October 14th, 2008 by Learning Systems
The ability to assume anonymity online is ideal for cyberbullies. In the real world, bullies humiliate their victims face to face. Online, cyberbullies can create temporary email accounts and chat and IM pseudonyms. These identity-masking venues help to free cyberbullies from social restraints on behavior.
One problem is that electronic forums and the spaces for posting damaging learning content about a person exist unregulated, and free of supervision. Additionally, most teenagers have been exposed to more technological learning content and know more about computers and cell phones than their parents or guardians.
Some ways that victims can escape cyberbullying are changing email addresses and cell phone numbers, and logging out of chats where cyberbullying is taking place. On the other hand, once defamatory learning content is posted about a victim, there is little the victim can do.
October 14th, 2008 by Learning Systems
The explosion of social networking websites and programs has had both positive and negative effects. Perhaps the most widely discussed catch-22 is their power to bring people together online while, some argue, drifting people further apart from their relationships with those around them in real life. While great possibilities for online community-building and the sharing of learning content exist, alienating possibilities are also very real. One increasingly rampant phenomenon is cyberbullying.
According to the National Crime Prevention Council, cyberbullying is when technology is used “to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.” Cyberbullying takes many forms, including repeated and unwanted emails, humiliating learning content, threats, hate speech, unwanted sexual comments, or ganging up on victims by making them the subject of gossip or ridicule on online forums. Oftentimes, the posting of personal or degrading learning content does great damage to victims.
October 14th, 2008 by Learning Systems
But do these pros outweigh the cons? It’s debatable. There are many arguments against professor evaluation website learning content. One major con is that professors’ privacy is invaded. Of course, professors hold considerable power in the classroom. But outside, they don’t abuse that power by, say, writing about their students’ performances or personalities on websites, or posting their grades online.
Another con is that the website learning content isn’t necessarily true or accurate. Anyone can post learning content about a professor, pretending to be a student–from any grudge-holding acquaintance to those who have never even met the professor before.
On the RateMyProfessors.com, there’s also a link to “Professors on Facebook,” creating the opportunity for students to search for professors and increasing the potentiality for others to create fake accounts for professors and provide embarrassing learning content.
October 14th, 2008 by Learning Systems
Websites like RateMyProfessors.com, which provide learning content about over a million professors, have many pros. One is obvious: students are able to access learning content about professors and their style of teaching. In doing so they have a better idea of what they’re getting into before registering for a class.
Another is the anonymity of the rating system; student evaluation sheets are often hand-written so that the possibility of professors identifying the evaluator is greater. Online, students can be more honest.
Additionally, one might argue that sites like this put pressure on professors to improve their teaching and quality of learning content. Even though some professors may not care too much about the feedback on these sites, some do, and most people would rather not have negative reports of them publicly posted.
October 13th, 2008 by Learning Systems
Besides professor evaluation forms, students have online opportunities to rate their teachers’ style and success at delivering learning content. On RateMyProfessors.com, students can join a conversation or begin their own thread about a favorite or loathed teacher. Stumbling upon this website one day, I punched in my most adored professor’s name and was shocked to find, among the praises of her, some horribly offensive entries. One went so far as to call her “soulless” and “an abomination.” Many writers didn’t even mention the learning content of the class, but went straight for the most personal attacks.
Though websites like this are certainly helpful to students deciding on which courses to take, they are an enormous invasion of professors’ privacy. Should the learning content be censored or limited in some way? What do you think?
October 13th, 2008 by Learning Systems
So how can higher education systems work to create better teaching of meaningful learning content? The system’s status quo is so entrenched, it’s going to take a variety of different efforts to effect change. One way in which higher education learning content can be enriched and developed is to concentrate on students’ future career contexts. Professors should consider what students will actually be able to do when they have their degrees and step out into the job market.
Another solution is to open more dialogue between students and professors, concerning learning content as well as its format and delivery in a course. At the end of each semester, students fill out faculty evaluation sheets. But what happens as a result of this feedback varies from school to school. In some, these evaluations are merely a gesture, while in others, teacher performance is closely scrutinized.
October 10th, 2008 by Learning Systems
Every election year, a large portion of the nation’s people remain uneducated about the issues and where politicians stand on those issues. Some people simply don’t care about politics. But for the rest, it’s often difficult to find reliable political learning content.
During election time, what’s a good source of learning content about politicians and their platforms? On TV, increasingly as the election draws near, channels swarm with political ads providing information about candidates. But like all advertisements, the information provided is often misleading or even false. Smear campaigns highlight mistakes politicians have made in the past or blow minor events out of proportion. They often use fear tactics to convince the public that something terrible will happen if the other candidate is elected.
Rather than tune in to the television for political learning content, trusted newspapers might be a better alternative.
October 10th, 2008 by Learning Systems
Picture it: you’re a student on your first day of a history course. Printed on the syllabus is an advertisement for a local Mexican restaurant, El Diablo. An El Diablo sticker is also clipped to the syllabus, which reads “The Americas: Conquest to Capitalism.” This class is sponsored by El Diablo, your professor says. Before presenting learning content, he flashes the restaurant logo on the overhead projector.
Sound crazy? Kyle Volk, assistant professor of history at the University of Montana, came up with “a witty way to draw attention to the plight of this history department” until the university stopped it. Last June, the department ran out of paper and toner for the copying machine, forcing professors to finish the semester without printing learning content or making copies. With the rising cost of school supplies and learning content material, it’s no great wonder many schools resort to advertising deals.
