Though somewhat idealistic, this video: Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing us (which I originally found through another blog) is a great demonstration of the use of new media to demonstrate a concept…about new media. Why do I call it idealistic? Maybe because of my post earlier today about a substitute teacher facing jail time because a school didn’t have antivirus software installed, and it didn’t occur to her to immediately pick up the evil computer and fling it across the room to cast its demons out. So on the one hand, we, as end users of a computer are more empowered than ever before, what with having access to all this xml goodness. And on the other hand, we have a society that’s “not quite there yet” in terms of both understanding these increasingly more complex tools and refereeing the human behavior surrounding the digital capabilities.

This sounds like a joke. A substitute teacher facing sentencing for not shutting down a computer fast enough? I found a discussion of this on Intellagirl’s blog, and the original link back to the PC World article. The analysis at PC World is enough for you to get a full sense of what unfolded. The author, Steve Bass, correctly pinpoints the blame back to the school not having antivirus software installed and firewalls enabled. But let’s take it a step farther. Isn’t the real blame the creators of malware who willingly and forcefully subject us to advertising porn as well as real porn through their malevolent tactics? I’m also wondering why the state of Connecticut is wasting taxpayers money to try a substitute teacher. Further, the comment from a juror on Intellagirl’s posting– “If a 40 year old school teacher does not have the sense to turn off or is not smart enough to figure it out, would you or any other person wanting her teaching your child or grandchild?”– doesn’t even make sense!!! It’s mind boggling. This isn’t a contract renewal meeting, it’s criminal court!

I hope this turns out to be some internet hoax.

Cleaning through files on my computer I found a random word document with the following reading list. As it is doing me absolutely no good deep in the recesses of my computer, maybe posting it here will remind me to find these. I think I did read the Clifford Stoll book. If I’m thinking of the right book, it was not written with an overly academic tone, which is to say, it was very accessible- a lighter read than one might expect given the topic.

• Rose, Ellen. User Error: Resisting the Computer Culture (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2003).
• Shenk, David. Data Smog : Surviving the Information Glut (San Francisco, Calif. : Harper Edge, 1997).
• Stoll, Clifford. High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don’t Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian (New York: Double Day, 1999).
• Adams, F. Gerard. The e-business revolution & the new economy : e-conomics after the dot-com crash (Mason, Ohio : Thomson/South-Western, 2004).
• Bell, David. An Introduction to Cybercultures (New York: Routledge, 2001).
• Day, Peter & Schuler, Doug. eds. Community practice in the network society : local action/global interaction (New York : Routledge, 2004).
• DeRose, Steven J. The SGML FAQ book : understanding the foundation of HTML and XML (Boston : Kluwer Academic, 1997).

Affective objectives are problematic in instructional design practice. I recognize that there are taxonomies that elaborate on the development of affective objectives, but I will use the definition that most resonates when I hear the term “affective objectives”:

Affective Learning Domain Objectives emphasize a feeling, a tone, an emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection. Affective objectives vary from simple attention to selected phenomena to complex but internally consistent qualities of character and conscience. In other words, affective objectives deal with how a student should feel about something (e.g., listen attentively, enjoy music, appreciate literature). From http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/learning_domains.htm

My own emphasis is added above. It doesn’t matter so much that you think and reflect on what is being studied so much as you value it. When I read that description, brainwashing comes to mind. Therein lies the problem with affective objectives–they are values that we wish to impose on learners. Aren’t affective objectives implicit in the educational process? We already chose the subject areas that would be offered, designed the curriculum, picked who would be read or specifically what would be studied. If it weren’t something that a number of people felt was valued, why would we be asking someone else to learn it? We can write them into program goals, add them to mission statements and so forth, but they are not learning objectives.

A student in class tonight suggested that the way we can start to measure an affective objective was by asking the student to reflect and apply the subject at hand to one’s own life. I’m not convinced that this measures the fulfillment of an affective objective. Why? Because I still don’t know if the student appreciates, values, cherishes the subject/object that I set out for them to develop emotion toward. The student may not know, even as they are doing it. Even if they tell me they do, how can I trust that their sentiment is valid, particularly if I start trying to attach a grade to it.
Requiring critical reflection and application of a subject to one’s own life is more effective than starting out with affective objectives in the first place. It doesn’t measure those affective intentions of the educational process, but it is far more powerful a tool. First, it is the first step to giving students the tools they need to be critical thinkers. At the same time, educators who require students to actively engage with the material of their subject and apply the principles being learned to their daily lives will likely achieve their intentions of creating a lifelong love of what they are teaching.

What a pain in the neck. I lost the password to post here, and due to various constraints I have against sending email from this blog and registering here as well, I had to go into the SQL database and fiddle around. Hopefully I will get back to posting now that I have that straightened out!