As you have probably guess, I was not lucky in Innsbruck, and so did not have internet access from my hotel yesterday. I am now at the Microlearning conference here, which I will address tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, here is yet another MySpace article, which I am linking to not because it's the same-old same-old, but because of the incredible variety of behaviours it reports (and reports as being objectionable). For example: "a student had posted a snapshot on MySpace of his answer sheet for a standardized test. He had blown off the assessment and bubbled in answers in a pattern that formed the message, 'I hate tests.'"
I thought that was pretty funny, because it's just the sort of thing I would have done in school. And I can remember some pretty creative submissions in the tests I have marked. I can also remember things like bullying, cheating, and everything else described in this article.
And it seems to me that the problem isn't MySpace - the problem is the school. I mean, why not look at these behavours - now that they are public - and ask why students engage in them. Instead of trying to hide everything again by blocking MySpace, or to punish people after the fact, why not ask, 'what would lead a student to think that this is appropriate?' Or (as I suspect) are we afraid to?
Meanwhile, here is yet another MySpace article, which I am linking to not because it's the same-old same-old, but because of the incredible variety of behaviours it reports (and reports as being objectionable). For example: "a student had posted a snapshot on MySpace of his answer sheet for a standardized test. He had blown off the assessment and bubbled in answers in a pattern that formed the message, 'I hate tests.'"
I thought that was pretty funny, because it's just the sort of thing I would have done in school. And I can remember some pretty creative submissions in the tests I have marked. I can also remember things like bullying, cheating, and everything else described in this article.
And it seems to me that the problem isn't MySpace - the problem is the school. I mean, why not look at these behavours - now that they are public - and ask why students engage in them. Instead of trying to hide everything again by blocking MySpace, or to punish people after the fact, why not ask, 'what would lead a student to think that this is appropriate?' Or (as I suspect) are we afraid to?
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