Social justice ed and diversity and equity in science education

I recently ran across a very useful volume in the Multicultural Education Series (Teachers College Press) - "Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key concepts in social justice education", Sensoy, Ozlem and Robin DiAngelo, 2012.

The appendix alone is worth the price of the volume.  The appendix is entitled "How to Engage Constructively in Courses that Take a Critical Social Justice Approach" and it stresses the importance of developing a perspective informed by the research (and not just personal opinions, personal experience, and anectdote).  This is a lesson it behooves all of us to remember as we progress in our teaching careers; we really need to consult and use and incorporate the research on learning and teaching science - and not just rely on summaries of that research as found in introductory textbooks.

There is a telling vignette that uses the example of Pluto being reclassified down from its former planetary status - a vignette that will resonate with science teachers, and may be useful for consideration by those of us who may teach Biology and someday have to deal with such issues as teaching evolution, or those of us who teach Earth Science and have to deal with related issues (age of Earth, evolution of life through time as evidenced by the fossil record, etc.).

Another volume in that series (which I have not obtained, but can be accessed in part by "Look Inside" on Amazon)) is "Diversity and equity in science education: Research, Policy and Practice by Lee, Okhee and Cory A. Buxton (2010).

When Teachers are Bullys

I recentlly read this article about the bullying of students by teachers. While this doesn't involve cyberbullying, I do think this is alarming and goes hand-in-hand with bullying in other mediums.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/stuart-chaifetz-father-wire-son-records-teacher-abuse_n_1447330.html

Bully (2011)

Since this weeks topic has seemed to create quite a bit of discussion I'd like to recommend a movie that released just over a month ago.

The IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1682181/
The movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzhVdc7aQv8

As a small independent documentary, I believe that it's already out of theaters, but I recommend looking for it when it comes to DVD. It's incredibly heart-wrenching and reminds you how serious bullying can be.

There was initially given an R rating in a controversial decision by the MPAA, it is now rated PG-13 allowing for it to be accessed by the kids who will probably benefit and relate to it most. Hopefully some schools will be able to show it and use it as a resource.

From the comments on the trailer:

"I remember not wanting to go to school. Throwing up in the bathroom because they were waiting outside for me. Just because I was held back a grade that made stupid. I will never forget the girls names who hit me, who called me names. Even some teachers said I would make nothing of myself."

Title IX and cyberbullying

Wendy J. Murphy, in "Federal Law Requires Schools to Protect Children from Cyberbullying" ,
(in Cyberbullying, Louise I Gerdes, ed., p. 67-70) argues that Title IX can be used in cases where the cyberbullying is of a sexual nature:  "...the more compelling purpose of Title IX is the prevention of gender discrimination, including sexual harrassment, sexual violence and bullying "based on" gender."

"Title IX applies so long as there is a "nexus" between the harassment and the school environment.  Thus, even if the harmful conduct occurs in a cyber-venue such as Facebook, school officials must step in.  The test is not where did the speech originate, but rather, where did the harmful effects land?  If one students' off campus harassment interferes with another student's on-campus education, schools have the right and the DUTY to do something "effective" about it.

Whether this will work, or not is anyone's guess.  But it may be one way around the free speech issue.

The governing Supreme Court case that has apparently led to students succeeding on free-speech grounds is Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community District (1969).  "Under Tinker, school officials can restrict or respond to student speech if that speech has caused or foreseebly will cause a substantial disruption at school or interference with the rights of students to be secure." (p. 72, Nancy Willard, Schools Have the Right to Punish Cyberbullies, p. 72-78 in Cyberbullying, cited above).

For the bullies...

A lot of our discussion has centered on protecting students from bullies. But how can we help the bullies themselves? I would like to know more about successful interventions for students that exhibit this behavior. I haven't seen much that goes beyond the standards outlined in a basic Ed Psychology textbook.

Movie On Bullying

I had seen the trailer for this documentary a while back and it looks very good. Here is the link to the trailer: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/bully/

I currently help out at Blacksburg High School, and the teacher I assist with has shown a movie in the past about bullying to her students. I can't remember the movie's name on top of my head, however I remember it being a successful adult talking to a group of students about his troubled past with bullying. It was definitely interesting, but I'm not sure if the students in the BHS class really took much from it. I was wondering what your guys opinions were on how effective showing movies on bullying and having class discussions could be?

cyberbullying on personal sites

Just as Lagrange88 brought up the legal issues with cyberbullying, I am thinking of cyberbullying cases happening at places outside of class blog or class blackboard. For example, individual students can set up their own blog or group blog with bullying content; individual students can send personal emails to attack other students; students can post mean comments on Facebook, twitter, or other social network. It will be difficult for teachers to monitor these online behaviors if the blogs are not for class use purpose. As Lagrange88 has pointed out in the article, schools can be sued for violating students’ free speech right if schools try to discipline the students. 

Therefore teachers need to model for students how to respect and tolerate each other, stop bullying immediately when spotting any bullying behavior. Most importantly, teachers need to lecture and discuss openly about bullying/ cyberbullying behaviors, as well as creating a contract with students regarding the responsible use of technology.

Check this out!

This one middle school developed a curriculum on cyberbullying! You can find a "virtual" book on this site with lessons pertaining to cyberbullying.

http://district.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=216981

Legal Issues with Cyberbullying

I found it really interesting when I read this page:

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/prevention/schools_role.html

Schools have been sued (and have lost these suits) based on disciplinary action taken regarding cyberbullying that has taken place off campus. The website recommends reserving the right to discipline cyberbullies in your school's AUP. This seems like a really good idea...if one of my students comes to me as a victim of cyberbullying and is seeking my help, I don't want to feel like I can't legally do anything about it. Even though state laws and policies exist against cyberbullying (see http://www.stopbullying.gov/laws/virginia.html for info on Virginia's laws), it's strange that schools can get in trouble for this.

I also took issue with how few groups are identified in the Virginia state law:

Race
Gender
Religion
Physical abilities

To me, this is a grossly incomplete list of factors that can lead to cyberbullying. Thoughts?

Resources for Combating Cyberbullying

In working with teachers and parents, I've used resources from Wired Safety, http://www.wiredsafety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=59&Itemid=89. WiredSafety.org is a US charity operating through its volunteers worldwide. It is the largest and oldest online safety, education, and help group in the world. Originating in 1995 as a group of volunteers rating websites, it now provides one-to-one help, extensive information, and education to cyberspace users of all ages on a myriad of Internet and interactive technology safety, privacy and security issues. These services are offered through a worldwide organization comprised entirely of unpaid volunteers who administer specialized websites, resources and programs. Wired Safety has more than fifty flash animations (many converted to QuickTime for Apple users), computer games (including Alex Wonder Kid Cyberdetective Cyberbullying Game), posters, banners, pledges, coloring and activity sheets for all ages, as well as printable guides, handouts, presentation materials, videos and interactive learning tools, lesson plans and community outreach materials. Hopefully, you will find these resources as valuable as I have.

Adults can't be cyberbullies?

So I was reading about what cyberbulling is at http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html. It says that when adults are involved it is not called cyberbullying, rather it is called cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. I don't really agree that adults can't be involved in cyberbullying. This may just be semantics, but I think cyber-harassment and cyberstalking should be (are) categories of cyberbullying. Does anyone else feel this way?

Cyberbulling and Blogs

Cyberbulling can take place on blogs. Kids can post mean and degrading things about others in their blog (which can be made public). It can be hurtful when the victim reads it, but it can also be hurtful when others read it (could embarrass the victim or the readers may even lash out at the victim).

I could actually see cyberbulling happening on scholastic blogs. I think the best strategies to overcome this as an instructor is to have all students use pseudonyms on the blog. Another precaution to protect one's students from outside cyber bullies would be to make the blog private so that only the class has access and posting abilities on the blog. I think it is also important for the teacher to monitor interactions on the class blog for any sort of cyberbulling. If it is occurring, the teacher could take away a student's blog posting ability and hopefully discipline the cyberbully.

Prezi the easy and fun presentation maker

I feel like Prezi draws connection between each slide. It is also very easy to see the overall idea of a presentation and how each part contributes to the main idea. Comparing to PowerPoint slides, I like the way Prezi help organize closely bonded concepts rather than letting them loosely scattered.

 Prezi also made online videos easier to be watched. Instead of opening the videos in the browser, they are embedded in Prezi itself, which helps presentation become smoother.  I think Prezi is a quick and fun presentation maker!

Prezi

Someone in my College Teaching Class gave a presentation this week using Prezi. Prezi made a good impression on me!

Prezi looks really cool and easy to use, but I had a small issue. I kept getting frustrated because while I was working, stuff kept moving when I didn't want it to! I think once I have more experience with the program, Prezi will be an awesome tool for me! The Prezi assignment that we did would be powerful learning tools (I am thinking specifically in online courses). I also think that having students making Prezi presentations may be just as powerful as concept mapping!

Using Prezi

I found that Prezi is a very user-friendly tool for the classroom.  The tutorial video was very useful, and anything it didn't cover was relatively easy to figure out.  I think these are much more visually appealing than a regular powerpoint.  Although Prezi wouldn't be very useful for many physics topics, I would definitely consider using it for those topics in which it would be useful.  It seems to me that these would be much more interesting for the students to watch and learn from than a powerpoint, overheads, or writing on the chalkboard.

Prezi and Concept Mapping

I found this short article about using Prezi in a college course, but I think the ideas relate well to any grade level. The author states that Prezi enables educators to escape the confines of linear presentations and encourage knowledge construction via higher order thinking skills in a manner that uses both visual and auditory channels. Unlike the linear model that moves from concept to concept, Prezi encourages learners to identify patterns, comparisons, relationships, and differences between information. Like a concept map, Prezi’s hierarchical style moves between concepts, topics, and subtopics while still retaining its relation to the foundational idea visually and, through the instructor’s voice, auditory.

This could be the basis for a great research study!

Read the full article here:

Prezi: Trading Linear Presentations for Conceptual Learning Experiences in Counselor Education

Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw, Liberty University

January 2011

http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=amanda_rockinson_szapkiw&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DUsing%2BPrezi%2Bfor%2Bconcept%2Bmapping%26src%3DIE-SearchBox%26first%3D111%26FORM%3DPORE#search=%22Using%20Prezi%20concept%20mapping%22

More on the Novak Article

For me, the part that really stood out for me was using concept mapping to plan for instruction (pg. 28). A teacher could create a macro concept map of what will be covered in the course. The macro concept map could then be divided into micro concept maps that would comprise of a lesson. I had always used concept mapping for review and seeing how topics fit together. The authors also suggest that concept mapping can be used as an evaluation (by itself or supplementing another assessment form like a multiple choice test).

Concept mapping can serve as an outline to students. Students are not always able to detect the major points in lessons. A concept map defines the main points and help students to see how all of the material that is being thrown at them fits together.

Concept Map Making?

I just wanted to gauge how much experience others have with concept mapping and whether or not they have a positive or negative attitude towards them. I have had a lot of exposure to concept maps in my earth and space science class in high school and my science methods course as an undergraduate. I like how they can keep what you learned organized and can show relationships between concepts.

However, this was only my second time attempting to make a concept map on a computer. The first computerized one I made I used PowerPoint. I found that to be somewhat cumbersome and preferred making concept maps the old fashion way with pen and paper. This time I tried a new software Inspiration 9. I found it to be pretty user friendly. I am highly considering purchasing the software for my own personal use and studying.

Anyone find another software for concept mapping that they liked?

Novak Article on Concept Maps

I am just now beginning to read through the Novak article and I just wanted to say that I absolutely love Figure 1. It is a concept map of concept maps. It may be nerdy, but I like it! It does a wonderful job capturing the essence of concept maps.

More on Edmodo and Pinterest & Social Media

In a class that I am in (College Teaching) we were discussing social media. Edmodo and Pinterest both came up in our discussion. Edmodo seemed to be a hot topic as almost everybody had heard of it and knew someone who used it. One of my peers said that her son's teacher uses it to e-mail assignment deadlines to both the student and the parents (this is the Blacksburg Middle School). She also e-mails parents tips for helping their students with specific assignments as well as study tips. She also uses Edmodo to contact parents to schedule parent/teacher conferences. The parents also get a courtesy e-mail reminder the day before the scheduled meeting. I guess what I found interesting about this discussion was how Edmodo was used to foster parent involvement in their child's education.

The Pinterest portion of the discussion was rather disappointing. Most of my colleagues acknowledged that Pinterest could be useful, but most are using it in an unscholarly way.

We also talked about Facebook & Linked In. Most of my colleagues believed it was okay to have a Facebook account as long as one is thoughtful about posts (pictures and verbal). We were discussing how to keep it professional so that potential employees don't get the wrong idea about you when they are considering you for a position (most employers google potential candidates and look at their Facebook & Linked In accounts). We also talked about linking both Facebook and Linked In accounts together (although I don't know how to do this) and keeping both consistent and honest. Sometimes potential employers look to verify your education or experience and if your Linked In and Facebook are not consistent (or consistent with what you put on your resume) it raises a red flag.

We also discussed whether or not we should friend our students. Everyone pretty much were in agreement that it would be inappropriate. I agree as well, but I do have a slightly different approach. Since I am a teaching assistant in chemistry, my students are of college age (I am a young graduate student) so we are close in age. I only accept friend requests from my students after they have completed my lab and it is certain that I will not have them as a student again. Does anyone have any opinions on this?