Okay, so I have finally visited http://creativecommons.org and selected a license. I’m still amazed by the ease of cutting and pasting widgets. (I’m totally into my Flag Counter and my WeeMe avatar) That’s probably why so many blogs are chock full of widgets. There is something to keeping the clutter down though. I had a choice between the size of the cc icon and I chose the small icon. Then I thought about an article by Dana Watts were she spoke of all teachers having a voice that matters. Does my choice mean something about my tech integration self-esteem? Absolutely! I am only adding a Creative Commons license because Jeff assigned this task. I still need more time to learn and grow and perhaps once I make it to course four or five, I will feel that this license is actually deserved. *I’ve just put the CC icon back on my blog as I accidentally deleted it a few weeks ago. This time I chose the large icon because it has symbols instead of text.
Defending Debbe
License Some rights reserved by e³°°°
As I was casually cruising through week four’s readings, somewhat distracted by an incident that happened with my students last week (I’ll get to that later), I read Debbe Geiger’s article “When Dad Banned Text Messaging” . While looking at the heading of this article, I noticed that 495 comments had been posted. This woman Geiger must be extremely provocative: I thought to self… Before getting to the article, I felt compelled to read a few of the comments.
I was/am absolutely shocked by the seriously wicked, immature comments that show zero empathy for a mother who is sharing something that is clearly difficult and confusing for her and her husband. Her daughter is out of control and there are clearly deep, deep social issues going on with her daughter who is receiving text messages saying “We All Hate You”. Honestly, all girls go through this crap when they are kids/teens and sometimes even young adults. Before we learn to set boundaries, we females use our verbal skills the way boys use their biceps. We hurt and get hurt with words, but grow up already… Reading the comments to Debbe’s article brings clarity to the teenage issues of limited text etiquette. Teens don’t have too many role models around from the looks of those comments…
Here is a snippet of the Debbe’s response to the comments left about her article:
I do have one observation that has surprised me about this experience. It seems that cyber-bullying is not just a problem for teens sending text messages, but also for people who write on newspaper blogs! I’m surprised by the number of anonymous posters who threw rocks at my family. While I understand you may not have liked my use of words like “hip” or you may have disagreed with my opinion in general, I don’t think that warrants some of the insults spewed here. I am, however, appreciative of the many readers who shared thoughtful insights about this issue and parenting in general. Thanks for taking the time to join the discussion. (posted 4/1/09)
I could not agree with Debbe more!
Now, as for the issue that I mentioned early. Last week, three of my students came in during recess to tell me about an incident that happened a few weeks ago. My three students said that they had recently watched a grade 5 student take the cell phone of her friend, another grade 5 student, to crank call a grade 7 student. The cell phone owner did not take her cell phone from her friend who was making the calls nor did my three students leave to get an adult or leave to simply walk away from the situation. As my three guilt riddled grade four students confessed the error of their ways, I was overcome with the uncanny fact that just minutes before my students arrived with their tale, I had been reading through a lesson plan from Common Sense Media. org about cyber bullying and teaching kids about being a “bystander” vs. an “upstander”. I’m not kidding! It was minutes earlier that I’d been reading through this lesson.
What responsibility do I have as a teacher when it comes to children and digital citizenship? Like all things children, I feel that parents and teachers need to work as a team at all times. In grade 4, we read There’s a Boy in The Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar and we have a character education program around the book from Steps to Respect. How clear it is that this new world of children having email accounts and cell phones has led to another form of communication and hence another form of possibly using that communication to hurt. Classroom teachers must absolutely address digital citizenship issues and make it extremely clear to kids that bullying is bullying no matter the media used. Yet, I close with thoughts about Danah Boyd’s article, which my fellow Coetailer Matt Kelsey articulately addresses. Both the Boyd article and Kelsey’s blog about it have left me feeling that I need so much more than a lesson plan, but I also need a place to begin…
