Cyberbullying and lurking dangers.

• Have you ever had your feelings hurt by something shared online? Have you ever hurt anyone else’s feelings? What would you do differently?

• How might adult concerns and fears about the lurking dangers found online prevent digital citizens from capitalizing on the creative and civic potentials of a participatory culture?

I have never had my feelings hurt by something shared online. Thanks God. I am saying thanks because I know so many people that has been bullied and the feeling is not good at all. I actually remember once, I was in tenth grade. I went to the bathroom and it was a girl crying inside the toilet. It was difficult to me to avoid the situation and do like nothing happens. I am not that kind of people. It can bother you but even if I do not know you and I see you crying, I am going to ask you if I can do something. Then is up to you talk to me or not. This girl chose to talk to me. She told me that some girls were calling her ugly and fat for a while and I told her that first of all, she had to be strong and believe that she was beautiful. Then I told her that she should talk to her professors as well as with her parents. 

I am telling this because I saw her face. I saw the tears in her eyes and because of this, I feel so lucky because I have never had a situation like that. 

Of course, I cannot sat that I have never hurt anyone else's feelings.  I would be lying to you and lying to me too, which is so sad. Anyways, I am sure sometimes I said something that I think and someone felt bad about it and she/he never told me. But also, I remember when I was a kid and I started to fight with someone I said some things instead of just listen to them and leave. 

Finally adult concerns about dangers found online. Almost all my friends created a new Twitter account as well as deleted pictures from their Facebook. They told me they did it "just in case". Companies are not going to hire people that consume alcohol or party a lot. Companies are not going to hire you if they see "weird" posts. Posts that basically shows your opinion and beliefs. 

At the end of the end, everybody want to be accepted in the society in one way or another. We care about what we do and how we do it in order to be accepted and consider a good citizen. 

 

Digital Citizenship

When I heard the first time the concept of  “digital citizenship” I thought that I was going to learn about fingerprint evidence of citizens or how society learns through technology. However, I was wrong. Since I was wrong about this concept, I can completely think that you are wrong too about what “digital citizenship” means.

According to “ Digital citizenship, Addressing Appropriate Technology Behavior” , by Mike S. Ribble, Gerald D. Bailey and Tweed W. Rose,  Digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of behavior with regard to technology use. There is nine general areas of behavior that make up digital citizenship:

1. Etiquette: electronic standards of conduct or procedure 

2. Communication: electronic exchange of information 

3. Education: the process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology 

4. Access: full electronic participation in society 

5. Commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods 

6. Responsibility: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds 

7. Rights: those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world 

8. Safety: physical well-being in a digital technology world 

9. Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety.

Now that I know what that means, what is the meaning of "digital citizenship" in my personal and professional life?

Well, as we know everything we post on the Internet is gonna be there in one way or another. My parents always tell me to be careful with what pictures I upload or what I post on my Facebook. They tell me this because I have to be respectful since everyone has different ideas as well as opinions. Also they tell me this because people have a easy access to my pictures as well as tweets and posts. It's like this information that I uploaded on the Internet, is gonna be there forever. And that, it's scary. You can find so many information about a person that maybe you are not gonna meet in your life.

Moreover, everything we post in social network has a consequence. Five years ago, I was in high school and through a Spanish social network called "Tuenti" students were criticizing professors. I remember I could read comments like " Pedro explains so bad the lectures" or " Anna has the biggest nose in the world". What happened with these students was not funny. They were reunited with the principal and they had a punishment. They couldn't go to class in a week plus some extra work in the school. With this I am saying that everything we post in Facebook as well as on Twitter, have a consequence and we have to be careful with that because we can lose our job or we can be expelled of the school.

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.
-John Wooden

To share or not to share, that is the question.

Teachers and leaders share their work in so many ways. That is the problem. We wonder what method is the best to teach our children. Same with leaders. We talk about how our world leaders lead the world and how bad they do their work. I am tired of hearing things like "If I was Obama I would lead the world in a different way and I would make The US even better because you know... we are the best country in the world." I actually wonder why people claim that because there is actually no evidence to support that statement.America is 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality. America leads the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe that angels are real and defense spending. (Aaron Sorkin) So let's stop talking without arguments. Let's stop talking about  how we can change the world if we were Obama. Let's talk about how should teachers and leaders share their work because they are the ones who can makes us be better in literacy, math and science.

Leaders and teachers play the same role. Teachers share their knowledge to make you a better students. Leaders share their motivation to make you better citizen. So, how should teachers and leaders share their work? First of all, you have to be a good teacher and a good leader. We always say "wow he/she is such a good teacher". But, what aspects and traits make a person excel as a teacher?Some might consider knowledge and intelligence the most important traits for a successful teacher. However, a person who knows a lot but is unable to communicate their knowledge to their students would not be a good teacher. So, what elements make us think that a teacher is good? A good teacher is a person who, first of all, feels passion for teaching. The professor feels passion seeing how people learn new things. They will experience a sense of accomplishment by seeing knowledge grow up inside children. Same with leaders. I will believe that you are a good leader if you feel passion when you see other person improve in whatever you want. If you believe in themselves more than you believe in yourself. 

Once you achieve these requirements, you can share your work no matter what technique you use.

I decide what to share and what not to share according to the age. We do things in one way or another depending of the age. You cannot use the same tone of voice when you talk to a 3 years old kid than a 15 years old. Same with the content. We cannot use the same words to explain the photosynthesis to a 8 years old than a 17 years old. With the last one, we can use more cultivated words.In other words, we would use another vocabulary. Also we can talk about more serious topics and sometimes give our real opinion. 

To be learned "off stage" so students do not have their failures immortalized more than their successes means basically learn through mistakes. Mistakes make us be better and stronger. Once you fall, you have to learn how to get up to continue and fight for what you want. 

Regarding technology vs face to face topic. We are humans. We have the luck to have mouth and ears. We can share our knowledge or ideas on Internet. But what about the conversations in the coffe shop with our friends debating about stupid but at the same time funny things? Same with school. We e-mail to professors all the time instead of going to their offices. I am sure that we can understand the professor better when we see them face to face than through an e-mail. You can ask as many questions as you want and you do not have to wait until your phone rings saying: you have an e-mail. You will find the answer right in that moment.

The value of sharing everything can be good. Really good actually. You are sharing all your life and maybe doing that, you can help others. There is always motivational people who help other to stop doing drugs. It is always have more credibility something that has being real.

Judgement and feedback is necessary in class. Everyone is different from each other and every students is going to have a different view of almost everything. I will teach them that every one have different values and even culture. I will teach that we all should respect every opinion and even share our believes to understand how others think about the same topic.

Public writing should be free as long as there is respect about what we all are saying. We claim that we live in a free countries with free expression. But we should know when you write about one thing or another. You can write about how bad is the Islam/ Catholic church, etc.. but...should you?

We can begin to create a culture of transparency being ourselves. We worry so much about what others think about us. Sometimes we all do things that we actually do not like to do because we want to appear another person. A cooler person. Once we are ourselves, the true US, we can start talking about being transparent and being REAL.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. -Bruce Lee-