So I'm about 90% sure that I'm going to stick with this summer course. The hesitancy has NOTHING to do with the course itself, though. The topic is amazing and incredibly relevant to me and well...to all of us. We had our first online class meeting through Elluminate, which is a technology that I've only just used. So far I've only used Blackboard/WebCT and Laulima (Sakai). The main difficulty with Elluminate was that not everyone had the capacity to use a mic online so it was difficult to keep up with our small group discussions when some people were typing while others were speaking.
Our discussion was on Chapter I of our text which really provided a nice philosophical foundation to ideas such as the difference between information, knowledge, and wisdom, as well as the ethics of information technology. I was most intrigued by ideas regarding global wisdom, democracy, and power. While the chapter was from a global perspective, I couldn't help but draw parallels from the readings to what I hope will be a shift here in the US in our transition from Bush to Obama.
When Obama has been vocal in his desire to make government information available online to all, as well as making the internet available to all. Yes, I am biased, but I do believe the Bush administration was governing by trying to instill fear in its citizens and keep them (us) powerless as a means to control. Now, what Obama actually will do remains to be seen, but it is clear to me that Obama does desire to strive toward a democratic ideal by trying to promote the internet as a means of enlightening the citizens. This move would not just promote democracy through (hopefully) morally responsible citizens, but also opens doors to different perspectives and debate - a necessity for democracy.
Chapter 6 discussed the idea of digital disempowerment - including trends, political theory, and ethical considerations. This chapter also provided a solid framework from which to work, particularly in the history of democracy (from Greece to Europe to the US, to global ideals) as well as the role and ethical considerations of technology in the political arena. This article pointed out the way the Bush administrations' leader of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Michael Powell said that internet access was a "luxury rather than a necessity." -I think it's important to note that this is a good example of the way an ethical decision of one in power can be used to influence political policy (by saying it's morally acceptable to exclude people from online social networking). By the end of this article, it became clear to me that the key to overcoming the digital divide is through political will. --Which brings us back to a central question - how do we create political will? How do we engage citizens? How do we enable moral development?
My inspiration after these two readings ties in with one of my main research interests, access to higher education. In previous classes, I've researched reasons for access issues, as well as the role of the high school counselor in providing social capital for high school students and enabling college enrollment. As the internet becomes more and more mainstream, a necessity if you will, I am now thinking maybe I should study on the internet as it relates to college admissions. On one had, the internet can provide a certain level of social capital for underpriviliged students. On the other hand many admissions offices are going "digital," requiring that applications be submitted online, which indicates another aspect of the digital divide, and yet another way underpriviliged students are disempowered.
I've been going back and forth about whether or not to take a course over the summer, ETEC 698 Technology and Social Justice. My rationale for not taking the course is that perhaps I could use a break (I do work full time) and just spend time relaxing and catching up on my "for fun" reading list. You have to understand that for me, being surrounded by books and coffee is heaven. Of course, the course sounds fabulous, given my love for both technology and social justice...and perhaps it might be the perfect direction for my mind to be heading in after college student development.
I would also like to share my reading list here, in hopes that if I post it up and shout to the world that I'm planning on reading these books that I actually will! So, without further adieu...my summer (or perhaps year-long) reading list:
1) Banker to the Poor (Mohammad Yunus)- I've already started in on this one. A friend recommended it to me and mentioned that a local book club will be picking it up as one of their readings and I might have to join in. The book is by Pulitzer-Prize winning economist Mohammad Yunus who came up with the idea of micro-lending/microcredit. I think it will actually fit in quite well as a reading to go along with the technology and social justice course... 2) The Audacity of Hope (Barack Obama) - I had been hoping to read this for awhile but just haven't gotten around to it. Again, another reading that will, I think, tie in nicely with class! 3) Postethnic America (David A. Hollinger) - Another read I've been hoping to get to but just haven't. 4) Precarious Life (Judith Butler) - I bought this in hopes that I'd be able to read it with a book group but just haven't gotten around to it. 5) A Man Without a Country (Kurt Vonnegut)- Another one that's been sitting on my shelf. I think this will be interesting to read alongside with The Audacity of Hope... 6) The Gatekeepers (Jacques Steinberg) and College Unranked (Llyod Thacker) - These have also been sitting on my shelf for entirely too long. More admissions stuff for my brain to eat. 7) Generation Me (Jean Twenge)- Read a chapter for my last class which was great and will borrow it from DrM. 8) The Ghost Orched (Carol Goodman)- A book that didn't get the best of reviews, but she's one of my favorite authors. 9) Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood)- It's really a disgrace that I bought this book at least 3 or 4 years ago and still haven't read it. Haven't read any Atwood in awhile. 10) To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)- I'm reading this because it's a "disgrace" that I haven't yet read it!
Here are the books that I saw the last time I was at the bookstore that I wanted to read but they're at the bottom of the list since I've already got a 10 book waiting queue. 11) Supercapitalism - Robert B. Reich 12) Class Matters - Bill Keller 13) The Trouble with DIversity - Walter Benn Michaels 14) Animal Vegetable Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver 15) Outliers - Malcom Gladwell
Well, my previous post was my final post for this course, but don’t worry, it will not be my final blog post! I will continue blogging reflections on education, sociology, technology, life, and what’s going on in the world. Of course, if something pops into my mind as related to college student development, I’ll be sure to make mention of that as well (I’ve already got one!)
To anyone out there who happens upon my blog, I have this to say to you: Start a blog of your own! For me, it’s a fun way to process and think about my course readings…and I think it also helped me retain the information better. I’d do my readings, think about them (knowing that I was going to blog about it), pick a specific idea or perhaps do an overview, and say what it was about, what I thought about it, and sometimes relate it to myself in some way. All these efforts have helped me to retain more of what I’ve read and learned than had I not had my blog to reflect on it. (Not to mention, this is much better than my undergraduate method, which I won’t mention here…but let’s just say it involved last-minute reading during finals…..) Another great thing about blogging is that if you want to look back on something you wrote about before, it’s really easy to do a search to find the blog (as opposed to a journal where you’ll have to flip through pages).
Another thing I've started to do this semester is to read the Chronicle (or at the very least, skim the headlines for interesting articles) daily. I also follow The Chronicle, Women in Higher Ed, Inside Higher Ed, and Mount Holyoke College on Twitter!
"What is a digital developmental concert?" you may ask. Well, it is an online concert (meaning it's posted online and you can watch it whenever you want), and it's been recorded digitally! (I know, right? Way to marry technology with student development!)
This idea has morphed quite a bit since I got the idea to do something musical. At first, I thought that maybe I'd write a song about one of the theories...but that never came to fruition. Then, I thought, Hey! I'll do songs geared for the developing college woman using theories focused on women (ie. Josselson, Gilligan, Belenkey, etc.) But then I thought about it more and thought, you know while more females may more closely identify with this song, males can (and should) have something to gain from these songs as well!
Each song is posted separately with some commentary on why I picked it and how I think it's related to college student development. Perhaps some of the ways I will tie these specific songs to student development will be tenuous at best I hope y'all will appreciate the effort that me and my calloused fingers have put into this.
WARNING: While I do fancy myself a hippie, indie, folk singer wannabe (think Joni Mitchell & Joan Baez), and I am far from the American Idol pop/rock singer of today! There are a few botched chords here and there but...well...just go along with it!
I Hope You Dance (Original: Lee Ann Womack)
Okay, so I'm pretty sure this song is about breaking up, but, I know that parents find the lyrics appropriate and sentimental when they reflect on their children growing up. Lyrics like, "I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance, never settle for the path of least resistance" conjure up images in my mind of the messages that parents send their children off to college with. -It's about growth and challenging yourself.
Breakaway (Original: Kelly Clarkson)
This song carries a somewhat similar meaning as the previous song, but this one is from the first-person perspective. Both this song and I Hope You Dance make me thinking of Chickering and Reisser's vector of "moving through autonomy towards interdependence."
You Were Meant for Me (Original: Jewel)
At first, I wasn't going to include this song. It doesn't exactly have a "positive message" to send out and it's kind of whiny. However, college is a time where students are learning to manage emotions and develop mature interpersonal relationships (more vectors!) and thus, many students will probably like this song because they'll be able to identify with it. "Dreams last for so long, even after you're gone. I know you love me and soon you'll see you were meant for me and I was meant for you" - just not wanting to let go of a relationship that's over.
Luka (Original: Suzanne Vega)
I read somewhere that this song is about a child that is abused at home. I thought of this song from a couple perspectives. First of all, I saw this from the perspective that you actually know this child which got me thinking of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. What do you do? What can you do? And then I got to thinking about the fact that there are many students in colleges and universities across the nation that were abused as children by their families or even now by their significant others. Going through experiences such as abuse, depression, and other psychological issues can hinder development, which is one of the reasons it's important for colleges and universities to have counseling centers to help support students that may need some extra help dealing with issues from their childhood so they can develop into healthy adults!
What Do You Hear in These Sounds (Original: Dar Williams)
Oh, Dar. How can you not love Dar? This kind of continues the trend of the previous song. "What Do You Hear In These Sounds" is about a woman in therapy. Dar has been very public with the fact that she was depressed in college and that, had she not seen a therapist, she didn't think she would still be alive today. There's a part in this song where she talks about having walls and basically, being afraid of her own voice and herself. She makes the Berlin wall analogous to her own psychological walls at one point, which I thought was brilliant: "I wake up and I ask myself what state I'm in and I say, well, I'm lucky because I am like East Berlin. I had this wall and what I knew of the free world was that I could see their fireworks and I could hear their radio. And I thought that if we met I would only start confessing, they would know that I was scared, they would know that I was guessing. But the wall came down and there they stood before me and they're stumbling and they're mumbling and they're calling out just like me." --Powerful stuff. This song also got me thinking about Josselson's identity development for women as well (perhaps from moratorium to achievement???)
He Thinks He’ll Keep Her (Original: Mary Chapin Carpenter)
Okay, so I love this song and I loved it in college, so I just had to put this one in. It follows the life of a woman through her marriage, having children, getting divorced, and entering the workforce at 36 years old for minimum wage. Hrm. Perhaps the fear of this happening is why the average age of marriage keeps going up, and is why women from my generation are getting their education and working towards self-sufficiency. I'm not sure if this song should be a "lesson" necessarily, but I love it.
As Cool as I Am (Original: Dar Williams)
Yes, more high-quality Dar! This song is completely brilliant. The lyrics that in the chorus that repeats are "I will not be afraid of women." This song follows the relationship of a woman that is with a man that just keeps on looking at and talking about women and saying things like, "I hope you're not threatened" by the fact that he does this. The man has essentially managed to both make the woman feel worse about herself, AND make her jealous of other women! At the end of the song, the woman leaves the man to "go outside and join the others - I am the others." YES!
I am Woman (Original: Helen Reddy)
Thanks to my mother, I was practically raised on this song. This is definitely the "women's anthem" of the 70's! So empowering, and so full of pride! (Think identity development here!) While the song definitely feels full of that "I am woman" pride, the end of it makes me think the perspective is really beyond one of immersion. My favorite line is in the last verse, "but I'm still an embryo with a long, long way to go until I make my brother understand." <-- Sing it, sister! It's not enough to merely empower women - it's the perspective of the all the men out there that we need to change! (Agent group -- Hardiman & Jackson anyone???)
Everything I Need (Original: Melissa Ferrick)
This song was very popular at my college - and why not? Empowering women towards self-authorship! You've got what you need - yes, there will be hard times, and it won't always be easy - but you've got what you need within you.
Closer to Fine (Original: The Indigo Girls)
First of all, I love this song. Second of all, it's complex and simple at the same time! Relating this song to our readings, I think this song shows a very high level of cognitive thought processing. Basically, the song is talking about all the complexities of life and how you can search high and low for answers (going to college, reading the bible, the fountain of life, children, going to a bar), but there is no one answer! "There's more than one answer to this question pointing me in a crooked line." -It's not about finding the right answer, it's about making sense of the many different answers there are and making sense of it for yourself.
uh-oh. here comes trouble. bad first impressions. sarcastic. humorous. feminist. musicial. critical. helpful. friendly. caring. in my head. curious. knowledge eater. so full I'm overflowing. so empty I ache to be filled.
