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Vaccinations are Bad

Vaccinations are bad… yeah okay. Multiple studies and research have been conducted into finding out if vaccinations are bad – with parents’ biggest fears being the idea autism are caused by vaccinations. If you look up why vaccinations you’ll be bombarded with articles with every reason in the book why vaccinations are bad. But the majority of the information is false news. I’d love to share some articles about this but I do not want to share articles that are false news and this topic is not very relevant to the post. It was just to get your attention, which was successful if you’re reading this post. But it does fit into the topic of fake news and opinions which fits into this week’s final EDTC 400 debate. The topic “Educators have a responsibility to use technology and social media to promote social justice and fight oppression”. One the agreement side we have Jesse and one the disagreeing side we have Daniel. So, let’s see what our final debate consisted of…

Facebook is just one of the social media outlets in which educators can use to promote social justice and fight oppression
Photo Credit: nodstrum Flickr via Compfight cc

Agree

Jesse laid the facts right across the table in this debate. When the topic of social justice and oppression were mentioned, often the topic of politics was brought up – more or less the #carbontaxrallygoing on. Here are some of the points for the agreement side of the debate given by Jesse and my other fellow classmates:

  • Staying neutral is problematic
    • Students may have questions about topics and by not discussing the topics, students may get the notion that you are against that particular topic and may veered by your avoidance on the issue
    • Students need to learn acts such as racism are not acceptable 
  • Staying silent isn’t that good
    • There is no such thing as digital citizenships if you are ignoring any issue in the world
    • If you do not talk about fake news and why the news is fake, students will continue to believe it unless they are taught the facts 
  • One must be smart about what they are saying online and while using technology
    • Share effective articles about news stories – use reliable sources
For educators, being a “silent Sam” may not actually be good
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One articlediscusses the good of sharing online. Social media isn’t just a site for one to share the latest assignment their students have completed or a cool idea to incorporate technology into a lesson, it can also be used for helping others. Teachers easily build up quite a network of Twitter followers, I’ve learnt this in my short time using Twitter. With these followers, teachers can share idea of students such as on teachers stating, “I have had success with students using social media to raise awareness for charity drivers,” where awareness for a charity were promoted with the use of technology. This is technology being used for good causes. 

‘Education is Political’: Neutrality in the Classroom Shortchanges Students discusses neutrality. The authors say, “neutrality is itself a political choice” meaning staying neutral may be expressing your opinion on the issue. Neutrality is not something which should occur with heavy topics such as the most recent on in Saskatchewan being the Carbon tax. Also, school is political. Look who runs the schools, the government, aka a political organization, therefore, schools are political. 

Jesse’s Video

Disagree

I must say, Daniel had a very strong argument to fight against. But once again, like all other disagreeing debaters, Daniel did not back down. Arguments for this side of the debate brought up by Daniel’s video and my other fellow EDTC400 classmates include: 

  • The education system is political
    • Teachers are criticized for doing their jobs. Parents believe only certain topics should be taught, or teachers have an easy career. Incorrect. As I continue my education degree, I have quickly learnt teachers also take the occupation of a coach, nurse, counsellor, and so much more. It’s really a multi-career job with little training in any other career than teaching. 
    • I could try explaining exactly what Daniel meant by this but he did such a great job I’ll just let you watch his video (and rack up those views for him)
  • Students are sponges, they live to learn (for the most part) and they absorb information
    • Students spend a lot of time with students. Look at it like this, students spend five days a week for 8 hours with teachers, from September to June. That is a lot of time. 
    • Students expect the teacher to be knowledgeable
      • Question: Did you trust your teacher when they told you 1+1=2? Of course, you did, you trusted the teacher could teach math correctly.  
  • Teachers may teach students their stance on an issue
    • A teacher may wish to tell the students their beliefs even if there are beliefs wrong.
    • Ex: If a teacher tells students in a Grade 12 Health class vaccinations cause autism and provide all the “facts” about why vaccinations are bad, some students may believe this and choose not to vaccinate their children due to these false facts given by the opinion of a teacher. 
    • Teachers must keep in mind student’s beliefs
      • As Liz mentioned in our debate, an Ontario School had a student’s write letters to the Prime Minister about a world issue and why it was a bad thing. This is forcing students to only see one side of the story and they may not agree with it.
        • Let’s look at Saskatchewan. Is having students write a letter to Scott Moe about why oil is bad a good assignment? What is there are students’ whose parents work on the oil fields? Is it just for students to write bad about the occupation that has put a roof over their head, food on the table and clothes on their backs?
Daniel’s video

One article covers problems which arise when teacher’s put their own beliefs in the classroom without thoroughly explaining what truly happens. A teacher took Grade 3 students to an oil pipeline protest, students though, were not told exactly why oil pipelines may be bad. Students from this class believe they were protesting because “The trees would get black because of the oil…and then the birds would have no homes,” (nine-year-old Zulfiqar Lena). There are problems with this. First, the teacher made this event a class trip, where students were not given the option whether or not to join. Secondly, student beliefs were not considered. Thirdly, students were not told why oil pipelines may be bad causing misbeliefs. 

Should students attend protests as field trips/assignments?
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The Verdict

Both sides of the debate have very good points. In the end, I believe do in fact believe “educators have a responsibility to use technology and social media to promote social justice and fight oppression,”. But educators must be cautious. Educators should follow the 5 steps to staying neutral when talking about issues as recommend by one article! Teachers should be knowledgeable to tell the difference between fact and opinion. If an educator is unsure of the topic, it is okay for the educator to tell students they will research it, and bring up the conversation once the teacher feels they have enough knowledge about the topic. Most importantly, students should taught to form their own opinions based on facts and should not be given a biased. I believe staying neutral and not including some of your bias into a conversation may seem challenging, it’s human nature, but as educators, we have to try. Now as I wrap this up, I have a couple questions for you. Are there any topics you wish not to discuss with students? Would you bring someone in the class to discuss that topic so your students could still be informed?

For additional readings check out:

Teacher shown door after Christian school discovers she had sex ‘outside of a heterosexual marriage’

Paula Simons: Jim Keegstra’s haunted legacy; Hate-monger forced Alberta to confront its dark demons

Social Media isn’t for Learning

Thanks for reading,

  • Miss. Lang 
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Meet the Flinstones

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk Flickr via Compfight cc

What is the stone age? Driving cars with our feet. Living in boulders in Bedrock. Your next-door neighbour is Fred Flinstone. Is that the life I want? Heck to the no. This week in EDTC 400, it was finally my turn to debate. The topic “We have become too dependent on technology and we’d be better off returning to the ‘good old days’ before the Internet and smartphones took over,”. My competition was Kiera. I’ll just break the news right here, I did not win the debate but I did make a little headway so I consider that an accomplishment. Here are the pre-vote results:

Agree

I was on the agreement side of this debate and I highly recommend watching my video to what/listen what I had to say (and because Powtoon’s are difficult to make and therefore took a lot of effort). But if you don’t have 5 minutes extra, I’ll just summarize what I had to say in the video and in the debate.

  • Technology is leading to injuries
  • Technology is affecting our memorization
    • We are simply not remembering things such as a birthday because we can search it up on our phones
  • Technology is causing us to lose skills
    • Ask yourself: When was the last time I used a physical map when on vacation? Or how often do I use a calculator just to “double check” work? 
  • Technology is not actually the best for students
    • Studies have found handwriting notes is actually BETTER for students than typing. 
  • Technology has us missing life’s moments
    • Studies have found 4 in 10 people have missed important moments including their child’s first steps. Why? Simply because they were looking at their cellphones
  • Development
    • While technology is affecting human development in positive ways such as letting us communicate with people across the world, it is also affecting our brain development. According to Ryan Thomas’ Ted Talk, children who spend time looking at screens are having less developed pre-frontal cortex’s which is our brains main supporter for skills such as problem-solving. 
Can you read a map?
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With this debate, I also provided many articles but I will discuss the two I thought were the most intriguing to me. The first article is not an article, but instead a video. Partik Wincent’s TED Talk entitled “What you are missing while being a digital zombie” is actually quite frightening to watch. The video opens up with Wincent ordering the audience to give their cellphone to the person next to them, for the ENTIRE TALK. Letting a stranger hold your phone? Who would be comfortable with that? Not me that’s for sure. Wincent talked about using video games as a babysitter for his son, and continually talked about missing moments in his son’s life. One comment made was “there is no app for a lap”. I think this is true. Children need interaction with their parents, they crave it and parents cannot give a child an iPhone to cuddle. We are becoming too dependent on technology as the talk mentions we go on our phones because they are pleasurable to us, in the same way a cigarette is. 

The second article I found interesting was 26 Once-Common Survival Skills We’ve Lost to Technology.While this article did not exactly relate to skills such as writing or navigation as I mentioned in my video, it discussed other skills. Skills such as knot tying, baking and I don’t mean adding water and a couple of ingredients to a box package, math (think of how many times you’ve typed something simple such as 1+1 to find out it still equals 2 but you had to just make sure), and writing a check – who has a cheque book? Or even carries cash with them? After reading the 29 points mentioned in this list, I can surely say I can do 14 of these things on the list but that may be due to the fact my parents were very strict of us knowing skills such as writing shorthand and all those fun skills. 

Disagree

Kiera, well, she won. She had strong arguments. While I tried to contradict the arguments, I did not get far. But that may also be partially because this class is literally about technology and in the 21stcentury where most people like cellphones and the internet and would not appreciate returning to the “good old days”. On the disagreement side, Kiera and the class debate brought up some very good points such as:

Technology allows us to connect

With technology, we are able to connect and collaborate with people from across the globe

Global movements such as the #buypens movement helped many Syrian refugees 

Technology creates power and opportunity

New jobs are as technology is constantly evolving 

Technology is efficient

Our phones are the niftiest little things in the world

We are able to check bank statements, pay bills and so much more just on our phones 

Kiera also shared some fabulous resources. One of my favourites was the TED Talk “How to get your ideas to spread” by Seth Godin. This talk starts by talking about the creation of sliced bread and how the creation many people buy, the idea was almost a failure. But things have changed. Social media and those pesky ads popping up on Facebook or a news article, is allowing for more ideas to thrive. Social media is literally an ad campaign. Just go on your Instagram, chances are you’ll find an ad. The talk goes in depth about the money companies pour into ads. Flashy objects attract us. Therefore, we click on the ad. The talk talks about other advertising strategies companies such as Silk milk use. I highly recommended this video. 

Social Media + Cellphones = Great advertising and product exploitation
Photo Credit: Simply Home Tips Flickr via Compfight cc

WAIT! WHAT! ANOTHER TED TALK? YAAASSSS, GREAT RESOURCES SHARED BY KIERA. DoSomething.org advocator Nancy Lublin’s “Texting that save lives” explains her organization. Youth can send texts to this organization where they can send messages for help on a medium they are used to. Police are using text message for crime report. Texting is being used to help others. 

For more great reads and maybe the odd funny video – check out these links 

The Verdict.

Well, I lost the debate. But I would vote for Kiera’s side. I can’t go a day without my cellphone, let alone go back to the days before smartphones, the internet and all those other fancy schmancy stuff. But I do agree we need to cut down our reliance on it. As the common theme in many of our debates, BALANCE is the winner. Students should be taught short-hand notetaking skills as well as typing skills. BALANCE. We should be able to use GPS for navigation but have a map of the unfamiliar area in the vehicle if we ever need one. BALANCE. Overall, I had so much fun prepping for this debate and am open to any comments or questions you all have with this topic. 

Thanks for reading, 

  • Miss. Lang
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This Class is Brought to You by…

We live in a consumerist society. We see something shiny advertised on a billboard and we are sold. We like to be the best by having the top brands and we stay loyal to the brands we like. At least I do. I can honestly name 10 companies I always buy products from in the matter of a minute. Crazy? Maybe. This week in our EDTC 400 class, our debate focused on the topic if whether or not “Public education has sold its soul to corporate interests”.On the agreement side was Liz and on the disagreement side was Shaleen. This was an interesting debate to say the least as we talked a LOT about the University of Regina’s million-dollar sign but we did explore ideas beyond the sign.

Agree

Liz’s Video

Liz started the debate by hitting us with cold hard facts. Some of these facts included companies like Pearson (a textbook company) creating standardized testing in the schools to coincide with THEIR textbooks… Other ideas included in Liz’s video and our class debate were:

  • Textbook companies
    • The companies are instructing teachers what to learn and some companies favour regions which by the most textbooks
      • For instance, Liz took a class where the company sold the majority of textbooks to Texas so as a French immersion student, she was upset when there was a Spanish translation instead of a French translation 
      • What does Pearson offer? Check this out!
  • Pepsi and Coke drink machines
    • Kids are getting hooked on these drinks since they are easily accessible
    • I don’t think I need to explain to anyone why pop isn’t healthy, it’s kind of common knowledge but here’s some facts anyways. 
  • Schools spend money from cooperation’s foolishly 
    • Ex: University of Regina sign
  • Creating lifetime consumers
    • Students will buy what they are familiar with
    • Ex: If students use Chromebooks all throughout their education, they may be afraid to use a PC so they will buy a Chromebook since they are familiar with it.
Is this okay in schools?
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“The Inside Story of How Bill Gates Bought the Common Core” further emphasizes how corporations have taken over schools. Bill Gates was asked by two gentlemen about him to create education standards, known as the Common Core standards. Schools did not even conduct trials on these standards, they just went along with it. Crazy? As the article goes on to say Gates did something no one else had done it concludes by leaving readers with one comment; “never has one man had the wealth, the political connections, and the grand ambition to buy American education. But Bill Gates did it,”.

Switching gears from standardization to Pepsi and Coke. Did your school have pop machines? Mine did, but they were not allowed to put pop into the machines, instead our machines were filled with Gatorade, juice and water. But no one bought juice and water, it was all Gatorade. In an article written by Tom Philpott, titled “80 Percent of Public Schools Have Contracts With Coke or Pepsi”, we are able to learn more about corporations entering the hallways of our schools. School are using these drink machines in a term called “pouring rights contracts” which means schools are allowing companies like Pepsi and Coca-Cola into their schools in drink machines and advertising their companies. We had multiple students point out they had scoreboards with the Pepsi logo clearly visible on it. Is this good? No, companies like Pepsi have products which are high in sugars and who knows what else is bad in which are affecting student’s weight. In fact, students are more obese more than ever in this day and age as Philpott found “according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, obesity rates among children ages 6 to 11 have quadrupled over the past four decades, and nearly a third of children and adolescents-more than 23 million kids and teenagers-are obese or overweight,”. Concerning, right? Let’s explore what Shaleen had to say about this.

Do teacher’s have a say with where money goes?
Photo Credit: theirhistory Flickr via Compfight cc

Disagree

Shaleen’s Video

Shaleen did not back down from this fight. She brought up points such as schools buy what they can afford and other strong arguments with ideas coming my other EDTC 400 classmates including ideas such as:

  • Schools buy what they can afford 
  • Do teachers have a voice for what is bought for their classroom?
    • Do administrators at the schools acknowledge teachers’ needs and requests?
  • We live in a capitalist society
    • Our government is not providing enough money for schools so companies are filling in the void to get teachers and students what they need.

“Ask the expert: smartly investing in education technology” written by Matthew Lynch explores the rise and need for technology in the classroom. If you have taken any education classes, you will quickly learn technology is a pretty handy tool in the classroom, and this article justifies that. The problem though? Schools are not able to keep up to the rising cost of technologies. The solution? If schools are not given a large enough budget to cover the needs of technology, corporations are stepping in. Lynch provides examples by writing, “A number of companies and foundations regularly donate to schools, for example the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,”. 

Aside from the cost of technology, schools are also using corporate companies for good. Schools are using Google Drive, Edmodo, Twitter and other corporations for education. Look at the University of Regina, UR courses is a Google product and we use it EVERY DAY. 

How many companies sponsored this scoreboard?
Photo Credit: ensign_beedrill Flickr via Compfight cc

The Verdict

In this debate, we also talked about how some schools have field trips sponsored by companies like Boston Pizza. Even though this is a corporate company, isn’t going to BP’s with your classmates the most exciting field trip ever when you’re young? It’s debateable, some schools may not be able to go on field trips but is going to BP’s to eat pizza really an educational school trip? Does it sound more like a birthday party? Another question brought up from this debate is, how are schools using the funding? Reference the U of R sign, again. And lastly, are rural schools funded by corporations as much as city schools? I know at my old high school, we did not have scoreboards with the Pepsi logo, our new football booth, is not corporate funded unless you call local businesses donating the supplies and the grade 12 construction class doing the labour, a corporation. In the end, I do not know exactly where I stand with this debate. In one way, I see concerns about textbook companies like Pearson’s favouring their top buyers by putting information more relevant to that area as compared to another area which does not buy textbooks as often or in as large amounts. That scares me. So does the health risks with pop machines, but if a high school student is buying Pepsi every day, should they not know better by this age? Would this topic not be covered in health? What’s the difference if a student buys the Pepsi in their school hallways or at the convenient store at the corner of the street? The problem isn’t about where the Pepsi came from, but the student not knowing the health effects of this. On the other hand, schools may not be able to afford ‘stuff’ for their students without extra money from external sources. If students do not have this extra ‘stuff’ or even necessary ‘stuff’, their education is being affected. In the end, I did vote for the agreement side for schools selling their souls to corporations. But in reality, I think it all comes down to BALANCE. 

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Video Killed the Radio Star

Picture this. It’s 1978. You’re in your car which has no air conditioning and you have to manually roll the windows down. You turn the radio on and “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles comes on.  You start jamming out. Now fast forward to 2019, the new song is “social media killed childhood”. Okay, so that may have been a bit extreme but this week in EDTC400 we debated the topic of whether Social media is ruining childhood or not with Lauren providing us with facts on the agreement side and Kylie giving information for the disagreement side.

Photo Credit: Mika Stetsovski Flickr via Compfight cc

Agree

Lauren’s Video

Lauren provided us with a very strong argument for why social media is indeed ruining childhood. Points by Lauren and our class include: 

  • Social media is affecting mental health
    • Youth may become depressed if they are not followed by a certain person or getting a certain number of likes on a post
    • F.O.MO. = Fear of missing out which a phobia youth may develop when they see friends partaking in activities in which they are not participating 
  • Digital footprint
    • Youth are creating a digital footprint before they even know what one is
  • Cyberbullying
    • Social media is just one platform where bullying takes place
  • Age Restrictions
    • Many social media accounts like Snapchat for instance but children younger than this are forming accounts
    • One question sparked in our debate was “Social media requires one to be at least 13 years of age to make an account, but parents are allowing children to make accounts much earlier. Ironically, the same parents are not allowing their children to watch a PG-14 movie when they are 13. Why is that?
      • I couldn’t actually tell you the answer but if you have one, be sure to comment it!
  • Whisper and Ask.FM
    • These two apps are where people can post anonymous questions or statements which often included personal information which may lead to cyberbullying.
  • Creativity
    • If students see an idea online and copy it or add their own personal mark to it, is the student really coming up with their own idea or copying and adapting someone else’s?
  • Documentation
    • Are we documenting too much of our lives? Should we step out from being behind the camera and jump into the moment?
Are we hiding behind a camera?
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“Smartphones and Anxious Kids: Mental Health Issues and the iGeneration” focuses on the mental health aspect of social media. In this article, the term deindividuated communication is introduced. So, what does the term mean? According to the website deindividuated communication is “when they [youth] communicate via smartphone texting or via social media, they feel essentially faceless, absent or anonymous and unaccountable for what they are saying,”. Ultimately, this means youth are more willing to bully online because they would never say it to the persons face but when you do it online who really cares? Terrible view on the situation I know, but that is what cyberbullying is, it’s saying things you would never say to a person and the only way you are able to say it is online where one feels more powerful because it’s “just words”.

Also, students are not spending enough time in the great outdoors. I can speak for myself when I say being outdoors is rejuvenating for the mind and body. There have been studies on Green Spaces being good for one’s health so if social media is distracting youth from the outdoors, can social media be good for them? 

The outdoors is good for us, who would have thought?
Photo Credit: thor_mark  Flickr via Compfight cc

“Is New Technology and Social Media Ruining Our Children’s Lives?” continues to keep the agreement side strong. It brings to readers attention that children are so consumed by social media and technology, they are “growing up with lack of key life skills such as being able to read or riding a bike,”. I learnt how to ride a bike way before I knew how to even turn on a computer. Much to my surprise, I learnt after reading this article “17 per cent of children under 3 own a smart phone or tablet,” which is interesting. I have a 3-year-old cousin who has an iPad, and while she played on it, it may not be in the fashion you are thinking of. She didn’t play a game on her iPad, she instead jumped on her iPad. So maybe technology isn’t as great as we expect?

Disagree

Kylie’s Video

While Lauren may have been convincing on her side of the argument, Kylie stood tall against her argument that social media does not ruin childhood. Points raised by Kylie and our class discussion:

  • Open doors
    • Social media opens doors for youth such as allowing them to have a voice in a space where they are traditionally not invited into
  • Mental health initiatives promotions
    • For those who are struggling with their mental health, there are online platforms to let them know they are not alone
  • MOMO
    • While Momo was threatening kids online, social media spread word of this creature initiating parents to talk to their children about internet safety and warn others of this challenging creature
  • Traditionally, humans avoid social situations.
    • Shaleen raised the point that humans once read newspapers on busses to avoid talking to others and the only element which has charged was what people were reading. Why is reading cellphones on a bus frowned upon but reading a newspaper isn’t?
Why is the same situation frowned upon when the newspaper is replaced with a cellphone?
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“5 Reasons You Don’t Need to Worry About Kids and Social Media” is an article shared by Kylie. One reason provided by this article related to parents reducing their worrisome states caused by social media include “It can offer a sense of belonging”. Youth feel more connected and less isolated by talking to peers online. Another reason offered by this article was “It helps them express themselves”.  Youth are free to upload anything they create online since it is easy. Users are able to hide their identity which allows students to express themselves without anyone knowing it is them. I have multiple friends who have Instagram pages showcasing their art, music, make-up, photography, etc… under usernames where followers will not find out the person’s identity. 

“5 Reasons Why Social Media Might Actually Be Good for your Child”first point about social media allowing on to “keep up with friends”, is a point which hits home> Being away from home, I often can see what my friends are up to without talking to them every single day. I can see if my best friend actually went on her trip once she posts a Snapchat story or I can see my other friend doing well at golf at the university they are attending.

The Verdict

Overall, social media is all about balance. Youth are going to have social media accounts. I may not be a parent, but I do know I would rather know about my children’s social media activity than to be in the dust with it. Ultimately, with this debate, I side with Lauren. I do see social media as a means for ruining childhood, it may be a bias opinion since I didn’t have social media until I was 15 and technology was not a big part of my childhood (ask my parents, they will defend me if you don’t believe me). But then that can be argued I am trying to image childhood the way I experienced it. New flash Jayden, things change. It was a great debate with strong arguments from both sides. 

Now here’s some questions I have for you to ponder.

  • How old were you when you created social media accounts? 
  • Do you document everything? Or do you live in the moment?
  • Is it better to experience a concert being a cellphone trying not to be too shaky or jumping around from the energy in the building? 
  • Do you ever go onto social media and still feel alone? Or do you feel like you belong? 

Here are some other articles interesting to this topic but did not fit in with the topics I covered in this post! I highly recommend reading them if you are interested! 

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