I really enjoyed Jesse’s guest lecture this week. He was a wonderful speaker and brought up some points that are so important to consider as educators stepping into classrooms which are so saturated in technology and media.
During the lecture, I realized which route I’d like to take for the group tech project. I’m quite interested in the idea of harm reduction, which is normally related to issues of drug use. But at its core, harm reduction recognizes that you will engage in certain activities and strives to make those activities safer. Wearing a helmet while biking, for example, is harm reduction. I want to explore how I can, as an educator, use harm reductive strategies in my classroom to lessen the negative impacts of social media on youth. I think it’s important to recognize that technology and media is so integrated in their daily lives, and I’m interested in how I can engage students to being open to talking about how they feel about social media, the pressures, and the positives.
Another side of social media which I was thinking about quite a lot during Jesse’s lecture was how to can be a place for community and connection for some youth. If there’s a trans student in a school where no other students are openly trans, that student could find resources and a sense of community online where they feel safe and accepted. On the other hand, it’s important to talk to youth about what sides of the internet they’re exploring, and how to think critically about the information they’re absorbing and the communities they may find.
I also decided to review my own internet footprint after Jesse’s lecture. My instagram and facebook are both private, and I don’t use my last name in either of those profiles which makes me feel a bit safer about my online presence. When I type my name into Google, there’s a pages my name is mentioned in/my photo is in on the University of Winnipeg website, where I did my undergrad. There’s also a few photos of me from when two of my former workplaces were featured in the Winnipeg Free Press. A few articles and blog posts come up which I authored during my undergrad practicum too. Overall, there’s nothing I would be concerned about students/parents/administrators seeing if they discovered my online presence, as I’ve maintained a fairly low-profile and private footprint, as I want to continue doing so.
