The Facebook Dilemma

So, I finally jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. My roommate, who is a GSI for an undergrad economics course at UMich, was telling me about how her students sometimes request to add her as a friend and she adds them but feels kind of awkward about it. At least she's dealing with college students. However, as secondary teachers, I wonder if it's appropriate to label our students as "friends" in this context. I'd love to get comments on this...

The "Blog Shirt" and Class Wiki (Aug 4 class)

1. Yes, I wore this shirt on last Friday. No, I don't actually mean it. I love reading and commenting on your blogs. It was just a joke, and I couldn't really pass it up when I saw it at the mall last week. And yes, that is a Captain Kirk poster behind me... :)

2. I joined the social studies group on Friday to present our treasure hunt resources for the class wiki since I posted an economics source. I really enjoyed hearing about everybody's resources. I never imagined that there were so many primary sources, lesson plans, and other teacher resources available online for free. I especially enjoyed an economics resource presented by Eryn, EconEdLink. This site has elementary and secondary lesson plans for several economics topics, from basic micro to competition policy and barriers to entry. I will definitely use this resource to prepare and draw inspiration for my lesson plans this year.

I presented the website for Foundation for Teaching Economics, which provides economics related workshops, internships, classes, and other opportunities for secondary students, FTE alumni, and secondary teachers. Their mission is to "introduce young individuals, selected for their leadership potential, to an economic way of thinking about national and international issues, and to promote excellence in economic education by helping teachers of economics become more effective educators." They offer juniors in high school a workshop called Economics for Leaders (EFL). This is a free week-long, residential program offered at various locations in the United States and utilizes university professors to introduce basic economic principles. Students also engage in various leadership building activities. EFL alumni are offered paid internship opportunities in Washington, D.C. during the summer after their junior year in college. Secondary social studies teachers (economics, history, current events, etc.) are offered several free programs, which can be residential workshops, one-day seminars, or online classes. These programs are intended to provide current teachers a review of economics principles, as well as classroom materials and instructional ideas. As an FTE alumni that participated in both the EFL and internship program (placement at the World Bank), I encourage teachers to provide information on this excellent opportunity to their secondary junior students. I wanted to re-post this information here on my blog, because I wanted to bring this opportunity to more than just the social studies teachers. My high school biology teacher made me aware of this opportunity, so I encourage teachers of any subject to pass on this information to their students.

Digital Divide (July 28 class: group project discussion)

I want to use this posting to discuss our group project addressing the digital divide between various technologically privileged and underprivileged groups. My group has spent a considerable amount of time deciding on how we should approach this topic, especially given the short time frame of half an hour to present this issue to the rest of the 504 class. We realized that there are many angles we could take in this controversy, but we decided to focus on the groups most immediately represented in the research and media: seniors (age), disabled persons (ability), low-income households (class), and women (gender). Initially, we considered focusing on race. However, we soon reasoned that the racial digital divide probably has more to do with issues of income (class) rather than any inate racial or cultural factors.

Moving forward, it seems silly to argue that a digital divide does not exist for these four major categories of people. Nevertheless, we need to argue some sort of point/counterpoint position. We decided that our point would involve arguing that the digital divide is a very serious problem and that not enough is being done to address these issues. The counterpoint will argue that while there does exist a digital divide, the benefits to society of bridging the divides do not justify the costs involved.

Finally, I would like to thank my group. We are working very well together and each person is at some point taking on the role of a leader and a team player (sorry for the cheesy cliche). I appreciate that people have volunteered to facilitate discussion, take meeting minutes, report to our audioblog, and contribute in general. Our ability to function as a cohesive team has increased my excitement and motivation to continue researching this controversial issue.