ScienceOnline09: Science Online – middle/high school perspective
Posted in Social Networking Scientists on January 20th, 2009
 High School Perspective of Online Science |
Stacey Baker of Using Blogs in Science Education and a panel of her students from a private school I missed typing down gave a presentation/discussion about “How the Facebook Generation Does It.” Students today are using Twitter, Skype, AIM, and NING to facilitate discussions and collaboration among students in the same class and all over the world. Social networking into a profession or academic discipline is being built into the class structure.
Some of the more fascinating items discussed during the session dealt with the credibility of sources online. Baker mentioned that she would regularly slip bad online sources into a reference lists to see if the students would spot it. Wikipedia was cited as a great starting point for delving into any subject, but the students were not allowed to reference it directly. Instead, they must find their own references, or cite Wikipedia’s sources. An interesting dimension of this is the fact that Wikipedia is a plain-English interpretation of a source, and oftentimes students will go to the original source, only to find it incomprehensibly erudite.
I also learned about the concept of the Creepy Treehouse, where teachers or professors lure students into class participation in non-classroom settings, such as Facebook, Twitter, or blogs. The problem with these mediums is that if forces the students to manage two accounts for these services, one account for the classroom face and another for their personal face. I completely sympathize with the students on this, as I am not 100% comfortable with the fact that many of my professional colleagues have added me as a friend on Facebook, where they are grouped along with my old party friends from college.
Of course, the point was made, that the entire Internet is the Creepy Treehouse now. I got a taste of this at work, when I walked into a room just as a coworker was demonstrating how much fun it was to Google people’s names. “Good morning Ryan! I bet we’ll get some great results for you with your blog and all that,” he said, and promptly submitted my name to Google Images. Then this picture came up in the first page of results. My coworkers had a good laugh about it, but, if I was a teacher, I’d hate for the Principal of the school to see that (Remember kids: MySpace is Forever).
In a later session, Bora Zivkovic would make a very encouraging point on this issue, that this may simply be a generational misunderstanding, and that, as time passes and the cultural understanding changes with the technology, having pictures of yourself intoxicated online will cease being the big deal it is today. This groked with me, as I understand that everyone has a non-professional face, and Google has no means to distinguish between them.
My favorite moment of this session came when someone asked what it was like to grow up in a world with all of this information at your fingertips. I personally remember all those long afternoons at the college library, sifting through stacks of books for any bit of supporting evidence to scavenge into a paper, which would inevitably have the formatting tweaked to stretch it into 10-15 pages. What was it like for today’s high school students?
“We can’t imagine what it was like for you all,” one student remarked.
“Thank god for older people who are able to access computers and contribute online materials,” said another.
I concur with the last quote.
Ryan,
I am a student in Miss Bakers class. I am glad you were informed by our presentation. I hope it was helpful and somewhat pertinent or applicable to you! I have been able to gain some great information about some of the sessions you attended and I missed.
Please feel free to visit our blog at:
http://www.missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog
Regards,
Brandon
[...] Science Online – Middle/High School Perspective, Ideonexus [...]
Thanks Brandon! It was a very informative session that provided a perspective I hope to aid me in a few years when I plan on going into teaching myself.
[...] Science Online – Middle/High School Perspective, Ideonexus [...]