Browsing around some TechEd sites, I came across this piece by a grad student at UC: Berkley about the relationship between students and teachers as it relates to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Yes, it’s seven pages, but worth a read. I admit I was skeptical about Ms. Boyd’s viewpoints, especially after reading Andy Carvin’s blog post about a teacher who was fired for encouraging students to visit her MySpace profile:

I still see a role for educators to use MySpace and other sites, even if it’s just to have a presence there. That way, students realize that they don’t have the run of the place, and that their teachers aren’t as technologically clueless as they might otherwise think.
- Andy Carvin

In my opinion, a great deal of the appeal social networking sites offer to students is the distance it places between them and the adult-centric world in which teenagers live. Educators who proactively attempt to “have a presence” on sites like Facebook, according to Carvin, should do so as an intimidation tactic, the equivalent of a parent putting a GPS locater in your car. It simply plays into the [what I thought was a] delusion most teenagers have of adults always interfering in their private lives. This is irresponsible.

But after reading Ms. Boyd’s essay, I saw how educators could potentially use these sites as a tool to help students. According to Boyd, teachers should make sure they:

Do not go surfing for your students, but if they invite you to be Friends, say yes. This is a sign that they respect you. Write a kind comment back to them if appropriate and make certain to respond to comments that you receive. If something concerns you, privately ask why they chose to put a particular item up on their page, rather than criticise their profiles. Ask about their lives; don’t demand that they behave as you’d wish. Show that you care, not that you dictate.
- Danah Boyd

Teachers acting in such a manner could conceivably serve as a vital support network for certain students. Unfortunately, this rule seems to be the one few if any adults operate under when interacting on social networking sites “for the benefit of the children.” From the stories we all hear of educators researching job candidates on Facebook, to parents punishing their children for pictures they find on MySpace, the main reason adults will use these sites is exactly what Boyd says not to do - they go searching for their students/applicants/kids. In other words, what began as a method of escaping the control of adults becomes another way for parents to track their kids. Though, admittedly, it is a small, small fraction of parents who actively use MySpace to keep an eye on their kids.

But when you get to the bottom line, teenagers are always going to be a step ahead technology-wise. If adults “infiltrate” the social networking sites, kids will find a new place to escape to from the rules and regulations of normal life. But if you’re an adult who, for whatever reason, wants to get involved in Facebook or MySpace (my mom actually has a Facebook account - but neither me nor my sister accepted her friend request), try to stick more to Boyd’s philosophy than Carvin’s (no disrespect intended).

#m

I finally met Sean McCord last week at the Blogger Meetup, and just found out a few days ago that he is thinking about running for the Charlottesville School Board. Major kudos to him. If I were of voting age, slash actually lived in Charlottesville, I’d vote for him. Just wanted to show him some support in the early stages, and say that I for one hopes he goes through with it. Good luck, Sean!

 

According to a recent study held at Michigan State University, iPods - when held in close proximity to a pacemaker - can cause the lifesaving devices to malfunction, even stop working. Although I’d like to believe it was just iPods specifically that do this (it would give me ample reason to criticize Apple again), the problems are likely due to the magnetic field generated around all electronic devices, even though iPods were the only devices tested in the study. The findings have resulted in calls for better shielding around electronics, an important preventative measure considering how many portable gizmos can be found on the average person these days.

And I always thought the airlines were screwing with us, not letting you use your iPod during takeoff…

From TechNewsWorld

Media Rights Technologies, a company that makes software to protect encrypted audio streams from digital capture and recording, has issued cease-and-desist letters to Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe, among others. Their complaint deals with the fact that these companies have not implemented MRT’s software into their products such as iTunes and RealPlayer, which apparently “violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.” And get this, they intend to work towards pulling the infringing software off the market. Yes, MRT - a little company no one’s ever heard of is going to force Microsoft to stop selling Vista, and Apple to cancel their iPod seller, the iTMS.

This is just a shameless publicity ploy. Because let’s be honest - regardless of whatever anti-audio-capturing software is installed on my computer, as soon as I send the signal through a 3.5mm cable, you can say good-bye to any encryption and record the stream through the mic input on another computer (tell me if I’m wrong…). All the steps companies take encrypt digital media and prevent its copying are so futile. Anyone with ten minutes and an internet connection can bypass them. You’re on the losing side, MRT…

I thought we were past this point in the media rights wars…

And by the way, I illegally captured your logo off your site and used it on mine without permission. Oops.

From ZDNet

Thanks to everyone who came to the blogger meet-up at Mudhouse on Saturday! I was really surprised by the turnout we got - must have been seven or eight others there besides me. We had a good time, though I hope we didn’t scare Elizabeth too much with the endless talk about old Content Management Systems and XHTML and so on and so on.

There was a nice long conversation about the Charlottesville Flickr group, and I realized how many bloggers have super-sweet digital cameras. The extent of my photo-taking abilities lies with my Nokia cell phone, and let’s just say the image-optimization on that thing is very limited. Eh, I’m more of a video camera person, anyway.

The meeting also made me realize something that I hadn’t thought about in a while: I’ve actually be blogging for almost 3.5 years now! It hasn’t all been on this blog, but I started back in January 2004 on good-ol’ Blogger. Heh, it was strictly a person-blog, with rants about my friends and family… Pretty boring, really. Though I do occasionally miss the anonymity that came with a two-month-old blog that no one related to me knew about. As it stands, any of my relatives can just search for “michael strickland” on Google and instantly come up with my blog… so much for putting anything too personal on there. I guess that just serves as a filter against the really intimate details of my life that no one would want to hear about anyway. So it’s all good.