Transformations/Innovative Pedagogies Vlog

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High Tech or High Risk: Moral Panics about Girls Online

In the following blog entry, I will discuss Cassell and Cramer’s (2008) chapter High Tech or High Risk: Moral Panics about Girls Online from the Digital Young, Innovation and the Unexpected volume in the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's series on Digital Media and Learning.

According to Cassell & Chambers (2008), moral panics about girls’ use of communication technologies are not new.  Their discussion draws parallels between today’s moral panic about girls’ use of internet, particularly, their use of online social networking sites, and the moral panics of the past, concerning girls’ use of the telegraph and the telephone. They use these parallels and various statistics to argue that girls online are not as at risk as claimed and that the panic rhetoric about girls online has more to do with adults’ fears about the agency of young girls and their loss of control over them than it has to do with risks of online predators. In the chapter, they also discuss the various opportunities available to girls online and how moral panic is obscuring these and more statistically significant threats to girls.

I believe that Cassell and Chambers (2008) make a very convincing argument. By compiling various data sources they show that ‘the percentage of single offender crimes against girls where the offender is an adult and a stranger has decreased since 1994 – concurrent with the rise of internet use’ (2008, p.54). It is worth mentioning that they do not go so far as to deny that risks exist. They do however show that the risks that the media-driven moral panics would have us believe exist are disproportionate to those that actually exist.

As a woman myself, I found their discussion about the history of moral panics in relation to women’s use of communication technologies fascinating, particularly the discussion on women’s ‘deviant’ use of the telephone. They explain that the telephone was originally marketed as a time saver for commercial use and then later, for residential use and that according to Frissen (as cited in Cassell & Chambers, 2008), it took telephone companies over twenty years to advertise and market the sociability of the telephone even though they were aware that it was being ‘miused’ in this way by women. Cassell and Chambers discussion on the relationship between the production and consumption of telephone technology is a clear case of the ‘circuit of culture’ (Williams as cited in Dezuanni, 2010) at work .  

So too is the media’s representation of both the perpetrators and victims of online crimes. According to Stanley Cohen’s definition of a moral panic (as cited in Cassell & Chambers, 2008), it is the media that produces a stylized and stereotypical representation of the deviants, which in this case, is the stranger adult male. The media continues to portray this stereotype despite the fact that statistics cited in the article suggest that the majority of the one in seven solicitations that young people reported in the latest Youth Internet Safety Survey (YISS) do not come from the stereotype of the older male Internet predator but from family, friends and peers. The use of this statistic was convincing, however I was more dubious about their argument that the victim is not the stereotypical teen girl even though they acknowledge that thegirls aged 14 – 17 experience the highest rate of online solicitation. They base their argument on the fact that soliciations for girls aged between 14 and 17 had dropped by 11 percent. It just goes to show that statistics can be used to support almost any argument. It was interesting to note that even the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which funded the YISS, have buried findings about reduced stranger solicitation amongst findings of increased exposure to sexual material and harassment. According to Sonia Livingtone &  Haddon’s EU Kids Online: Final Report , this is not a one-off example of a funding source influencing the research agenda. This is such a shame because as the report suggests “research agenda does not always align with policy needs, with studies focusing on the identification of problems but less often designed to evaluate particular policy solutions” (p.32)

Cassell and Chambers use the example of the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) as an example of a governmental response to the widespread fear about the potential harm the Internet poses to young people. The DOPA, if enacted, would mean that schools and libraries would be required to prohibit or restrict young people’s access to social networking sites and chat rooms in order to protect minors from online predators, even though according to danah boyd in  Discussion: My Space and Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), most teenagers who report solicitations from adults on the social networking site My Space report deleting them without question.

According to the above-mentioned Wikipedia article, the American Library Association (ALA) opposes the DOPA and believes that education is the best way to protect young people. I agree. If young people are prevented from accessing social networking sites they are also prevented from exercising key skills online. Cassell and Chambers (2008) state that online participation is a key way for young people, to engage in developmentally important activities such as constructing networks of peers, exploring alternative versions of identity and behaving in sexual ways.

As educators, I agree with Dezuanni (2010), that we should respond to media panics by thinking about the consequences of not dealing with the technology concerned. In this instance, by not helping young girls to navigate online social networking sites, aren’t we putting them at more risk? In Discussion: My Space and Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), Henry Jenkins argues that the role of educational institutions should be to help those young people understand the risks and develop strategies to deal with them. 

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)’s Cyber(smart:) program provides some very good resources that can be used to educate young people about online safety. Cassell and Chambers would approve of the choice the creators of their Wise up to IT series of videos have made to include both a boy and a girl talking about their experiences with online predators. However, they may not be as pleased with the choice of character the creators of their Online Dos and Donts animation have made, as she seems to perpetuate the image of the naïve young girl in need of protection from cybercrimes and the technology itself that they discuss in their chapter.

It is encouraging to read however that despite all of the panic, Cassell and Chambers remain hopeful that that we will come to realize that girls are more likely to be empowered by the Internet than damaged by it.  I know that this has certainly been the case for me.

By Shannon

When the Internet kills.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ny-suicide,0,3233675.story

The above link is to a sad story that involves youth and the internet. The other blog posts I have made tend to highlight the benefit of the internet in educating youth or the benefit they get from using it. Unfortunately there are negatives that come from the internet and from using social networking sites. In the above story a young college student was unknowingly filmed in a gay encounter by his room mate and then broadcast online. After finding about this he "Facebooked" his suicide and jumped off the George Washington Bridge. Many are outraged by what has happened. The Internet can help bring people together but it can also have harmful effects. As youth go online and create their friends network in a virtual space it appears that some physical practices such as bullying and teasing now also move into an online space.

So is the internet doing more harm than good? Once something is out on the internet it is nearly impossible to erase. The internet is the largest area for storage and retrieval of information. This then means any information can be found whether good or bad. This could  prove damaging to an individual if unwanted or untrue information was placed online. There is no doubt that the internet has great educational advantages, but it must be considered at what point education value ends and entertainment and cyber-bullying takes over.

For me the most disturbing part of this story is that the suicide victim "Facebooked" that he was going to jump off the bridge moments before he did. His suicide note was a status update. Ironically this act represents the changing nature of the relationship between youth and the Internet. Their physical lives now run parallel to their online lives. The question now is will the online environment produce more sad stories like this one?

By Nova Watson

Budd:e

The Budd:e E-security education package was developed by the Australian Government for primary and secondary schools to help raise students' cybersecurity awareness. As a teacher, I have to say that I am quite impressed with the resource itself. It is very user-friendly and I can certainly see its potential for classroom use. It covers a wide variety of online safety topics from  privacy to copyright through engaging media-rich experiences. The primary module would certainly appeal to its audience. It engages students with content through game play. My Year 3 students would love being able to build their very own Budd:e by completing the series of online safety-related tasks. The secondary module is also very good. It connects with experiences teenagers are involved in by using various peer and professional talking heads. My only real criticism of the secondary module is that teenagers might perceive it as trying a little too hard with its use of slang words like 'Toob' and 'Guff'.

But more importantly, I am impressed that such a resource exists. The Federal Government should be applauded for allocating funds to such an initiative. I wonder whether it was created in response to the moral panic regarding child safety online? A focus on moral panics can have a detrimental effect on what is being taught (or not being taught) in our schools. In this instance however, the government has not reacted to the moral panic by denying students access to online experiences, but has instead developed a resource that will help educate them how to safely navigate the online world. As Henry Jenkins (2006) argues in his occasional paper on digital media and learning - Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, schools have a distinctive role to play in encouraging and nurturing new media literacy skills. By using resources like Budd:e in our classrooms, we can take steps to safeguard our students from the negative effects of the online world without denying them the many and varied opportunities it has to offer. Budd:e will certainly be a friend of mine.


By Shannon

Innovative pedagogies in the modern Library

This blog post will take a more personal format with some opinions and personal reflection included. During the post I will also examine some innovative pedagogies within libraries. As I am currently a Library student I will talk about pedagogies in regards to this sector and what practices I may undertake when I enter the work place.

To discuss pedagogies first we must understand what a pedagogy is. Wikipedia defines pedagogy as the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching (2010). The introduction of new technologies has changed the pedagogy and changed the way that we teach youth (Wikipedia, 2010). Innovative pedagogies involves the idea that participants can be connected, creative and critical.

The nature of the modern library has changed. Most of us are aware of term web 2.0 to describe the new participatory web. Michael E. Casey has written a book ‘Library 2.0’ which discusses the idea of the participatory library (2007). In this book he and his co-author discuss ways to bring a working library up to date and to accommodate the new technologies that youth in particular are being drawn to. The text discusses things like wikis, blogs and RSS feeds which are basic but important for interacting and drawing in younger users to the library. When talking about new pedagogies these are the kinds of things that could be extremely important in a library

To understand new pedagogies and innovations in libraries the best thing to do is to examine how libraries are using innovation in libraries to teach youth. At the Harold Washington Library in Chicago there is a space that has been introduced to teach youth and other members of the community about technology and new media. Although the program is not exclusively about youth being able to use the internet there is definitely contact with it by the users. The new space at the library is called ‘YouMedia’ and was designed with the concept of ‘Hanging Out, Messing Round and Geeking Out’ in mind (YouMedia, 2009). The space has been designed to introduce youth in the area to new media. In this space you can hire out laptops and play games and use the internet. By doing this they become connected. The way that they are making this space innovative is by educating the youth that visit YouMedia on how to use the new technology provided in the space. They also provide online and offline mentors for students who wish to participate and these mentors have knowledge of the new media tools. They also provide workshops for the new media tools and have transformed the way it is done by providing a space where participants in the workshop can showcase their work after completion. This allows users of the innovative pedagogy to be creative. The way that they have redesigned the library space to draw in youth is innovative. One point that I found interesting in the clip was that the usage of non-new media resources and resources that were already in the library actually went up after introducing this space.

Another example of a library using innovative pedagogies is the Logan City Council Library. They have developed programs to specifically cater to youth and teens in the community.  They have used the concept of being connected, creative and critical by developing a  teen blog. Teens can communicate to readers about popular books, book review,s upcoming events and websites (Talk to Me, 2010). The Logan Library has turned the blog into a participatory learning space in which content is provided by the teens that contribute as well as the librarians. As already mentioned in other posts on this blog participation is a concept that youth are drawn to. This is the kind of innovation that I hope to be able to employ when I enter the workplace.

As I am studying to enter a library sector there are many innovative pedagogies that could be employed into a library space. As I have already discussed earlier in the post there are some libraries that have already started to employ innovative pedagogies related to youth. For me there are a few things that I would do differently. In regards to the YouMedia space I would try to employ more pedagogy that involved online media. The YouMedia space has more of a focus on technology where as I would try to provide more education for the tools that are available online to youth. I would employ this tactic as most of the tools online are available for access by youth at home. Most youth know about the main internet tools like Facebook and Twitter but they may need more education on how to use blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, podcasts and screen casting to name a few. In my own practice I think I would try to employ more innovative pedagogies that get the users connected to each other and the library like the Logan City Council Library does through the blog. Youth are constantly surrounded by technology and the online world so I personally think that I would employ those things to teach youth as they are more likely to respond to and be engaged in an environment that uses the same tools that they use in their personal lives everyday.

By Nova Watson

Hole-in-the-Wall Project

Please click on the following link to view the Frontline/World story about the Hole-in-the-Wall project reported by Rory O'Connor: 

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/india/

I first found out about the Hole-in-the-Wall project after reading the MacArthur Foundation's Global Competition Selects 10 Innovative Digital Media & Learning Projects to Share $1.7 Million press release and exploring their Digital Media and Learning Competition site. Wanting to find out more about it, I simply Googled 'hole in the wall project' and found a number of links including one to the PBS website listed above. For me, it was easy to find out more. All I had to do was click a few buttons. This however, is not the case for everyone. Internet access is far from universal. Encouragingly, Rory O'Connor's report shows how Dr. Sugata Mitra's Hole-in-the-Wall project is doing something about this.  

Some might argue that providing children in a Dehli slum with access to clean water should be more of a priority than providing them with access to the internet through a computer in a hole in the wall. But it could also be argued that it would be elitist not to provide these children with the opportunity to develop computer literacy skills. The story shows that children in poor areas who have never had access to a computer before are capable of learning how to use the internet within hours of use and without any instruction. It also highlights that access is not just economic but cultural by showing footage of families being encouraged to send their daughters who would otherwise remain in the home to Hole-in-the-Wall sites.

The potential of this project is limitless, because as one of the young boys being interviewed in the story said, 'The internet is that with which you can do anything.'


By Shannon

America's Got Net: Young People Speak Out

For this blog post I have composed a podcast that discusses the above YouTube clip. After watching the clip listen to the podcast in which I highlight some of the key points in the Clip.

Podcast discussing YouTube Clip 'America's Got Net: Young People Speak Out'

Podcast and Post by Nova Watson