ETEC 698 - Technology and Social Justice Wrap-Up

My 6-week summer course in Technology & Social Justice has come to an end. I find myself feeling the way I feel after every other semester – relieved, yet a little at a loss as to what to do with myself. Anyhow, I enjoyed this course a great deal and thought I’d share my thoughts about it!

I’ve had several people ask me what course I was taking this summer and inevitably, my answer to them elicits some confused looks – “Technology and what?” So what exactly is that about? To be quite honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into either – but you have to admit, it’s a great course title! The topics we discussed in class varied a great deal from how technology can be used for social justice causes (i.e. political action committee websites), how technology can help disseminate information to all (making information something for all, not just a privileged few), the digital divide, how technology can help people in third world countries, as well as ethical considerations for new technologies and the implementation of technology.

The class was taught completely online with both synchronous class meetings (through Elluminate) and asynchronous discussion (Laulima forums – which is UH’s version of Sakai). In addition to looking at technology from a more global perspective, this course also introduced me to many great sources of information - which I will review at the end of this blog. I was also glad to see many parallels between course reading and some reading that I’m doing outside of class on microcredit as a mechanism for eradicating poverty (Banker to the Poor by Yunus). A blog on my review of Banker to the Poor is forthcoming as well – I’ll also be joining a book group that’s discussing Banker to the Poor tomorrow, which I’m also excited about!

I’ve decided to try to spend some of my “free time” reading in anticipation of a course I intend to take in the fall – EDEA 657 – Intro to Higher Education. I got a syllabus from a friend that took the course and lucky for me, the texts are already in the bookstore and I was able to find all the additional articles she assigned to read online as well! Hopefully the curriculum hasn’t changed much – but if it has, that’s okay…I’m sure the reading was assigned for a reason and they’ll be good!

Here are some of the resources I was introduced to in my Technology and Social Justice class that I thought I’d share:

Elluminate
Our class met online for synchronous discussions through Elluminate. It’s kind of like Skype but it’s mostly for classes or videoconferencing and has a virtual “blackboard” where PowerPoint presentations can be made or you can add text or draw. Also, the moderator can split the class up into smaller groups for discussion. While this does come with a fee, Elluminate.com does offer a “three for free” – meaning you can connect up to three people on Elluminate for free. –So give it a try!

OpenOffice
OpenOffice is incredibly awesome. It’s a suite similar to Microsoft Office except it’s better because: 1) it’s open source, 2) it’s FREE, and 3) it’s giving people an alternative to the mighty Microsoft monopoly (well…almost monopoly at least). Of the whole suite, I’ve only played around with “Writer” (i.e. “Word”) though there is also “Calc” (i.e. “Excel”), “Impress” (i.e. “PowerPoint”), “Base” (i.e. “Access”) and “Draw” (i.e. “Visio”). I think OpenOffice is an excellent option for schools and non-profits (and, well, everyone). Microsoft file formats (i.e. .doc, .xls, .ppt) can be imported into OpenOffice, and exported easily to .pdf and can also be exported to Microsoft formats. Highly recommended. *****

CreativeCommons
Prior to this course I was unfamiliar with CreativeCommons licensing. Since the internet makes it incredibly easy to share and transmit information that one creates (i.e. documents, research, photos) it makes sense that people will want to share and collaborate. When thinking about intellectual property in the information age, it’s important to consider the legal ramifications of what is used and shared and how it is referenced. Enter CreativeCommons – where you can go and apply for your own free licenses to allow others to share in your creations. This appeals to me from two perspectives: 1) everyone is viewed as a creator of knowledge…not just the people who have agents and publishers and 2) it encourages collaboration. I was impressed to see that people not only share images on which they allow others to build, alter, and enhance, but also share and re-mix music – it’s fantastic. Sometimes when I think about the youth of today and the internet, I become concerned because of issues like cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and spending vast amounts of time online – but I also think that the internet offers incredible opportunities to collaborate and connect. –And I think the younger generations see the potential in the internet to become creators and collaborators.

Second Life
Most of my classmates described Second Life as “creepy.” I actually thought it was really cool – and I can see how people really get into it. You basically create an avatar and you can change outfits, undress (which I did accidentally and then had difficulty locating my clothing…), talk to other people online, and become part of totally and completely different virtual worlds. From an educational perspective, I think it could potentially add another level to online learning – the idea that your avatar could actually participate in a virtual classroom is kind of cool (and I believe some colleges have used it for online graduation ceremonies). Personally, I feel like it would take me too much time to master, but overall, it’s pretty neat and I think everyone should try it just to see what it’s like!

American Memory Project
American Memory is a fantastic online resource of public domain content (transcripts, audio, video, etc.) from a variety of subjects that is part of the Library of Congress. I particularly like their sections on Culture/Folklife and Women’s History…they’ve even got some great information on the evolution of the conservation movement from 1850-1920! Anyone that is a fan of archives will love this site.

Columbia University’s Social Justice Wiki
So this is another great example of the intersection of technology and social justice. Here, wiki technology is used to allow people to add to an information archive of social justice topics of all kinds.

Inspiration Software– InspireData
In class, we played around with some Inspiration software including Inspiration, Kidspiration, and (my personal favorite) InspireData. These were all developed to help students (of a wide variety of ages) use computers to learn more visually. I downloaded the trial version of InspireData and was completely wowed by the technological capacity of the software, and how easy it was to use…I seriously wish this had been around when I was younger. Students can set up online surveys for their classmates to take and then can arrange the data into bar graphs, charts, and Venn diagrams! Talk about making data analysis accessible to people of all ages!

Thus ends my discussion of ETEC 698 – a great course that I highly recommend to my fellow classmates in the EDEA department. I will conclude this blog with a great quote: “Equal access to technology is not the same as equal access to equal technology” (NCES, 2004).