REFLECTION 1.4 : Social Justice Boundaries
When I first read the title for this reflection, I wasn’t quite sure what was meant by: “Social Justice Boundaries”. After reading the Wikipedia meaning for “Digital Divide” (2013) and Warchaure and Matuchniak’s (2010, New technology and digital worlds: Analyzing evidence of equity in access, use, and outcomes) article, I have a better understanding of what “Social Justice Boundaries” are about.
The things that stood out for me while reading Wikipedia’s (2013) the “Digital Divide”, and Warchaure and Matuchniak’s (2010, New technology and digital worlds: Analyzing evidence of equity in access, use, and outcomes) article were if you were to take away the technology the problem of social division would still be there. There would still be the “haves” and the “have-nots”. The children of middle class and affluent homes will always have access to “more”. More material things, more extra-curricular activities, and more exposure to “academic” people as both Wikipedia’s explanation of “Digital Divide”(2013) and Warchaure and Matuchniak (2010) article refer. All of the things that interfere with, or have an impact on, learning in general, also carry the impact of the digital age. The impact, in my view, is now, not just with lack of food, clothing, and general access to the “better” things in life, but has the added stressors of not being up on technology.
We know that many children from lower socioeconomic homes often have lower academic skills. I see it all the time with my students. Even if we give every child a computer, and supply dedicated tech savvy teachers as Warchaure and Matuchniak (2010) discuss in the “New Technology and Digital Worlds: Analyzing Evidence of Equity in Access, Use, and Outcomes”, we are still going to have discrepancies when it comes to home support and low academic skills of some parents, which includes our Aboriginal children. I wonder if we may be adding to the already burdensome stresses that some children have to deal with in their homes. Don’t get me wrong, I think it would be amazing if everyone could have computers and internet access in their homes, which findings from Warchaure and Matuchniak (2010) have shown that students who have a computer at home have better technological skills and academic standings. There may be, however, some parents who cannot support their children with technology because they lack the technological skills to do so. Lack of academic and technological skills of a parent may be cause for more stress in the child’s life. We need to be cognizant of this type of situation and be able to have some kind of plan to support the parents as well.
I digress somewhat on some of the other items of which I want to discuss in this reflection. Another point that Warchaure and Matuchniak (2010) mention is that drill and practise on computers is not effective and the use of more advanced technological activities where students can investigate and build upon their knowledge or “construct” their knowledge produces effective learning. The reference was based upon a comparison between lower socioeconomic students verses higher socioeconomic students. I agree that drill and practice does not facilitate life long learning. I will give an example of one of my grade three students who refused to even try to write. Nothing I did seemed to work until I set up an “Xtranormal”(please note that this site no longer exists) account, with his parent’s permission of course. This site was an animation site where students could either use speech to text or typing to enable their “characters” to say what they wanted them to say. I could not tear my student away. Some may say that he wasn’t writing anything, but I disagreed. This student needed to listen to what the characters were saying and do corrections. Also, the text of what the student said was displayed for him to see. Unfortunately, it was late in the year when he started using Xtranormal, so I could not officially gauge improvements in his writing. I don’t think it matters what level a student is at. We need to look at what will engage our students to be life long learners and love to learn. If we don’t engage them then there will be no true learning.
I also believe that because many of our lower socio-economic students may be lacking in parent support and knowledge of academic nature. I do not see a big difference in support from parents of my Aboriginal students and Caucasian students of my low socio-economic students. The only main difference is the culture. Often times Caucasian lower socio-economic students have more overt behaviours, whereas Aboriginal lower socio-economic students tend to be more passive resistant. Of course it is important to know where our students are coming from both economically and culturally. My personal focus is not so much on global cultural things, but on each child’s place of which they are at, whether it is because mom and dad are divorced and there is no money to cultural needs of Aboriginal, East Indian, or Asian peoples. For an example, one of my Aboriginal students would not look at me when I was speaking. I asked our Aboriginal support teacher about this and she educated me on the fact that, for Aboriginal peoples, it is actually rude to look at someone directly when they are speaking. Another example is a Caucasian student came from a very strict Christian upbringing and was not allowed to view certain things, one being the movie, “Happy Feet”. I guess what I am trying to say is that with the diverse needs of our students, it is important to acknowledge and work with those diversities in our classrooms. When we are using social media and other Web 2.0 resources in our classrooms, I think it is very important that we are cognizant of all of our students’ backgrounds and needs.
I realize that this reflection is about social justice mainly around social media, however, I believe it goes beyond social media. It is about making sure there is social justice in everything we do in our classrooms for our students.
REFERENCES
"First Nations Connectivity in BC" (Pathways to Technology: Connecting First Nations to the World, 2013 http://www.pathwaystotechnology.ca/interactive-map
Picture: retrieved from: http://washingtonsquarecatholic.org/index.cfm?load=page&page=271
Warchaure, M., & Matuchniak, T. (2010). New technology and digital worlds: Analyzing evidence of equity in access, use, and outcomes. Review of Research in Education, 34(1), 179-225 http://gse.uci.edu/person/warschauer_m/docs/equity.pdf
Wikipedia, 2013, Digital Divide, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide
When I first read the title for this reflection, I wasn’t quite sure what was meant by: “Social Justice Boundaries”. After reading the Wikipedia meaning for “Digital Divide” (2013) and Warchaure and Matuchniak’s (2010, New technology and digital worlds: Analyzing evidence of equity in access, use, and outcomes) article, I have a better understanding of what “Social Justice Boundaries” are about.
The things that stood out for me while reading Wikipedia’s (2013) the “Digital Divide”, and Warchaure and Matuchniak’s (2010, New technology and digital worlds: Analyzing evidence of equity in access, use, and outcomes) article were if you were to take away the technology the problem of social division would still be there. There would still be the “haves” and the “have-nots”. The children of middle class and affluent homes will always have access to “more”. More material things, more extra-curricular activities, and more exposure to “academic” people as both Wikipedia’s explanation of “Digital Divide”(2013) and Warchaure and Matuchniak (2010) article refer. All of the things that interfere with, or have an impact on, learning in general, also carry the impact of the digital age. The impact, in my view, is now, not just with lack of food, clothing, and general access to the “better” things in life, but has the added stressors of not being up on technology.
We know that many children from lower socioeconomic homes often have lower academic skills. I see it all the time with my students. Even if we give every child a computer, and supply dedicated tech savvy teachers as Warchaure and Matuchniak (2010) discuss in the “New Technology and Digital Worlds: Analyzing Evidence of Equity in Access, Use, and Outcomes”, we are still going to have discrepancies when it comes to home support and low academic skills of some parents, which includes our Aboriginal children. I wonder if we may be adding to the already burdensome stresses that some children have to deal with in their homes. Don’t get me wrong, I think it would be amazing if everyone could have computers and internet access in their homes, which findings from Warchaure and Matuchniak (2010) have shown that students who have a computer at home have better technological skills and academic standings. There may be, however, some parents who cannot support their children with technology because they lack the technological skills to do so. Lack of academic and technological skills of a parent may be cause for more stress in the child’s life. We need to be cognizant of this type of situation and be able to have some kind of plan to support the parents as well.
I digress somewhat on some of the other items of which I want to discuss in this reflection. Another point that Warchaure and Matuchniak (2010) mention is that drill and practise on computers is not effective and the use of more advanced technological activities where students can investigate and build upon their knowledge or “construct” their knowledge produces effective learning. The reference was based upon a comparison between lower socioeconomic students verses higher socioeconomic students. I agree that drill and practice does not facilitate life long learning. I will give an example of one of my grade three students who refused to even try to write. Nothing I did seemed to work until I set up an “Xtranormal”(please note that this site no longer exists) account, with his parent’s permission of course. This site was an animation site where students could either use speech to text or typing to enable their “characters” to say what they wanted them to say. I could not tear my student away. Some may say that he wasn’t writing anything, but I disagreed. This student needed to listen to what the characters were saying and do corrections. Also, the text of what the student said was displayed for him to see. Unfortunately, it was late in the year when he started using Xtranormal, so I could not officially gauge improvements in his writing. I don’t think it matters what level a student is at. We need to look at what will engage our students to be life long learners and love to learn. If we don’t engage them then there will be no true learning.
I also believe that because many of our lower socio-economic students may be lacking in parent support and knowledge of academic nature. I do not see a big difference in support from parents of my Aboriginal students and Caucasian students of my low socio-economic students. The only main difference is the culture. Often times Caucasian lower socio-economic students have more overt behaviours, whereas Aboriginal lower socio-economic students tend to be more passive resistant. Of course it is important to know where our students are coming from both economically and culturally. My personal focus is not so much on global cultural things, but on each child’s place of which they are at, whether it is because mom and dad are divorced and there is no money to cultural needs of Aboriginal, East Indian, or Asian peoples. For an example, one of my Aboriginal students would not look at me when I was speaking. I asked our Aboriginal support teacher about this and she educated me on the fact that, for Aboriginal peoples, it is actually rude to look at someone directly when they are speaking. Another example is a Caucasian student came from a very strict Christian upbringing and was not allowed to view certain things, one being the movie, “Happy Feet”. I guess what I am trying to say is that with the diverse needs of our students, it is important to acknowledge and work with those diversities in our classrooms. When we are using social media and other Web 2.0 resources in our classrooms, I think it is very important that we are cognizant of all of our students’ backgrounds and needs.
I realize that this reflection is about social justice mainly around social media, however, I believe it goes beyond social media. It is about making sure there is social justice in everything we do in our classrooms for our students.
REFERENCES
"First Nations Connectivity in BC" (Pathways to Technology: Connecting First Nations to the World, 2013 http://www.pathwaystotechnology.ca/interactive-map
Picture: retrieved from: http://washingtonsquarecatholic.org/index.cfm?load=page&page=271
Warchaure, M., & Matuchniak, T. (2010). New technology and digital worlds: Analyzing evidence of equity in access, use, and outcomes. Review of Research in Education, 34(1), 179-225 http://gse.uci.edu/person/warschauer_m/docs/equity.pdf
Wikipedia, 2013, Digital Divide, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide