Writing for Cyberspace

Blog 11: Consequences

2008-04-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Teachers need to be aware that they can be held responsible for all the information they post online. Students, or even school administrators, can get access to their pages and if they feel that they are reading inappropriate material, action may be taken against the teacher. Let's review the consequences of the previous cases.
John Bush, a 52 yr. old physical education teacher, was fired for having an inappropriate, not pornographic, photogrpah on his website. He is currently fighting to get his job back.
Stacy Snyder, a student at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, was denied her teaching degree due to an "unprofessional" photo on her Myspace. The picture of her drinking with a Pirate's Hat on her head and a caption "Drunken Pirate" costs her a degree. The school refused to issue her a teaching degree and instead granted her an English degree.
These are just two examples of teachers whose private lives got intervened by a school board. Do you feel that teachers should lose their job for posting their lives on the Internet? Is it fair for them?

Blog 10: Introduction/ Home page

2008-04-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

How much authority do you feel school administrators should have over teachers' personal, non-school affiliated social networking websites? Is it a violation of the Constitution to restrict teacher's free speech? This has been a very controversial issue ever since Myspace has taken over people's lives. Future teachers should be aware of the consequences of posting or befriending their students on Myspace. They are introducting their students' to different aspects and roles of their lives that may be considered inappropriate. There has been numerous threats sent out to teachers stating, "Watch what you post online," "not to join," or "the dangers of participating on Myspace outweigh the benefits." Teachers who are currently involved in Myspace and post information about their personal lives should be aware that this could lead to license revocations, suspensions, and written reprimonds. This website is designed for anyone, including teachers, future teachers, and students, who should be aware of the different situations that Myspace can enact.

Blog 9: Rules/Regulations

2008-04-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

Currently, there are no existing laws that prevent teachers from having a social networking site such as Myspace. It seems to go according to town whether or not teachers can contribute to them. For example, Clark-Pleasant in Whiteland, is trying to pass a policy that places teachers and students legally responsible for what they post online. It seems like the cyberspace world is affecting students and teachers more and more each day.
According to eSchool news, the Ohio Education Association, also known as the OEA, advises future teachers to not join these sites. If they are on them now, they are warned to delete them. They stated that existing members should remove their profiles, and although it seems extreme, the dangers outweigh the benefits in these situations. In Landum, St. John's County School Board says teachers are allowed to have personal webpages but they can not post anything that is described as inappropriate. I feel that if teachers are to operate a Myspace page, they should be aware that their students may have access to everything they post. I do not think there should be rules though regarding whether or not a teacher should have a social networking site such as Myspace.

Attention

2008-04-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

1. On a daily basis, I interact with different media. When I am in class, I text my friends back if my phone goes off. When I'm home, I am either on the computer, exercising while using the ipod, or watching television only at night though or a movie. These different forms of media are a lot different from when I was younger. When I was between 5 and 10 yrs old, I read a lot more and was involved in a lot more outdoor activities than I am now. I didn't have a computer until my 6th grade in school so i was unaware of the different technologies besdies sega or nintendo, which did consume a lot of my time.

2. I spend time with my:
ipod: an hour a day
tv: maybe 30 min a day
radio 2 hrs a day (morning and night)
computer: approx 45 min to an hour
magazines: an hour a week
phone: allll the time throughout the day

3. When I write a paper, I usually have music on in theb ackground or the television. But sometimes, if I am getting too distracted, I have to shut it off because I will not finish my work. While driving, I always have te music on, especially if I am by myself. When I eat with my family, the television is sometimes on but nobody pays attention to it. While eating with my friends, there may be music on in the background, but if not, then it's just our conversation. When I am doing household chores, I need music or a movie to be on in the background. Even when I sleep, I need to either have the television or the radio on to fall asleep too.

4. When I relax in my spare time, I am usually reading one of the gossip magazines (highly addictive) or just relaxing and listening to music. I enjoy going on the Internet when I have nothing else to do. I text and am on and off the phone everyday.

5. Chores: washing dishes: 3, cleaning room: 4, vacuuming 3 3+4+3=10/3=3
Eating with family 2, friends, 2, by myself 5 4+5=9/3=3
Relaxation: driving 4, running 5, computer, 5, 14/3=4.2
School: studying 3, writing a paper 2, reading 4 = 9/3=3

I would say overall I am a little more on the hyperattention side than the deep attention.

6. I am more hyperattention because I can concentrate more when I am doing more than one thing. When I multitask, I feel like I can improve the amount of work that I get done. My mind gets very bored easily and I constantly have to be on the go. For the categories that I rated myself a 1, it is only because I know I really really really need to concentrate on one particular thing to understand it. I can not be focusing on everything else.

Lauren Collins - Friend Game

2008-04-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

After reading about the suicide of Megan Meier due to ridicule and a fake account on the computer, I became more aware of the negative effects about Myspace. As we disucussed in class, Myspace, or the Internet, has no laws regulating fake accounts, therefore, it is accepted on the Internet. Anonymity on myspace is not illegal. Different features of the Internet, including anonymity, information intensity, interactivity, and the quick exchanges of information all together allowed this to happen. Because of this, Lori Drew was able to create a fake account with her 2 friends and daughter, posing as an 18 yr. old boy named Josh Evans. Apparently, the mother was trying to defend and retaliate for her daughter, who was getting made fun of. This relates to Rheingold's topic of flashmobs, when a group of people can gang up on an individual, as they did to thirteen yr. old Megan Meier.
This topic draws up many different questions about what should be legal and illegal over the Internet. Should there be a law against gake myspace accounts? Should you need to type in an ID number or personal information to verufy that you are who you say you are? The topic of responsibility is also boughten up. Are the parents responsible for their underage children going onto websites on the Internet? Or is myspace or the IPS at fault for allowing this to happen?
I think unfortunately there can be no law to regulate situations like this over the Internet. If any law was made, it limits other situations that can be beneficial. I think if people are going to create fake myspace accounts, it should depend on their intentions for doing so. If their intentions are to "frighten, disturb, or harass" then I believe yes, there should be consequences. But then again, how can you prove what someone's intentions are?

For April 7, 2008

2008-04-06T23:31:00.001-07:00

Ryan did not show up for class on Wednesday so I was a little confused as to what do to with Frontpage. I tried the tutorial and just playing around with different layouts. Unfortunately, the computers in the computer lab are only limited to so much so I did not reach my full tutorial potential that I think I could have. I went home and experimented with Frontpage and learned the different website designs and layouts. I am still a little confused but I printed out the website study guide for it. I have my whole website designed out and planned my essays for each section. I just need to find a little more information on certain sections and I am done researching for my topic.

Web Design Layout

2008-03-31T09:35:00.000-07:00

For my website, I am thinking about doing a linear design. I am going to have my major heading going across the top on all pages and having a menu box on the left side with links to my different pages. I plan on having a home link on the right side of the page. I am going to have a homepage, which is going to give a general summary of my website and the intent of it. Then on the left side of the page, there is going to be a box with links to my other pages. I am going to have a page regarding the rules and regulations of being a teacher in the myspace world and in our reality. My other linkes are going to include specific cases, consequences, and how to stay on a student-teacher level. I want my site to be informative, but also helpful.

Wikiepedia Experience

2008-03-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

I thought I knew a lot about wikipedia (well, the basics of it) before this class. It turns out, after all, I was oblivious as to what when on. I didn't know hot to post anything on there, or that anyone could post anything for that matter as long as its relevant. I didn't realize their were strict guidelines and rules to follow in order to contribute to the wikipedia encyclopedia. The link to my entry is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_privacy.

My entry was posted as:

Teachers’ privacy on myspace has created controversy across the world. They are forewarned by The Ohio News Association ^[12] that if they have a myspace account, it should be deleted. Eschool News warns, “Teachers watch what you post online.” ^[13] The ONA also posted a memo advising teachers not to join these sites. Teachers can face consequences of license revocations, suspensions, and written reprimonds.

The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote an article on April 27, 2007 entitled A Myspace Photo Costs a Student a Teaching Certificate about Stacy Snyder. She was a student of Millersville University of Pennsylvania who was denied her teaching degree because of an unprofessional photo posted on myspace, which involved her drinking with a pirates’ hat on and a caption of “Drunken Pirate. Due to this, she was given an English degree.

John Bush, a 52 year old physical education teacher from St. Augustine, was fired over an inappropriate, not pornographic, picture that was posted on myspace. ^[14] What is considered inappropriate is up to the discretion of the school board.

Luckily, my entry was still there before I left for vacation for spring break and it is still there. How much longer will it be there? That I don't know but it's fun to watch and see what will happen.

Wikipeida Entry

2008-03-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

==Teachers and Myspace==
Teachers’ privacy on myspace has created controversy across the world. They are forewarned by The Ohio News Association http://blogs.sun.com/learningcurve/tags/myspace that if they have a myspace account, it should be deleted. Eschool News warns, “Teachers watch what you post online.” http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/related-top-news/?i=50557;_hbguid=49a1babb-b469-4a85-a273-292a0514d91d The ONA also posted a memo advising teachers not to join these sites. Teachers can face consequences of license revocations, suspensions, and written reprimonds.
The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote an article on April 27, 2007 entitled A Myspace Photo Costs a Student a Teaching Certificate about Stacy Snyder. She was a student of Millersville University of Pennsylvania who was denied her teaching degree because of an unprofessional photo posted on myspace, which involved her drinking with a pirates’ hat on and a caption of “Drunken Pirate. Due to this, she was given an English degree.
John Bush, a 52 year old physical education teacher from St. Augustine, was fired over an inappropriate, not pornographic, picture that was posted on myspace. http://www.news4jax.com/education/10835756/detail.html What is considered inappropriate is up to the discretion of the school board.

Wikipedia Entry

2008-03-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

I was going to try to post under the "myspace" section of Wikipedia but it has a block over the editing part. I went under teachers and found a "misconduct" section which I am going to try to post there.

Teachers owning a Myspace website can also be considered misconduct. Although their page may be set to private, school officials such as the Ohio Education Association, (http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=50557;_hbguid=49a1babb-b469-4a85-a273-292a0514d91d) have warned that they should watch what they post online. “OEA advises members not to join [these sites], and for existing users to complete the steps involved in removing their profiles." Teachers are warned that the consequences outweigh the benefits of having this site.

Teachers have been resulting in license revocations, suspensions, and written reprimonds for having what officials consider "inappropriate" material posted on their site. John Bush, a 52 year old physical education teacher, was fired for having an "inappropriate" photograph, not pornographic, on his webpage. (http://www.news4jax.com) The meaning of "inappropriate" is up to the discretion of the school board.

Stacy Snyder, from Millersville University of Pennsylvania, was denied a teaching degree due to an "unprofessional" picture posted on her site. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that on April 27, 2007, "A Myspace Photo Costs a Student a Teaching Certificate." Her photo consisted of a picture of her drinking from a red, plastic Solo cup with a pirates hat on with the caption "Drunken Pirate." Due to this, she was only given a degree in English.

Research Plan

2008-03-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

For my project, I am going to be reasearching teachers who have a myspace account and their privacy rights. How much authority should school officials have in monitoring teachers non-school affiliated websites over the internet? Is this a violation of the First Amendment? I want to take a look at different situations where teachers have been found on myspace and the consequences they faced or potentially can face.

Purpose: I want to show that teachers should not be monitered over the Internet for information that is not school affiliated. If teachers and students are not friends on myspace, they should not be getting into trouble for what is posted on their sites. I understand they are role models for students, but if the students do not have access to their page, I feel they should be able to use a social network to connect with their friends, if it has no connection to their job.

List of information: So far, I have came across different cases where teachers either lost their job or face charges due to their myspace. There was a 52 yr. old gym teacher named John Bush who got in trouble for having an "inappropriate" (not pornographic) photograph of himself on myspace. The definition of "inappropriate" is up to the discretion of the school board and administration. There was also another case where a student was given an English degree instead of a teaching degree due to her "unprofessional" myspace photo.

Sources:
http://personalweb.about.com/b/2006/04/04/teacher-investigated.htm
http://itwire.com.content/view/11772/53/
www.eschoolnews.com
The Skyline View Online

Research Plan

2008-02-27T11:28:00.001-08:00

Research question: Are teacher’s privacy and rights being violated over the Internet? How much authority should administrators have over teacher’s personal, non-affiliated school website? Should their school district have access to the teacher’s myspace, even if it is set to private? Do they have the right to check up on teachers “off-of-school grounds” personal lives? Should there be punishment (ex: loosing their job) for the teacher if they find something they feel is inappropriate? Is that an invasion of their privacy? Or should teachers not be allowed to post anything considered inappropriate (ex: pictures of a teacher at a party, not necessarily drinking) on their home webpage? Also, there is information saying teachers are warned not to have a myspace. If you are a teacher, should you not be allowed to have a social network, such as a myspace or a facebook?

I want to show that teachers have lives outside of school and if they are not friends with their students on myspace, why should they have to watch what they post? I understand they are role models for students, but if the students do not have access to their page, I feel they should be able to use a social network to connect with their friends, if it has no connection to their job.

I need to gather information on what teacher’s rights are and the violation of the 1st amendment, Freedom of Speech. I also need to find more cases where teachers were punished and/or lost their job because of what they posted on the internet. I found a quote online from Eschoolnews.com that was a warning for teachers to delete their websites if they had them. It basically said that the dangers of having a website outweigh the benefits.

Sources:
http://personalweb.about.com/b/2006/04/04/teacher-investigated.htm
http://itwire.com.content/view/11772/53/

Topic for Project

2008-02-24T19:10:00.001-08:00

I am going to do my project on teachers and students on myspace. There is a lot of debate over whether teachers should get in trouble for being friends with students on the computer. Also, teachers are getting into trouble for material they are posting on the web, even if it is dealing with their lives completely detached from school. Should teachers have to watch what comments or pictures they post on the web because of their students? Should they be punished if their bosses come across their page and don't agree with their webpages?
In class, I came across different sites regarding this topic. There was a case that I found from "The Chronicle of Higher Education" involving a students and her Dean at college. They came across a picture of her drinking with a pirates hat on with the caption "Drunken Pirate." The Dean found this unacceptable and banned her from getting her teachers degree. Should he be allowed to do this? I think her profile was set to private too but he "went around that."
There are many other cases involving the same situations. A senior lacrosse student was held responsible for pictures of him drinking that were posted on the web. For every picture, he was banned for 2 games. This happened to over 100 students who were suspended from activities because of the alocholic pictures.
The web sites regarding this topic were a lot of new sites and forums. Members were allowed to give their comments and feedback about each situation. I found that a lot of parents were in concern over the the irresponsiblity of the teachers who posted the pictures. My personal opinion is that teachers should be allowed to have their own private websites where they can concerse with their friends and post pictures of their lifestyles if they wanted too. As long as the children are blocked from viewing their pages, why does it matter?

Blog 4 continued: Jenkins

2008-02-24T19:02:00.000-08:00

Why Heather can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars

Before reading this article, I was unaware of anything related to fan fiction. I learned people may write fan fiction for therapeutic reasons or maybe just for fun and to use their imagination. Jenkins writes about the Potter wars, which involved two problems. Companies wanted to ban access to books containing material around magic and wizards, and they also didn't want people to write fan fiction because they wanted to preserve the author's rights and ownership of the characters. I learned that this deal with a lot of disagreements involving freedom of speech. It's off how a parody of something can be legal while fan fiction can be illegal? I think as long as you are not making money off of someone else's work, then you should be able to write whatever stories you want involving the author's characters. It is a way to be creative.

Scott McCloud: From the Vocabulary of Comics

2008-02-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

McCloud begins his article "From the Vocabulary of Comics" with a picture of a pipe. He does this tho show his audience that the picture is not actually a pipe, but rather a "printed copy of a drawing of a painting of a pipe." He wants his readers to understand how we interpret cartoons. We use icons to resemble subjects. The picture on the page is symbolic of another subject. He calls humans a "self centered race" which I agree with him on. Majority of humans are self centered and always relate things to themselves. His comic strips made me think about what goes through my mind when looking at different images. I don't put as much thought into what the picture is symbolizing and how it's on the page.
So far, for my project, I have been somewhat indecisive. I was really interested in learning more about fan fiction, and what determines what's a crime by violating copyrighted material. It's interesting how far some people can stretch the law and how others break it out of innocence and fun. I was also considering learning more about the boundaries of myspace involving teachers. Should teachers and students be friends in the myspace world? Should they be allowed to look at that part of a student's life? Should a student be allowed to see the teacher's life out of school? There are a lot of different perspectives that can be looked at.

Rheingold "Smart Mobs: The Power of the Mobile Many"

2008-02-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

In class, we discussed Rheingold's article on smart mobs AKA flash mobs. He discussed how mass texting can lead to physical world actions of mobs. They use mass communications by use of media to help carry out there goal. I learned that they work by a "ad hac social network," which means they communicate by what goes on here and now. Rheingold discusses a cooperation threshold, which is basically the personal effectors that decide when they follow their leader. He also explains the concept of emergent properties, which are features of a group that characterize them as a single unit.
After discussing Rheingold, I searched on the Internet for different political smart mob events that may have occured recently in time. In 2006, there were student protests in Chile called the Penguins' Revolution. They were protesting for free bus fare and waiving a test fee. It was interesting because this information was found on a new search engine called Exalead, which I have never heard of or used before class on Wednesday.

Glister Summary

2008-02-06T11:13:00.001-08:00

"The Nature of Digital Literacy"

Glister begins his essay, “The Nature of Digital Literacy,” by showing how times have changed from the past. Instead of scrolling papers of papyrus, we are now scrolling pages on the internet. The Internet has become a core place for digital information. Glister continues in his essay to explain digital literacy, which he defines as the ability to understand and define information in multiple formats. Digital spaces, such as the Internet, have remediated the way people read. Digital literacy on the Internet shows interactive pages that can provide social networking. Also, Glister explains in his essay how print and technology are both intertwined and support each other. Digital networks simply extend print.
Glister continues on to discuss “The Great Paradigm Shift.” This is when you move from print literacy to digital. He explains how when one is watching the television, certain inappropriate material can either be filtered out or will not come on until past a certain time. On the Internet, however, nothing is blocked and majority has access to anything. Because of this, Glister calls the television an exclusive medium while the Internet is inclusive. The Internet has changed how the world works. More service providers have come out since the Internet was first established.

Summary of Hein, Bolter, and Grusin

2008-02-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

Michael Heim begins his essay, “VR 101,” by explaining that virtual reality, also known as VR, is a technology and not just an idea. This is a different way of portraying and perceiving the world. There are three characteristics that make up virtual reality. They are known as the 3 I’s, which are immersion, interactivity, and information intensity. Immersion makes the audience believe they are actually there. Interactivity hides the audience from knowing when the scenery or time is changing. They never know who they are interacting with. Information intensity shows the different techniques and qualities that are used to make the experience perfect. The term telepresence is often associated with information intensity. The idea behind telepresence is a control by a remote and knowing that technology is more in depth than we think. Heim continues on to discuss the different levels of immersion. He gives the example of helmets, which are head mounted displays and the CAVE, which is a surround screen and sound, projection based system. By understanding the three components of virtual reality, immersion, interactivity, and information intensity, you can see how virtual reality is real.

Bolter and Grusin write in the article, “Introduction: The Double Logic of Remediation,” about multiplying media and erasing all traces of mediation. By this, they are simply saying they want to “outdo” the previous technology set forth before it. They focus on the idea of immediacy, the feeling as if you are there, and hypermediacy, which is a whole bunch of media. Bolter and Grusin say that “Immediacy depends on hypermediacy.” By this, they are saying a lot of technology and media is behind everything in the world, especially what we see on television, for example on the news, and computers. Everything moves from one medium to another. We learn that a medium is a system for representing reality. Overall, Bolter and Grusin are writing on how there are lots of media out in the world, but they don’t want the audience to be conscious that they are there. The world is filled with people feeling immediacy, and little know the great technological advances that are behind it.

Meat-space versus Cyberspace

2008-02-04T08:53:00.000-08:00

I think writing in cyberspace is completely different than writing in meat space. When you are writing in general, you are doing it to get some sort of a reaction from your audience. It may be just to reveal information about a particular topic or to release feelings about a major event. When writing for these reasons in cyberspace by posting blogs of replying to topics, you are letting your feelings and responses be reviewed by others. Generally, everyone (unless the page is blocked or set to private) can get access to your page and read what you wrote about. Also, when writing on the Internet, your writings come up with many different search topics, meaning the audience can view many different opinions on the topic.
While writing for the real world aka "meat-space," the audience is different. Many things written in the real world can be acted out or read out loud by a news anchor. The media affects everything that is written in the real world. Television shows and movies all have lines that were written by writers but are not read by them. Credit is not given where is should be due. On the other hand, when writing books and novels in the meat space, many people can enjoy the writing but can not openly criticize or relate to it as they can do online.

First post

2008-01-28T11:40:00.001-08:00

Checking to see if it shows up...