Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Second Class - Furl Account, Videos, Second Life, Social Networking

I was completely blown away when we discussed the lack of childrens/young adults control of their lives and learning. Imagine having a parent consult on registration of classes throughout your college career, attend classes or talk to college professors, or attend an interview! My parents made learning a priority and were concerned with my educational choices, goals, and quality but they didn't make and lead me through all of the occompanying descisions. How are we going to grow and develop into self-sustaining adults if everything is outlined, completed, and explained to us? How will our children raise their children? How will our society grow and prosper if we can't think, work, and create independently?
We started our furl accounts at http://furl.net/ Alanna helped us understand how to add our classmates to our blog sites and Michelle showed us how to add our classmates furl accounts to bloglines. I challenged myself and was actually able to add all our furl accounts to both my blog and bloglines. This was a great review of manipulating within blogs and bloglines sites.
At the end of class we discussed online video sources, second life - web life, and social networking on www.bebo.com, www.facebook.com, and www.myspace.com. Be careful finding appropriate videos on uncensored sites- try to use more relyable sites like www.unitedstreaming.com Second life is a virtual world that people can "live" in and interact with others. This world can be over powering and many people around the world have dimished their real world connections and interactions preferring this make believe online world. It was noted that these social sites are not censored, screened, or rated and can be dangerous and inappropriate.
Importantly mentioned in class was the fact that things that are posted on the web and/or in these social networking sites can affect future aspects of your life, will never really be deleted, and can be seen by anyone with just a few clicks of a mouse.

6 comments:

Janet said...

This is a great summary of our discussion today. The many ways the technology can be used, and the precautions educators need to make when using it, can seem overwhelming at first!

Nancy said...

Rachel,
You have lots of interesting ideas. I specifically liked your reminders that we need to closely monitor the sites that children visit. Even Google Images can come up with some very inappropriate images for young children.
Nancy

a said...

Rachel,
I was also blown away by our discussion in class today about how overbearing parents can be. I knew some parents were overprotective, but registering for college and participating in a job interview is very surprising to me. I agree with what you said about being careful with the sites we choose, because they can come up with inappropriate things when we least expect it.
~Alanna

Rachel said...

I saw a movie last weekend where a child googled murder and looked at grotesque images of murder victims. It goes to show you that children computer use needs to be monitored closely.

Vincent said...

"This world can be over powering and many people around the world have diminished their real world connections and interactions preferring this make believe online world."

I think that technology in general is having this impact on our society. Cell phones and online chatting/gaming are at the forefront of this social deterioration. I already too often see families going out to eat together with absolutely no interaction among them since they are to busy with their cell phones, game boys or ipods.

Gwinyeo Kwak said...

Every coin has two sides. Using technology has also advantages and disadvantages. I agree that there are
inappropriate images and articles for students for children.