Thoughts on Kony

It’s hard to be on social media and miss the buzz on the KONY2012 campaign. In all honesty, I have not watched the video. The LRA’s reputation precedes it. In October, President Obama announced that he was sending 100 soldiers to Africa as advisors, specifically to target the LRA. His announcement made a little noise in the newsmedia and then disappeared. It is a little odd therefore that less than five months later, this massive campaign ignites the social media. I see it as quite a testament to the ephemerality of news and both the awareness and memory of many who seem to spend more time on social media than the news media.

Joseph Kony has done horrible things. What makes his atrocities even worse is he claims to do it in the name of God (amid a strange mix of occult tribal faiths). I would dearly love to see him stop, preferably repent, or failing that, be removed from the scene permanently.

Yet, when I first heard of the KONY 2012 campaign, I had reservations. I guess the main reason was that I’ve been on the web long enough to be suspicious of any online movement or sensationalism. Thus, I didn’t rush to watch it or support it. Sure enough, as more information came out about the Invisible Children organization, there was reason to be cautious.

The Digital Age

Last week, the Chronicle of Higher Education posted a blog called, “The Challenges of Digital Scholarship,” that discussed the changing reality of online scholarship and even “pre-peer review” online before submission to a journal or publication of a book. The idea is to enhance collaboration and refine work before it gets into the literature rather than waiting until after.

Although the post doesn’t mention this, it may be a way to combat the rising rate of retractions in the literature because more eyes see it before ‘official’ publication. One source in the article even quipped that “blind peer review is dead. It just doesn’t know it yet.”

Technology Learning Curve

I had hoped to have the long-awaited mp3 of Gerald Schroeder’s recent talk on the origin of humanity posted today. However, there is quite a learning curve for each newly added bit of technology. Adding pictures wasn’t too bad, and once I found Scribd, I could post PowerPoint presentations. If I did a video, YouTube is supposed to be pretty easy. However, I’ve had trouble with creating a podcast. Blogger doesn’t host audio files, which is fine, but I’ve had trouble finding a site to host the mp3 file in a way that Blogger would properly interpret.

I’ll admit it—I’m cheap. I have enough Scot in me to look for the free way of doing something over the paid way if at all possible. Thus, to date, this blog has only cost me time. I’m not sure how other bloggers do their podcasts, and since I usually do this late at night, I can’t just call folks up. Therefore, long story short, Dr. Schroeder’s talk is postponed yet a while longer.

This post is more than just a minor rant. I do have a point:  as educators teaching the first truly Internet generation (students who started kindergarten after email had become somewhat ubiquitous), we are teaching folks who are immersed in the latest technology and its jargon and quicker to adopt it than we typically are. While we could show our parents and grandparents how to use a computer, many of us now need to be shown how to use social media and the like. We also tend to have a certain mistrust of the Internet because of privacy and security concerns, yet our students tend to be significantly more blasé.

Some preliminary studies show that current students have a much harder time learning with ‘traditional methods’ because they are so technology driven. I struggle with how to incorporate things like Facebook and Twitter into my lab courses. My institution uses Blackboard course management software, and I use it heavily, but hate it because it is so clutzy, yet it has nearly everything in one place so I don’t need to find a dozen different platforms to host various aspects of online communication. Of course, this means that I am behind on learning those platforms.

One of the social revolutions we are currently experiencing is that the media is becoming nearly as important as the message, for good or ill. As educators, usually with relatively little support, we must now become masters of both. Competence in only our field of study is soon no longer going to be sufficient. I predict that in the next 25 years, we will not be able to recognize education or the University/Higher Ed system because of the transformation taking place.

As Christian educators, we can take the lead in anticipating and shaping that form, and in such a way that our salt and light has a magnified impact, not just on students, but on the quality and integrity of education. Or, we can keep doing things the same way and let others take the lead, forcing us to spend our careers playing catch-up yet again during major cultural change.

SDG

Social Networking

Online social networking is here to stay. It is astounding the number of creative ways it is being used by all walks of life, and so fast! As a somewhat old-fashioned educator (especially for my age!), I struggle with the short attention spans of my students and the new ways they like to learn. A colleague sent me this YouTube video and blog article that you might find interesting as well.

That’s not all. Entrepreneurs are using social media too. I have some friends who have come up with a new concept of the online daily coupon, where they exclusively use social media to spread the word about their new company, MooLaLa, and the money they would spend on advertising goes to pay the members (sign up is free) for telling their friends about it. It combines Groupon, Facebook and multi-level marketing in an innovative way.*

I’ve mentioned previously how I refuse to have a Facebook page because I want to keep a personal/professional barrier between me and my students. I try to be vigilant in what I say in emails, for, as another colleague states, “Don’t put into email anything you don’t want on the front page of the newspaper.” I do have a Twitter account that you will never find. Educators are finding ways to use these venues to aid in their teaching, and I don’t see how they have the time. Twitter is so transient, I’d feel like I was repeating myself to answer the same question over and over. I have a hard enough time keeping my extensive Blackboard sites reasonably up to date.

In light of this, I am trying to reexamine how I teach my labs to see if there is a way to incorporate this new way of life and learning. Our Christian faculty group will explore the idea this semester to see how we can use it both for ministry and more effective teaching. One faculty ministry has developed a somewhat primitive version of Facebook for Christian faculty to share their testimony, and you can find my page in one of the weblinks in the right hand column of this page.

Students are also increasingly challenging why they need to learn certain things, and want to know how to integrate what they learn from us with their online world—how to mix chemistry and social media into a profitable entrepreneurial venture, for instance. When we tell them that Facebook is what you have when you fall asleep studying, we lose credibility.

The early church, as it expanded to new cultures and new areas of the globe, took full advantage of the things around them that pointed to the Gospel. Think about Paul in the Areopagus, and St. Patrick and the shamrock. I know of a missionary in the South Pacific that, when translating the Bible into the native tongue had to change the wording of Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock…” In the culture in which he was immersed, they lived in huts, and only a thief would go to the door and knock to see if anyone was home. A friend would stand in the street and holler out to the inhabitants. Thus, his translation was, “Behold, I stand in the street and shout…”

As Christian faculty in a rapidly changing world, we are continually finding ourselves in a new culture of students, and need to learn how they learn, communicate and find value, adjusting our teaching methods (and ministry methods) to match. All of this on top of research, service, family, ministry, etc…

Whew!

*Disclosure—If you click on the MooLaLa link and join, I have the potential of benefitting financially from it, as you and your friends who join would be part of my group. Please feel free too! But it is appropriate for me to be upfront about it.

SDG

To FB or Not to FB

Facebook, Twitter, and Email, oh my!

The Internet has revolutionized our professional lives. Scholarly literature searches are done completely differently now, and it has radically altered the way our students engage us. They will email us at the drop of a hat and wait hours or days in frustration for us to get back to them when 30 seconds with the syllabus would have answered their question. Faculty set up twitter pages for their classes and use them to get questions from the class during lecture. Social media is changing the barriers between us and our students.

I have struggled with how to sign my email to students and finally settled on using my initials. Writing “Robb” is way too informal, “Robb Wilson” seems redundant, and “Dr. Wilson” seems pretentious to me (long story behind that, but not worth the electrons to post it). Many if not most students are oblivious to netiquette in email, addressing me as “Hey Robb” or forgetting to indicate what section they are in or using texting shorthand and highly colloquial language. (I guess to them it is “cooloquial,” or something.) Sometimes, I will write back demanding proper/complete information before I will answer their question, other times, I’ll make the demand and give them the info, reminding them that they are asking me for a favor, so it is in their best interest to ask properly.

Then we get to Facebook. I know many faculty have an FB wall, and some even create them for their classes, which is cool. I flatly refuse to get on FB, especially to create a personal page. I know there are various privacy settings, but there is way too much info you can get even off of a private page just by doing the right Google search, and I want (and feel it is professional) to keep certain work/personal boundaries unscalable to students (and administrators). Once in my first year or two at my current institution, a student asked her TA for an extension on a lab report well over a week in advance, which is unusual. She claimed she was going to Kansas for a family reunion. On a whim, the TA looked up the student’s FB page where she declared, “Woohoo! I’m going to a Kansas beerfest this weekend!!” The TA did not grant the extension, and warned me the student would likely contact me for it. That weekend, pictures of her plastered at 10:30 am on Saturday were posted. Lo, and behold, Sunday night I receive an email from her saying she was in Kansas and too ill to travel. Can she have an extension? No. Get well soon. Then there is the problem of TA’s ‘friending’ their students. Bad idea.

I’m answering email from students 24 hours a day already, why do I want to friend them, and have them know who my friends and activities are? Perhaps there’s a mentorship or ministry opportunity there, but I feel like too much of my life is on the Internet as it is. I say, unplug from the Matrix for a while from time to time.

There’s something about the Internet that gives folks the false sense of anonymity. How often have you been on a plane sitting next to a total stranger and gotten their entire life story, skeletons included? It’s worse on the web. Because people are alone on their computer, they don’t think/realize that what is published online is available to anyone and everyone. Security professionals warn against putting your family info and birthday on the web. People can figure out your age and mother’s maiden name very easily and, whoops!, there goes your identity. We need to realize that and teach it to our students. Chances are, most will think we’re overreacting. That’s fine.

On the other hand, it can be a positive thing to share your life on line. While I choose not to for myself, here is a beautiful and tragic story that evolved on Facebook and was shared by the Washington Post.

Then, of course, there’s blogging….

SDG