For my summary of learning assignment, my classmate Aurora and myself collaborated together to summarize up our learning journey throughout ECS 210. Take a look below!
To finish off this class I would like to thank both Mike and Katia for always doing a great lecture along with Katia for doing a wonderful seminar every Friday! As I know a lot of you will be in the same class as you next semester I will see you all their! Have a wonderful semester!
This semester I had the opportunity to take on a mentorship role in EDTC400! This was an amazing experience where I have not only been able to help my mentees but have also learned from them as well. I had the privilege to work alongside Brooklyn, Heather, and Kaitlyn! These three amazing individuals were registered in EDTC300 this semester and all did an amazing job with their blog posts, contributions on Twitter, and communicating through the slack group! When I was first introduced to the mentoring processes I felt a little uncomfortable as I was taking a 400 level class and more than likely most of the EDTC300 class would be further in the program then I was! However, after communicating back and forth with all of my mentees my discomfort
and fear slowly went away. I learned to embrace this experience from learning from one another instead of only waiting for them to ask me questions! I used this experience to further my understanding of tech topics through making quick how-to videos, finding videos to help explain a process as well as giving my mentees my perspectives and challenges that I faced throughout my EDTC300 class!
Through this mentorship, I did sometimes find some places where I was challenged! I sometimes had trouble relying on other people posting their work, because that is where I often would communicate! If they did not have posts for that week or were maybe busy with other classes I found it very hard to keep up with my own contributions to their learning! With that, I ensured that I tried to stay connected with all of their blog posts! To help keep up with Twitter (as I did fall behind on this platform mid-semester) I put notifications on my phone to see their latest tweets! This was a great reminder to go and look at what they 
had to say as well as supply my own thoughts to the topics they were discussing! From this, I have learned different ways to keep myself on track such as putting reminders and notifications on my phone! This will help me into my teaching career when I need reminders to check emails, my daily to-do-lists, etc. I have gained many insights when it comes to teaching an online class! Through this process, I have come to realize that it is easy to get behind with your work, and with that, you need to ensure you give the students guidance and reassurance to try and keep them on track with their work! I also learned that I need to understand that through online classes it is important to give your students space and allow them to be responsible for their own learning! Through online courses, students will be able to have agency and choice with their own learning! This helped me form my teaching philosophy, from this experience I have learned that I can support my students and give them suggestions to support their learning, but I should not tell them what they should, and should not do when it comes to their projects and how they want to represent their learning. It is important to give tips and tricks, and guidelines to help enhance the students learning but I still need to allow them a say in their education experience! I learned that I am never going to have all of the answers, and with that, it is important to reach out to other educators when your students, or in this case your mentees need support! Overall, I have learned it is important to be there and let them know you are there for support but do not bombard them with suggestions and what they should be doing! We all learn differently and with that need to embrace these differences and allow the students to learn in a way that benefits them as a whole!
Not only did I learn many valuable lessons that I will consider and incorporate into my future classroom I have also gained both new cooking recipes and relaxing yoga moves from their
learning projects! These are two areas I would love to explore more (as I don’t really know how to cook and need to take some more me time)! This has been a great experience learning and supporting my classmates! I have enjoyed watching their growth throughout their learning projects and seeing them become more comfortable with using different resources and platforms to support their learning! I could not have asked for a better group of individuals to mentor and learn from! I am glad I have them on my PLN to continue this collaborative learning in the years to come! For the ones who are finishing their degree I wish them the best of luck and am excited to see posts on their Twitter and blog, for the ones who are continuing their program I am excited to see their growth throughout their education!
If you want to see some more memorable contributions I have made to my mentees experience check out this document here!
Also go give Kaitlyn, Brooklyn, and Heather a follow on Twitter to allow them to continue building their PLN!
The end of the semester has come and it is time to finish off the semester with another summary of learning! For this summary of learning, I have collaborated with my classmates and best friends Aurora Lay-Street and Lauren Sauser to create a website that concludes EDTC400. My journey through EDTC400 has been a memorable one with many valuable lessons and tips that I will carry into my future career! As all three of us share many of the same viewpoints we have created a website that sums up the EDTC400 topics in its entirety and used screencastify to pull out the memorable moments that really hit home for us!
Check out our Summary of Learning here:
If you want to check out our script you can view it here!
I would like to close by thanking all of my classmates both in EDTC400 as well as EDTC300 for making this class so memorable! The lessons I have learned throughout our time together will last a lifetime! Have a great summer and I wish you all the best in your future careers!
The end of our EDTC400 blogs is here! This week we debated the interesting topic looking at if educators should use social media and technology to promote social justice and fight oppression. For this week’s debate, Jesse and Daniel battled it out! They both did a wonderful job and I think it is safe to say that Daniel had a very hard stance to argue to a zoom room full of pre-service educators! Let’s look at the pre-debate results to see where our class started!
Pre-Vote Results
Over half of the class agreed with the debate topic that educators should use social media and technology to promote social justice and fight oppression! Let’s see what Jesse had to say in his video to support this side of the debate!
Image by Mary Pahlke from Pixabay
Take these stories from educators on how they can not stay neutral and silent because of the importance of speaking out for the betterment of our student’s wellbeing!
Now that we have heard from Jesse, let’s look at Daniel’s side where he disagreed and stated that educators should not use social media and technology to promote social justice and fight oppression! Here are the points he stated in his video!
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
throughout the class discussion, we need to teach these students about these controversial topics to ensure they are getting a well-rounded education as well as let them form understandings about these issues.
Class Discussion:
After Jesse and Daniel gave points to support their side of the argument it was time for the class to discuss the topic! Aurora started the conversation off stating that we need to understand we can not ignore the facts when forming opinions and just because someone has a specific opinion does not mean that they are backed up by facts! Katia supported this comment by mentioning the anti-vax movement when people hold the opinion that vaccinations give children Autism, but this has been disproven time again and again, so their opinions do not hold true. Later on, in the debate, Katia also mentions the flat Earth movement and that people still believe the Earth is flat after having a lot of information that dismantles this opinion. However, why is it so easy for people to understand these facts and not the facts about white privilege? Ashlee states that we need to recognize our own biases and continue to help our students control their biases to make a just society. Shaleen supports this comment by stating that these controversial topics should not only be discussed one time and forgot about, but they also need to be discussed throughout the course of the year and allow your students to understand these topics in a safe environment. I think it is also important to understand that teachers do not need to share their own opinions on certain topics, but they need to present the facts and have their research done to ensure they will be able to defend themselves if they are ever questioned about their teachings! Kaytlyn also made a really good point that as an educator we can not choose what controversial topics we talk about and the ones we leave out because that again marginalizes certain groups and shows your class who you view as important and who you view as unimportant! Overall, we need to trust our students and show them that we value them by giving them the facts and allowing them to critically think about these controversial topics and make connections to their own lives!
Conclusion:
This was a great debate to finish on as it brought on a great conversation throughout the class! Here is where everybody stood after the debate was completed:
As you can see Jesse gained some more classmates, however, Daniel put up a great fight for what he was working with! For myself, I agreed that educators should use social media and technology to promote social justice and fight oppression! From the points listed above, I believe it is our job to give our students the facts to allow them to think about the controversial topics that surround them in society. We need to view our students as capable and competent and give them the responsibility to take these facts and form their understandings around the topics. Understanding that children are always listening, it is important to confront these controversial topics to allow students to feel represented and respected in and outside of the classroom!
As this is our last debate I would like to close with stating how amazing these debate topics have been and I have learned so many interesting topics that I will consider in my future career!
This week the EDTC400 crew took on the debate topic looking at if we have become too dependent on technology and if it is time to return to the “old days.” This was one of the most interesting debates this semester! My classmates Jayden and Kiera battled it out this week where they both raised awesome points to support their argument! Before I get into these points, let’s take a look at the pre-debate votes!
Pre-Vote Results
As you can see from the results most of the class concluded that we should not return to the old days. I also voted for disagree and I was pretty sure of my vote. Let’s see what Jayden had to say to try and win some friends to her side!
Jayden started her debate off strong with a great video, to sum up, her points! She also gave some awesome articles as well! Let’s see what she had to say to support her argument that we should return to the old days because we have become too dependent on technology.
and walking as Jayden stated in her debate! Individuals become addicted and reliant on these devices which can then lead them to become more anxious, isolated, depressed, as well as it will affect our memory as previous debates have supported by stating that if individuals know they can look back on the information at any given time they never fully understand the concept! This article also discusses “digital dementia” which refers to the overuse of digital devices that will slowly break down your cognitive understandings!
Image by April Bryant from Pixabay
when it comes to technology in the classroom. Some of these factors were test scores going down, students googling the answer instead of taking time to understand, and the disadvantage some students receive because they do not have access to a home device which then puts them farther behind of their peers.
Now that we have heard from Jayden on why we should return to the old days, let’s look at what Kiera had to say in her video to support her side where she debates that we should not return back to the old days. Let’s check out her points!
also led to social action and individuals coming together to make a change. Take this video for example where Jeff Kirschner created an app about litter that moved into people noticing litter, geotagging litter, and has led into a movement of cleaning the planet.Class discussion:
Now that we have a basis of the points that were covered by Jayden and Kiera, the class was able to chime into this controversial topic. I started the conversation by stating were the “good old day” ever really that good? Understanding that we have always had problems in society, and have never been perfect do we really want to go back to those days? After stating this comment, Katia also gave some input stating that are we really progressing? If we watch the news and everything going on in the world are we any better then the good old days? After we understood that yes, the “good old days” were truly never that good and that we still need to do a lot of work in this day and age for it to be good, we were then able to move onto talking about technology and relating it to previous methods of learning and understanding. One of my classmates stated that it is about how we use technology and not just technology in itself, just like it depended on how people used their maps and believed their newspapers. Another classmate pointed out that we are spending to much time watching other people’s lives and wishing we were more like them then we do reflecting and enjoying our own lives. The class then looked at relationships and how technology is not eliminating relationships but changing them in a way that is not seen as “normal” to us or to our grandparents. As the conversation continued on the class continued debating many aspects of how we may be too reliant on technology. My classmate Kylie, however, stated a really good point which I believe shifted the conversation a little bit. She stated that when these debates and topics come up people instantly think we are on our phones every second of the day and never look up, but for her, along with many other individuals they do not rely on their phones as much as people think. Tianna supported Kylie’s point by stating that there have always been temptations in society, technology just seems to get a much harder recognition than these other temptations. Liz also gave a really good point when she stated that she only ever researches for papers with Google and online platforms, and with that, we also need to look at how people are using technology.
Conclusion:
After both debaters and our class discussion, we were all in for a tough decision when it came to the post-vote! Many of my classmates voted disagreed with the statement beforehand, it will be interesting to see what they have to say post-debate! Let’s take a look!
Post-Vote Results
It looks like Jayden was able to win a few more friends to her side! I had a very hard time picking where I fell due to the awesome points that arose during this debate! I ended up not changing my vote and again disagreed with that statement that we are becoming too reliant on technology and we should return to the “good old days”. However, through the many examples that were raised, we are on our way to becoming too reliant on these technological devices and with that should evaluate truly how much they are affecting our lives. Understanding that no day and age have been perfect, and neither is today we need to look at why we have so many problems in society. Technology could be one of those major problems. I believe there is a time and a place for technology and we can not forget about those important basic skills that will assist us when our devices can not. These debates are always so hard to answer as they are such controversial topics and my classmates always do an amazing job relaying their points with supportive articles.
Stay tuned for next week when I discuss the last debate of EDTC400 winter semester 2019!
This week we had another great debate by Liz and Shaleen! They debated the topic of “Public education has sold its soul to corporate interests.” Before entering this debate I was unsure where I stood, I understood that corporations do have a say in the schooling, however, how much say do they really have? For my pre-vote I disagreed with the statement; let’s see where the rest of my class ended up!
Pre-Vote Results
As we can see from the picture above the votes were pretty close to being equal! We were in for another great debate so let’s hop right into the points Liz and Shaleen made in their videos to support their side!
Let’s begin by looking at the agree side! Liz made some awesome points that really got me thinking and leaning towards, that yes maybe the public education system is selling their souls to corporate interests! Let’s take a look at her points:
Image by F1 Digitals from Pixabay
Pearson and as this video states, they make these exams harder and harder to ensure they have students who fail, if a child is to fail they must retake that exam and it is $15 to $35 dollars to retake depending on the exams. This money goes to the textbook company, they are making a profit off of our young individual’s failures. These standardized tests also reinforce the important and unimportant information that teachers should be teaching their students throughout the school year to ensure they succeed. They are now to only focus on the content of these exams, which leaves out so many valuable lessons that students should be taught through their schooling years.
Image by Atlantis Curry from Pixabay
to allow them to go on field trips or buy new supplies, but they also expect to see their companies being represented throughout the school! This becomes very problematic to our student’s health when looking at these sugary beverages as well as it impacts their beliefs about the world around them. For example, if a nearby oil rig was a sponsor in their school, what information would they be receiving about this process? These sponsors will create single stories to our students and thus form biases and lens for them to view the world.
Now that we have heard Liz’s side to this debate it is now time to hear from Shaleen. Shaleen disagreed with the statement that public education is selling its soul to corporate interests. Let’s take a look at what she has to say!
often team up with companies such as Microsoft to bring in their devices into the classroom. However, I believe there is always some kind of catch that we as individuals of society may not always hear about!
Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay
Pearson for example, this article states that the textbook company has been losing huge testing contracts with schools throughout the country due to these unfair standardized tests as well as the content within the pages. This then shows the agency that school divisions have with what content is being used in the schools, but to what extent? Yes, some places may be pulling these textbooks but not all school divisions will see this as problematic and the testings will continue.
Class Discussion:
After hearing both sides from the debaters the conversation was then open to the class to hear their opinions. This is where I started to critically think of ways in which the public education system was being sold to corporate interests! Aurora shared the documentary “Consuming Kids” which looks at how larger corporations make marketing tools that suit the interest of the child to make life-long consumers. This documentary also shows how schools have been the target for these marketing schemes, which then truly shows how much corporations have a say in the education system. To go along with the point Aurora made, we need to look at how corporations are marketing their companies in schools. For example, having Pepsi or Coca Cola sponsors in school, will often bring in sugary drinks that lead to unhealthy habits and lifestyles, not the best way to help students to take care of themselves when they can walk down the hallway and have endless options of drinks filled with sugar and caffeine! Let’s also take a look at gas companies, or mining companies that sponsor schools. What viewpoint is this putting on the students if they are constantly seeing positive advertisements of these companies? Our students’ ideologies and beliefs are shaped by the events and experiences they see in their everyday lives, if they are always seeing these advertisements what viewpoint will they form on the environment? The next topic the class discussed was the reason for these corporate sponsors in schools. Schools are so underfunded from the government that they rely on these sponsors to supply materials to enhance students learning, but at what cost do these sponsors enhance a child’s learning and hinder their learning? Sure, these sponsors may allow for new Chromebooks in the classroom or field trips, but how are these activities being shaped by corporate interests? For example, many of my classmates discussed the types of field trips they went on as a kid, and now reflecting back wonder if that was because of the sponsors. Field trips such as Boston Pizza, KFC, going to a pet store, etc. The last point I want to draw on that the class discussed is how much say do teachers, parents, students, and anyone who is personally involved with the schools and students have a say in these decisions? It is important to point out that it is not the teachers or admin of the schools bringing in these corporations, but it goes higher than that, it goes to the government and school divisions, the ones who are not being affected.
Conclusion:
As we can see from above, the class had many great conversations around this topic. It is hard to understand how budgeting and funding work out, however, it is important that it is discussed and changed for the better of our students. From pre-vote to post-vote we saw quite a shift in opinions. We went from almost a 50/50 split to a drastic change of almost everyone agreeing that public education is selling its soul to corporate interests.
Post-vote Results
As for myself, I also changed my vote from disagreeing to agreeing. It is hard to know all of the factors that need to be discussed about a situation to get a full understanding of what truly is going on. I believe that the public education system is selling its soul to corporate interests, because of the little funding that is offered to schools. It is important to point out that only certain people have a say in this manner, and with that, it is hard to make changes. To see a change it must begin higher up, to remove corporations from schooling we must look at government funding and funding distribution to than spread it more equally throughout the schools. It is a long road ahead, but I believe if we put enough like-minded individuals together to bring this issue to the public, we may begin to see change.
To conclude, I have a question for all of my readers:
What do you think it will take to remove corporations from schools? Do you think that all corporations need to be removed or just some? If so what corporations do you think enhance schools and what corporations hinder schools?
Growing up in a predominantly white town where mostly all of the residents either were farmers and owned their own land, they worked for farmers, worked in the pig barns, or at the mines our education was largely shaped towards this demographic. We were taught about the western perspective of the prairies and how everyone around the world benefits from our crop and grain. We did not have many perspectives other than this western culture, because to our community and our teachers, this was the only perspective we needed to understand. We had a very structured understanding of the narratives that we heard. These narratives again often focused on the dominant culture with the books we studied and the textbooks and examples we investigated.
With having such a narrow framework to learn from, I carried a lot of biases into my future studies. Biases are the lens in which we see things through, they shape every situation and form opinions on certain topics. The biases I carried from my schooling were biases such as racial biases as we only talked about other cultures when they affected us with a white lens clouding our vision, class biases following the understanding that people need to work hard to get the desired job they want, sex biases growing up in a class with all boys I learned quickly what my role was and what their role was, our westernized perspectives also reinforced these ideas. By studying only certain literature that was created by the western perspectives then enhanced these beliefs and made it real for us. As Katia mentioned in class, we were forming our own personal bubble where we did not see other perspectives or information. A good way to begin working past these biases is to first realize the biases and lens that a forming your perspectives. By recognizing what is fogging your vision one is then able to move towards challenging these perspectives by embracing and learning about new cultures, taking part in getting to know individuals instead of lumping them together. Once we have realized the lens that is in our way, we can then work towards cleaning these lenses to get a true and realistic view of the world around us, this can be done through education and becoming knowledgable about a vast variety of topics. One must want to challenge these values if they are interested in making a change in their lives.
Lots of the single stories that I learned throughout my grade school experience were also discussed throughout the lecture yesterday. To start, our school focused largely on studying western literature that obtained to our life, and the only time we studied other literature of diverse cultures often included stereotypes and false information that we then clumped all individuals of that culture as the same. I remember specifically this was seen through our First Nations community. The stereotypes of the First Nations communities that were spread both of individuals, for example, news stories of a First Nations individual getting arrested, we were then taught to believe that all First Nations people lived the same lifestyle. This is a single story that I then placed on all First Nation people. When discussing cultures and communities overseas where we often would send Christmas boxes too, we only ever learned that they were in need of these boxes of supplies. We were never taught about anything else of their culture, their country, or how they differ from one another. With that, I placed the single story that all these children in the specific country were in need of these boxes and had no money. By placing these single stories the people who only share these single stories, instead of diverse stories are the ones who’s truth matters. They are the ones being heard, and through fake news and other media representations, their story becomes what everyone believes. By having these single stories, we then dehumanize a particular community and force them into a narrow box where their diversity is never heard.
I am not a fan of math, I never have been, however, after watching the TED talk, reading Jagged Worldviews Colliding, and Teaching mathematics and the Inuit Community I have come to learn that I need to reopen myself to the concept of math. As the TED talk states, we are all born to be mathematicians, it just depends if some take interest in math and if others do not. For many, including myself, math is seen as complex problems that do not have much meaning to the world we live in. However, maybe that is just how we were taught math and because other perspectives of the mathematical world were never taken into consideration when we were being taught.
My math experience is one that brings on my anxiety. I remember sitting in the classroom dreading the teacher coming in to teach a new lesson, a lesson I already convinced myself I would not understand. Our math lessons were straight out of the textbook and our teacher barely looked up for a few seconds to see if we were all following along. They often gave us two examples and then we were sent on our way to individually work through the many worksheets that went along with the assignment. When thinking about diverse learners in the classroom and how everyone learns differently, that was never considered in the math classroom. Our teachers surpassed all examples that used visuals or manipulatives such as the blocks to learn with and only stuck to the mental math, and pen and paper math examples. They had a certain way that they wanted all of us to learn math, and if our parents tried to teach it in a different way to help us understand we were usually marked wrong. The examples and worksheets we focused on were abstract questions that we had no idea how this would apply to our life in the world. We never looked at how other cultures viewed math, and if we did it was often “measure the circumference of this tipi” which as we learned last week is not a productive and accurate representation to acknowledge cultures in the classroom. My experience in math as the article written by Louise Poirier stated was singular and static.
“Mathematical knowledge is a social construction where the social processes of dialogue and critique are necessary. If mathematical knowledge is a social construction, then the learner’s culture and community will play an important role in learning”
~Louise Poirier~
LeRoy Little Bear in Jagged Worldviews Colliding reflects how even though there is a dominant worldview does not mean that it is the only way to interpret and understand the world around us. In a math context, we can then understand that there is not one way of interpreting math, and with that other cultural beliefs and understandings of math should be acknowledged and taught. In this context specifically, we are looking at how Eurocentric worldviews clash with the Inuit worldviews that are related to mathematics. All cultures have developed their understanding of math, along with other subjects to support their needs in the environment they live in. The first way I noticed the Inuit perspective of mathematics was quite different is they follow a base-20 numeral system, whereas the Eurocentric follow a base-10 numeral system. The Inuit follow the base-20 system because as Gale stated in lecture, they use their ten fingers and their ten toes. The second difference I noticed while reading through the article by Louise Poirier was that the Inuit beliefs have a different level of importance given to spatial awareness. The current curriculum gives little emphasis or importance on geometry and space, however, for the Inuit communities they put a large emphasis on these teachings because of their relationship with the environment around them. The next point I noticed when reading through the article was the way they represented numbers. They represent numbers orally, as their tradition and culture are essentially all oral. They do not have another means of representing numbers and they express numbers in many different ways depending on the context to ensure all individuals understand. The Eurocentric views put heavily on the importance of pen and paper math, something the Inuit do not see the importance in. Another point I found very interesting is that the Inuit people measure with the tools they have, whether it be a body part or something nearby. They do not rely on made measuring tools such as rulers and other tools to measure their project, they just use what they have! The last point I noticed that was different between the Eurocentric worldviews is the Inuit’s traditional calendar. Their calendar is divided into months but it is neither solar or lunar. It is based on nature and is independently recurring yearly events. How long one month is, depends on how long it takes for a natural event to occur.
This week’s reading really got me thinking and connecting to other aspects of the course that we have studied thus far. The biggest connection I made was to the week we discussed curriculum as a place and the importance of taking the communities context into your teachings. Understanding that different cultures have different values and beliefs around subject matters, it is interesting to me that there is still a large emphasis on teaching math in a singular matter. There is a huge importance of teaching math in different ways, as well as recognizing differences between cultures and embracing these differences in the classroom.
Another week, another debate! And this week it was a great debate that brought on some great class discussion! This week Lauren and Kylie battled it out debating the topic is social media ruining childhood. Lauren took the agree side and made some great points to consider in her video, and Kylie took the disagree side and also made some great points throughout her video! At the beginning of this debate I did not overly know where I stood, however, through previous debates I have learned the many advantages technology and online connections give to some individuals and with that, I disagreed with this statement! Our pre-vote conclusion was the closest one yet so I knew I was in for a good debate last night! 
Let’s dive right in and see the points that both Lauren and Kylie used to support their sides of the debate!
Starting with the agree side Lauren gave four points to support why she believes that social media is ruining childhood. Let’s take a look:
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
and some of her peers committed suicide because of the bullying that happened through this platform. Liz said that social media and these consequences made their class grow up so quickly and parts of their innocence were lost. Lauren also stated that there are now apps out there such as whisper that allow individuals to create anonymous accounts to share secrets and form new relationships. As both Liz and Lauren mentioned in their comments, cyberbullying is affecting children’s mental health. Many young individuals are impacted by cyberbullying and social media is one of the main platforms for cyberbullying to take place, as we can see through the examples above. This article supports this statement that social media is one of the leading causes of bullying in general since social media is everywhere, private, and bystanders often do not see it as clearly.
no longer belongs to you. Lauren states that how can young children form a positive digital identity if they are not taught about it! I look at this point and I think it is safe to say that because we know that many young children are getting social media before the age restriction, maybe we as educators need to take that into consideration and begin teaching about digital identity earlier then we are.Now that we have looked at the agree side, we now must consider the disagree side. Kylie gave many great points to support her argument. Let’s take a look:
Image by www_slon_pics from Pixabay
the future, and get creative! These are all skills that will support them in becoming life long learners! In the class discussion Kendall brought up the fact that she had a great imagination as a kid and she stated that through social media imagination could be explored, or social media would take that imagination away. Aurora supported Kendall in this point by stating that she believes social media enhances a child’s imagination because as the article above states social media allows children to collaborate and learn with others. Aurora stated that there are only so many ideas that our individual brains can come up with and with that having social media as a tool to learn and adapt ideas is a great way to allow children to become creative and critical thinkers!
Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
some of these problems, however, we have seen bullying before the age of technology and it is important to also notice the good social media can do to spreading the word. Let’s take the momo challenge for example, without the use of Twitter and other social media platforms it could have taken much longer for this problem to come to a halt! These platforms also allow individuals who do not fit in with their peers at school or other social events fit in with their online community. Kylie gave the example of the Minecraft community where a group of individuals talked a boy out of committing suicide because they were there to support him and respect him.
Class Discussion:
After hearing both sides of the debate the class then was given the opportunity to discuss their beliefs and understandings of the topic. Katia pointed out that we are coming to this debate with an idealized vision of what childhood is, so what is our idealized vision of childhood and how is this problematic? This was a really great point and it made me think about how we all come into a conversation with different perspectives and understandings. Tianna pointed out that the way she idealizes childhood is different from her parents, which is then different from her grandparents understanding. With that, I think it is important to understand that every generation of childhood both has good things that people want to continue with their children and the bad things that they want to forget. If we are stuck in these generations before technology we are only going to see the bad in what technology and social media has to offer and never be able to open up to the endless possibilities it supplies. To continue off this point the class also discussed that each era has always seen some form of technology as problematic, if it is not phones then it is the newspaper that people are being anti-social with, so why does technology and social media get such a bad rap? Shaleen supports this point that we as human beings have always searched for some kind of distraction that allows us to avoid social situations, we have always been anti-social so why is it seen as so problematic now? The last point I want to touch on is Tianna made a good point that she wonders if it is not just technology that is impacting children, but how the parents use technology with their children. Parents often use technology to make their children be quiet in social settings and when they need to get something done, maybe it is the parents making the children so attached to their devices and not the devices in themselves!
Conclusion:
This debate truly was a busy one and with that a long post! The post-debate results heavily shifted to the disagree side an I am not sure if I was surprised or not!
For myself, I stayed with my original decision that social media does not ruin childhood. From the points listed above as well as the class discussion my opinion of this topic was enhanced through this new knowledge. I believe that social media allows for so many opportunities for youth and with that, it is important that we teach them how to build a positive digital identity that they will carry with them throughout their lives!
Another busy week in the semester has come and gone and with that another debate! This week we debated the topic of is technology a force for equity in society. After watching both Ryan and Kaytlyn debate it out, I have to say I was glad I did not pick this topic as it was a tricky one! However, they both did a wonderful job supporting their sides of the debate! To begin I think it is important to allow my readers to ensure they know the difference between equity and equality as our class discussion also went in different directions because it is easy to confuse the two! Check out this short video to remind you of the key differences!
Now that we have an understanding of what equity and equality mean we can now look at if technology is a force for equity or if it is not. Looking at the prevote percentages one can understand that more of the EDTC400 class agreed that technology is not a sense of equity in society. For myself I was on the agree side, understanding that technology allows for many individuals to live a fulfilling life allowed me to conclude that yes technology allows for equity.
Ryan and Kaytlyn as mentioned above did wonderful jobs in supporting their side to the debate. Let’s look at what some of their arguments were:
Ryan took on the task of agreeing that yes technology is a force for equity in society. Throughout his video and with the articles he supplied to the class he gave many examples to support his side. Ryan made the point that as technology is always advancing and improving, allows for greater access and helps individuals improve their place in the world. Let’s take a look at the three main points, Ryan stated:
improve the quality of life for individuals with varying abilities. Some of these examples are wheelchairs, glasses, hearing aids, and many more examples. By giving individuals with varying abilities these technological advancements allow them to have a better chance of employment, individual mobility, and overall improves their quality of life. Take Stephen Hawking, for example, he was one of the greatest scientists known, while living with motor neuron disease. He was truly an inspiration to many people and his legacy will live on. The very sad reality of individuals with varying abilities having access to these technological advancements is the fact that individuals who do not need these advancements to help them throughout their daily life now think it is unfair that individuals with varying abilities are given these aids. Aurora gave a very good point to this is when you are the person with the privilege and power and someone is given aids to make it more equitable, those individuals feel as though they are being attacked and also need those advancements. This is not just with technology but any actions that are made in society to lead to a more equitable world.After Ryan gave his points to explain how technology is a force for equity in society, we can now look at how Kaytlyn supported her argument suggesting that technology is not a force for equity in society. Let’s take a look:
Photo Credit: Christoph Scholz Flickr via Compfight cc
libraries, and other programs such as the program that Ashlee works at that gives students the ability to have free access to these forms of technology, however, if the child is unable to get to these institutions, or they simply do not have the time that makes it very hard for them to further their learning outside the classroom. Mark Barnett also supports the idea of technology in the classroom to enhance one’s learning, however, a lot of schools do not even have access to these simple devices that allow students to work inside the classroom as well. However, engineer companies are coming together trying to form affordable devices to allow all individuals to have access to these devices in their home and at school. However, as both Katia and Kaytlyn gave articles to support there are organizations that are helping individuals who do not have access to these forms of technology, receive these devices. Programs such as Tech Goes Home a nonprofit organization whose main goals is to give lower-income families access to these digital platforms. With that, as we saw in Tuesday’s discussion, these inequalities go much farther than just technology, the individuals who are affected are also affected in many other areas of society and with that society needs to be investigated as a whole to understand what needs to be done to see change. It is not just the issue of getting iPads into the hands of students, but much larger than that.
Class Discussion:
Along with the points that each debater stated to support their side, the class discussion also raised some very important parts that need to be considered when discussing and finding solutions to this controversial topic. Kendall asked the question of who gets a voice? The individuals who have access to these technology devices or everyone? As well as who are the individuals who are seen to need these advancements? The schools of middle and higher class students or schools of lower class families? Katia also made the point that not everything thing in schools is equitable and not everyone can participate so what does that mean for technology? Are we saying that no one should have access to the technology to make it equal? Throughout the class discussion, the point that was also raised was not all schools have the budget for these advancements, with that it goes past student to student equity but school to school and division to division. The overarching question to sum up this debate is the one Tianna stated at the end of the discussion. What barriers need to be removed to allow it to be equitable? What barriers stand in our way when looking at this specific topic? There is not just one wall in all of this, there are so many scenarios and contexts that impact the accessibility to these devices and what some believe to be equitable is not viewed the same as others.
Conclusion:
After the class discussion, the class than needed to do the post-vote for the debate. Like many of my other classmates I changed my vote to disagree with this statement, however, after doing further research and further analysis I then again changed my perspective once again!
As one can see above there are so many aspects of society that need to be considered to understand if technology is a force of equity in society. I am still in between when it comes to this topic, however, with the points Ryan stated to support his argument, I agree that technology can be a force of equity in society if we see some changes in how society views equity and social constructs. Technology can support so many individuals, however, as we understand not all individuals are given the opportunity to receive these resources. However, I believe that our debate discussion led more into bigger social problems that need to be addressed such as school budgets, and other accessibilities that all individuals need to be given. Understanding that if social constructs and ideologies would change, the technology could then allow for equity. I understand that so many other factors need to be considered when discussing this topic, but if we look at technology all on its own without adding all of the other variables, I truly believe that technology is a force for equity.
