My latest posts show that this is the area I have been playing around with, the idea that people want to be heard, (and seen,) and that they sometimes at least have little of interest to say, but they want to say it instantly.
I’ve also become fascinated by the idea of what is revealed and what is hidden. A lot of Social Networking sites are carefully crafted representations of our lives, nothing the matter with that – particularly for teenagers who are struggling with all kinds of identity issues. But I have tended to see them as a way of bolstering your own self image. Second Life provides pople with another way of representing themselves, this time by creating an avatar, sometimes a more glamorised version of the self, and in the case of some disabled participants, a freer version of the self, which doesn’t invite attention to the disabilities suffered.
I feel that as far as education is concerned there is a great deal of double think going on, educators are now being encouraged to free up the national curriculum at Key Stage 3, Head Teachers are jumping onto that band wagon, and we as teachers are being asked to teach creatively, to teach creativity, and to use new technology. I am entirely in favour of teaching differently, learning in new ways, but I am fearful of the hotch potch which may emerge from everyone leaping onto Web 2.0 without knowing why they are doing it, or what it can deliver effectively.
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