Virtual Communities and Civility

  
 Virtual communities play a large role in the lives of today's youth. Well... not just in the lives of youths. Surveys demonstrate that social networking is not just an activity of the young. Researchers have shown that the use of social networks among people in the age group of 50- older, has doubled in the past year or so. Among people 65 and older, one in four, use sites related to social networking.

    So, social networking is big. And when people are nasty to each other, it no longer takes days for the news to get around. A person can impulsively post the most seemingly most trivial of thoughts to thousands simultaneously, sometimes with almost perfect anonymity.  This lack of responsibility for one's words can lead to some very bad behavior that would probably shock friends and family of the offender-- if they were aware of it.  Off-hand criticisms and comments can leave a mark.  Don't believe the "Sticks and stones can break my bones..." thing.  Words CAN hurt. And they can go on hurting for a very long time.
    As if we needed more justification for why children require monitoring in their use of social networking sites and games that include online play with others, here comes something else to think about.  Children and youth require guidance and modeling to acquire those important qualities of empathy and civility that we start instilling into our children at the youngest of ages on the playground, but we neglect in the virtual world.  "Take turns," "Let her play with you guys," "Tell him he did a good job,"  "Share your toys," "Invite him over to play with you boys,"  "Don't argue, play together,"  "It was an accident....go on and play."  Never mind the name-calling and bad language parents deal with.  But we do... mind it-except when children begin to go online and interact with others.  Then, no one may be around to keep reminding them that "we don't use that word,"  and "how do you think that made her feel?"
   It's more difficult to teach these simple lessons when applied in conditions of concealment of one's identity, shrouded in an avatar and away from parents' prying eyes.  But get your child to show you the World of Warcraft trade chat or let you view the conversation during a LFR raid and you may be shocked to learn that, while Robert Fulghum learned everything in kindergarten, others among us may need a refresher course. 
   "Trolling."  A delightful, 21st century term that describes the worst trend of this online lack of civility and troublesome behavior, can be seen in any of the social networking sites as well as any forum or chat room.  Bloggers know the term well. Post a blog, video, or a review of a movie and open it up for comments and see what collects.  The use of the word "fail" has become one of those terms about which one is no longer sure of the proper use.  It is a verb?  A Noun? "You are so fail" has become ubiquitous in the gaming community as a first-line insult. Many have studied the phenomena of trolling and online bullying and what to do about it.  Residents of the virtual world Second Life call one form of these evil-doers "Griefers." They may try to disrupt and destroy the activities and work of other players in MMORPGs.  One study has suggested that the experience of online bullying is not only common, but may be approaching the norm and is usually not reported to the parent. 
    Of course, antisocial behavior is seen in the real world as well, but it may be suppressed by the demand characteristics of the situation, among most individuals.  These inhibiting conditions do not exist in the virtual world in the experience of many.  No one is watching.  No one is reminding them of what they learned on the playground.
   Every parent today is warned about the danger to their child on the internet.  This usually conjures images of sexual predators, identity theft, and yes, being bullied.  But how much do we know about if our own child is "playing nice?"  Are we?

Cyber-Bullying

KPA Presentation

Hello Readers,
In choosing some of the most useful new programs and services to discuss under the topic "Innovative Technology," I've tried to look at those services/programs that are most useful in achieving the most common objectives teachers might have for learning units. The "Wow Factor" is often very seductive, but can lead us down a road of wasted time and loss of productivity. My approach to selecting new technology is to evaluate it based on whether it can actually support an important objective for a particular learning unit. Some of the innovations are more useful for online students, some are great for the more traditional classroom. Often, my best finds come from trying to find a way to achieve a particular goal in an online class that I can easily accomplish in the traditional classroom.
For instance: Years ago, I published an article in the Methods and Techniques section of Teaching of Psychology that demonstrated some of the perceptual and behavior changes that results from the "Split-Brain" operation. The class activity I developed worked great for helping students to get a feel for what it must be like to have been the recipient of the this procedure ( http://www.apa.org/ed/split.html). Later, as I was trying to find a way to use this activity with my online students, I began using video editing software to make little instructional movies. This has resulted in one of the most useful and popular parts of my online classes.
I have also insisted that I needed to have live interaction with my online students. In my early days of teaching online classes, I used simple chats to create a "virtual classroom." I continued to work on improving this effort to make a more interactive and student friendly experience for my classes. The creation of webconferencing tools such as Elluminate Live! has led to a truly interactive experience for my students that increases my connection with them and allows for greater freedom in the kind of activities and materials I can share with them. More recently, the availability of a free, three-person room from Elluminate, called a VRoom (for "virtual room") has opened up so many more possibilities, such as "virtual office hours," and colleague consultation.


So, the purpose of this blog entry is to provide the reader with some links to products and services that I have found to be great for furthering my classroom (virtual, or RL) objectives. I hope you find them useful. Here they are:

• A great source for ways to improve your PowerPoint presentations can be found at the University of Minnesota Active Learning with PowerPoint site. It has great tips and tutorials. Thanks to Sally Kuhlenschmidt of the FACET at WKU for turning me on to it.


• Annenberg has some great resources for Psychology teachers that are free at easy to use. the Discovering Psychology series is just the starting point for great additions to classes, both online and on-campus.


• GoogleDocs can be a great way to share files and collaborate with other faculty on projects. But it is also a great tool for enabling students to work together on projects such as presentations and papers that faculty want them to use the "wiki" approach on. Vince DiNoto (Jefferson CTC), who taught me in my first online class, introduced me to this useful tool.


• Blackboard Collaborate is an outstanding resource for building community, collaboration, creating multimedia presentations online, and other activities that enhance both online and web-enhanced classes. Want to invite a guest speaker to your class, but they are too far away, or busy, to make the trip? Invite them to speak to your class via the "virtual classroom."


• Second Life is a Multi-User Virtual Environment that is on the cutting-edge of what distance learning can resemble in the future. A virtual environment that is capable of combining the most attractive features of a social network and a versatile learning platform, SL is richly supported by a host of educators who are passionate about this new world of possibilities. For Psychology, the possibilities are endless in SL. We can investigate an endless number of social and cognitive phenomena, as well as present information in simulations, demonstrations, and in an exploratory approach, all within a media rich environment, almost as diverse as the real world. See my video on A Day in The Second Life for a basic look at life "in-world." Institutions in Second Life looks at how some major institutions are using Second Life to inform and train their users. In A Tour of Second Life, you will see some interesting sites within SL that illustrate its power to educate and inform.
• PSYCHTEACH is an important tool for teachers of Psychology. PSYCHTEACH is a LSTSERV that is a very active community of teacher of psychology with a broad range of interests and expertise. It's a great source of information about events, position openings, teaching methods, innovations, and "where-to-find" resources. Ask a question of your peers! To subscribe, contact Bill Hill at: bhill@kennesaw.edu

Well, I hope the reader finds something useful here. This rambling discussion points to some methods and techniques that I have found useful in the last few of my 29 years of college teaching. Enjoy! And don't forget to let me know if YOU find anything useful.
Ed Morris (AKA Spender Voom)