iorganise

So if you haven’t noticed, keeping track of those millions of networking sites you’ve joined is becoming increasing difficult.

But have you heard of life-streaming?  It’s where you find a crazy website (I use GizaPage.com) and set it up once, then it’s one site – all your personal profiles together.  Easy for you to access and and keep them up to date.

You can even publish your GizaPage on Google so everyone can see your stuff.  But at least this one has several levels of security and privacy levels which can be tweaked for each profile.

Not bad.  One we should be teaching the kids.  It might teach them how to organise their computer files better – maybe even their homework – or their bedroom!!  Nothing like keeping everything in the one place!!

igoogle

If you’re one of those people groovy enough to have a google account, you may have noticed just HOW MUCH STUFF you can do with it.  There’s groups and all kinds of things.  Most exciting perhaps, is Google reader where you can post anything on the internet you find relatively interesting and share it with others, or just keep it around to read later.  You can subscribe to follow others and all sorts of thing.  Of most concern as a teacher is Google profiles.  For students, it’s a pretty big risk as it asks all kinds of questions like – where do you live now?  What school do you go to?  etc etc.  For teachers, it’s an interesting networking tool, job seeking tool, or perhaps an evil way for everyone to find out everything about you (including potential employers and students).

The fact that you can link Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, just about everything means that if stupid, you could possibly open your ENTIRE world for the general public, or any freako to access.

I’ve made a Google profile and added links, but I’m being selective about what I share.  Perhaps not enough.

I’m finding the most difficult thing about being a member of an online culture (with its endless array of networking sites and places for you put your personal info) is just keeping my professional stuff separate from my private stuff so the whole world doesn’t know everything about me.  I’m becoming increasingly easy to track with the more sites I join.

But I do it anyway, because I have a to learn.  I want to know what kids are able to get up to.  I want to know what adults are likely to get up to.  So I can work out some strategies to protect myself and help GenY protect themselves as well.

In Australia, everyone’s worries sick about a national identity card… we should be more worried about Google.

iavatar

Ok, it’s pretty undeniable – avatars are COOL!  But why?  I mean, other than looking sexy and letting you be the person you could never be, what really is the point?

Well, I’m on a journey to find out.  I’ve joined Second Life.  I have no idea what I’m doing or what the point of it is.  It’s supposed to be some fantastic educational tool.  In fact, I’ve seen it in action teaching Chinese at Monash University, but it’s hard to use, it’s pretty slow and well… I can’t really see the point at the moment.  But it’s only my second visit into Second Life.  Maybe I’ll discover worlds of excitement, educational value and hopefully a few tricks of the trade.

Is it really something we teachers need to learn?  Or is just going to get outdone by the time we bother?  That is a mystery.  But I’m getting ready, just in case.

Second Life = time wasting machine – so far.

igeneration

Generation Y has been given a bad wrap.

As both a member of GenY and being a teacher ‘responsible for their education’ I think I see myself to be as qualified as anyone else to have an opinion on the matter.

I was recently in attendance at a training seminar which, by the way, has completely altered my perception on the world and everything human…  there came a point when, as always, the instructor had to show a DVD and couldn’t get the technology up and running.  To myself I was quietly disbelieving – after all, it was just a TV and DVD player… nonetheless…  I jumped at the opportunity, being the youngest there and the only member of GenY.  I saw it as a chance to represent my generation by making myself useful.

I received many interesting comments from my colleagues during and at the end of the seminar.  Some of them were in relation to my professionalism, personal insight, magical spirit yada yada.  But what took me by surprise was this one comment, “you can’t be a true GenY!”  When I questioned this GenX woman on the matter it was short and simple – you’re too polite, you’re too empathic, you’re too generous.  You’re just not like the others.  She went on to talk about all the GenYs she’d met in the business world and how selfish they all were: always thinking about how to get ahead the quick and easy way, no loyalty, laziness, ignorant.

Well, I can just say I wasn’t that shocked.  She wasn’t the first one to say it.  Amazon.com has an array of available texts on the matter – recruiting and retaining generation Y for teachers, for students, for managers for all sorts.  One is even called “Generation Y talks back”.  Well, have read none of these books, I cannot comment on them, but I have read one – it was one the earliest, written by Peter Sheahan.  What I took from his book is that Generation Y is discerning.  They are born with a bullshit meter on the heads (as I like to put it), and they are great at ethics.  They expect the best.

Some of his thoughts are apt.  Others I am less certain about, but this isn’t a blog about a book.  It’s a blog about a generation.

I think the whole paradigm of trying to understand people by their generation is underrated.  I mean, all in all, people are the same.  But growing up in different times, in different worlds – it has an impact.

I was born of pre-boomer parents.  Both my siblings are GenX.  Many would say I am too because of this.  But I grew up in a different world.  I could play computer games before I could tie my own shoelaces (which was quite young, I might add) and I could type better than I could do long division by the time I was 12.  I may not have gotten my own email address until I was 18 and I may have actually learned how to read books and research using card catalogues, but I’ve been quicker in catching up than many of my GenX counterparts – with the exception, perhaps of my brother who spends all his money on gadgets.  The difference however is, that after two years of owning his iPhone, he still marvels at the technology, a habit I gave up after only a couple weeks of owning mine.

Technology aside, what does GenY have to offer the future?

GenY is environmentally responsible.  I have met only a handful of GenYs in my lifetime who don’t see the point of recycling or solar electricity and unlike the rare Baby Boomer who gives a damn how far their shampoo came to get to them and what toxic chemicals are in it, GenY is anally retentive about checking labels.  GenY is socially responsible.  Overall, they are more concerned with combating world poverty, the right of women and ‘queers’  then they are with what brand of underwear they wear.  I have seen more baldies for cancer fundraising in GenY than in bikey gangs and I bet they are more avid users of condoms than any generation so far.  GenX really didn’t catch on very fast.  They are more spiritually aware – there’s no such thing as religion for sake of tradition in GenY.  They’re either in it with all of them, or they’re violently opposed.  Because they don’t give a damn for keeping up appearances, they ask loads of questions, establish their own ideas and are open to change.  They respect the beliefs of other in their generation because they understand the journey a person has gone through when choosing what they believe.

GenY is not as angry as you think they are.  They are in many ways grateful.  GenX built them some ‘wikid’ technologies to play with.  Their (generally) Baby Boomer parents didn’t give them guilt complexes over sex.  Science and communication is sufficiently advanced to allow them to travel where-ever they want to go and still keep in touch with friends and family and they feel safe in the arms of a healthy combination of Western and Eastern medicine and tradition.  And let me tell you, growing up with stir-fries instead of sausages every night has been great for our health.

However… GenY knows that work needs to be done.  I can’t say how much they or their children will blame pre-boomers and boomers for their excesses and messing up their world.  But I can tell you this.  They’re on a mission to fix it.  Gen Y is altruistic.  They’re selfishness and pigheadedness is justified.  They have to step on the shoulders of giants (as uncomfortable as that may be for the giants) so that they can get to the place of power to enable them to fulfill their destiny to humanity.

If you’re interested in the future of this world.  Let them.  Encourage them.  But don’t let them go unguided.  They need you – we need you.  And god only knows – you sure as hell need us.

iidentify

In the age of the internet, identity is a complex thing.  We are always have to define our identity – almost in an unending cycle it seems – as we join new online communities or social media sites.

I may tell you that I identify myself in certain ways.  But I may not.  Often it takes intimate and thorough investigation of a person’s blog, Facebook page or chat profile to put together the pieces that make up the person you are talking to.

This raises some interesting issues.  The one most people are rightly concerned about (especially teachers and parents) is the risk of harm to children because we believe they are less equipped to read these codes.  In fact, in many case, the ‘online predator’ will hide their identity and take on a false one in order to deceive.  This is a very easy task as most of us would know.

But there is a positive to all this as well.  Oppression is overruled.  Power is equally distributed.  Anyone involved in internet culture can form a name, purpose and identity for themselves quite unlike that which they have access to in the real world.  This has profound effects.

Children and teenagers gain power by becoming the experts on certain aspects of their own culture (we may call it pop culture or consumer culture, but it often more complex for the participants).

Race and ethnicity are invisible.  Gender is invisible.  Religion or faith is invisible.  Age is invisible.  Sexual orientation is invisible.  Disability is invisible.  Does this not allow minorities and the oppressed to move more freely in the virtual world?  The only exception is for those who do not have access to the internet or may not be able to afford the high speeds of access we now take for granted.  This is where class and poverty can still strangle and oppress.

There is a requirement that all online users get in touch with their own ‘queerness’ in a way.  The question of whether to ‘come out’ or not come out as woman, black, Muslim, American (we cannot even hear accents online) or wheelchair bound is a persistent one.  It is forever requiring negotiation – just like those deciding whether to ‘come out’ as gay, ADHD, atheist, HIV positive, bipolar or schizophrenic are constantly asking these questions of themselves.

So what possibilities for social change does this raise?

Either assumptions will become more capitulated or will people will learn to reject assumptions at all costs.  Perhaps the online user will realise what it feels like to be ‘queer’ online and have a bit more empathy for those who move in out of closets in their real worlds constantly.  Perhaps they will learn to question the assumptions they make of others before judgements are made via blog comments.

It is an interesting question and one requiring further consideration.

I’m still working out the implications this has for education and for young people around the world.  I think perhaps this explains their more liberal views on identity.

Any ideas?

ijobsearch

Coming into this tricky time of year, many teachers are putting their neck out and looking for work.  It’s a dog eat dog time of year with most of the positions already reserved for current staff members and contract rollovers.  What is to make of this?  My PhD housemate with years of research experience is having trouble finding work!  Who could believe it?  Surely most schools would revel in having a real ‘doctor’ on staff.  But no…

I chose to leave high school teaching only a year ago after only three years in the field.  I was one of the dogs who got eaten I’m afraid.  So this month, I willingly gave up my opportunity to return to my ongoing/permanent position.

Ironically, I’m having trouble finding work outside teaching now.  Part time work is never easy to come by, but necessary for me as I am still studying.  The life of academia is looking more promising than it once was.  But that won’t pay the bills until I am eligible for my PhD.

I’ve recently discovered that the age old myth ‘it’s who you know, not what you know’ is probably true.  Social and professional networks are much more important than I gave them credit for.  By sending an email to a group email list I am part of I received an email from an employer I had recently been checking out on the Net only to find there were no positions advertised.  To have an employer approach you is very exciting and quite a change!

Maybe I’ll get to explore the world of counseling.  It’s teaching in a way, but perhaps with less dog eat dog mentality.  I never expected the teaching profession to be so competitive.  Perhaps the counseling profession will be more collaborative?

Perhaps in another blog I’ll talk about the teacher retention problem.

iwonder

I’ve never been a superstitious person.

However, I drew a chart as part of my counselling course where make a rectangle and every side represents one quarter of your life. Then you draw a timeline around it of all the life events that have a major impact on your life.

I noticed this: one quarter of my life is around 7 years and one side was packed full of pretty sad stuff. It was a tumultuous time. The rest of the sides were relatively devoid of action.

I went to a drawing party last night. It’s my first experience of life drawing since school. It got me thinking about my year 12 art projects which focused on the female form. For two of my piecesi used broken mirror. I had had to break it myself.

I’m not a superstitious person but I did sure get 7 years back luck. It all started as I finished year 12.

Things are looking much better now though…

iwonder?

ibleed

Menstrual Cup

I am a woman. I bleed. But that doesn’t mean I can endlessly pollute the earth with chemical sanitary products.

The most important thing I learned about bleeding is that there are alternatives. When I discovered menstrual cups, my life changed.

I believe this technology will revolutionize the way women manage their bleeding. My life feels different. It feels better.  My world is different.  It looks cleaner.

I’m starting an enviromental menstrual revolution. Care to join?

Just search ‘menstrual cup’ on google. See what you find.

iteachilearn

I am always amazed at how much I learn from children just being around them.

They teach me how to smile and see the world with wonder.

They teach me that although life can be tough sometimes, it’s never bad enough to stop playing.

I’m glad I teach – because I love learning.

I wonder what I’ll learn tomorrow.