situation. At first I am tempted to scream BS when I hear the term cyberbullying. I can completely say it's not "real" to me. No one is really making fun of you or is calling you names. They are typing stuff about you in CYBERSPACE, it's not like they are saying it in the office you work in. The 'old school' part of me wants to yell, "Toughen up!". Then last year I witnessed my step-daughter's friend have her "myspace" account "broken" into. The person, whom was never brought to justice, added many photoshopped images, sent out date requests to older strangers, and then posted a bunch of drama inducing lies on everyone of her top 10 people's myspace pages. It caused her and her parents a great deal of stress (not to mention a few boxes of Kleenex). I DO think that cyberbullying can be detrimental to teen or pre-teen.
Over all I think blogging is a great thing. For the most part I have noticed that people are fairly brief in their responses to blogs. I have also noticed that many MANY people seem to be more willing to state their honest opinion. There is a great deal of pressure lifted off you if you want to disagree with someone online. There's no face to face; no worries of physical retaliation (not violence mind you but the evil eye, rolling eye, huffing, crossing arms all go out the window when you just type a statement into your computer).
Another aspect of blogging that I enjoy is the simple fact that it can be done in VERY short bursts. It's a great way to get a short answer or opinion about many different subjects or ideas extremely fast.
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First of all, I would like to extend my deepest condolences on the loss of your step-daughter. I have twin boys (13 years old) and cannot begin to imagine my life without them. The story you shared about how your wife was able to connect with other parents who have lost their own children suffering from the same condition was incredible. Communication and connecting via blogs can be (as you have shown) an incredible experience. It doesn't matter whether it is for personal or professional reasons, blogs can be an incredible tool - period.
ReplyDelete"I have also noticed that many MANY people seem to be more willing to state their honest opinion. There is a great deal of pressure lifted off you if you want to disagree with someone online."
You've brought up a very valid point here. It's far easier to voice a dissenting opinion when you know you might never meet the person face-to-face, and when you don't have to fear an angry (audible) reply either. I also feel that replying to blogs lets you compose a very thoughtful response. You aren't under pressure to give an instant reply. You can take your time, think, write, edit, write some more before hitting the "post comment" button. That's why I believe the conversations can be far richer on a blog than what one might have face-to-face and with students in the classroom, especially for those kids who don't feel comfortable speaking out loud.
Regarding bullying, the very statement you made above applies to that as well. Since you don't see that person, students often don't understand that electronic words can be just as harmful, probably more so, than words spoken to your face. Whereas the face-to-face bullying has a limited audience, the audience a cyberbully has can be limitless depending on the vehicle used.
Yer completely right about the bullying via electronic devices. I imagine that it's far easier to send a dozen flaming messages or emails to someone than it is to physically confront some one a dozen times and yell at them.
ReplyDeleteSomething else happening in the cyberspace world and schools is students creating websites in the name of a teacher. Then, putting "not-so-good" stuff on the site trying to get the teacher in trouble. I believe something like this happened in Barrow County last year when a student opened a myspace account in the name of a teacher and tried to get the teacher in trouble by putting pretty bad stuff on the myspace page.
ReplyDeleteThe comment above reminds me of the "Spies like us" blog I read. Unfortunately I do not know how to link it in this comment, but it's under the "Thing 2" assignment. Technology can take us extremely far in education and it's super exciting, but there's always that dark side which is why as educators implementing technology we must also teach the ethics that go along with it.
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