Alas, the final Blog entry is here.

I enjoyed this class! It gave me a great many headaches because I had to think. Which is a sad distinction for a college course to have; but it’s true. Not many college courses require independent thought, they just want you to eat some information a professor digested and spit up; then you’re evaluated based on your ability to likewise regurgitate the material. Independent thinkers are successful only inasmuch as they are able to mask rogue ideas as tried-and-true principles. I’d not argue some concepts, like if x=1 and y=2 then x+y=3, in light of that regurgitation can have its merits. But not many professors see the benefit of teaching students to apply principles in a unique and independent way. Even for solid disciplines like Math or Physics have need of revolutions. There could be shakers passing through these courses who are suppressed into thinking college has no need for new ideas. Furthermore, new ideas are valuable only relative to their ability to further establish the old ones.

For that reason I value Dr. Goodnow’s courses (the mere 2 I’ve taken). If I was able I’d have taken more. It’s not brown-nosing. I suck at brown-nosing, just ask my employer who laid me off this past week in favor of keeping another less experienced employee. I’m not bitter; I’m just not good at kiss ass and sometimes that hurts me! It sure can hurt in college and I’ve enjoyed engaging “crazy” authors like Neil Postman, Wood-Smith was alright and more ordinary. But the overall premise was a fresh one for me. I’m tired of living for someone else’s ideas and want some of my own. To find someone who is educated and values others ideas seems a rarity to me. As such I valued the ideas I’ll take away from this course. It isn’t the principle of technology and communication as much as it is the ability to stretch myself out. The ability to say “x+y=6” and have to support it. This is difficult to do, but at the end of the day that is what I’ll remember. That I had to think and I found a little truth from my efforts.

For the criticism I can’t say much. Most of my hard critiques are aimed at the university processes and it wouldn’t be fair to level an assault upon a course operating in the university system. Given the requirements of university and the limitations of an online format I felt the class was very effectual. A chat room assignment would have been interesting. If a timed chat was used as an experience to “blog” about it would have been very fun. I’ve experienced discussion in a classroom setting, but in an online forum it would be interesting to see how the dynamics of communication might change.

I understand why we had a textbook like “wood-smith” but I didn’t enjoy it much. I’m really unsure of how you’d introduce educational concepts to a topic without an academically minded text. I wonder if concepts would be just as effective if provided outside of a textbook, just as a matter of fact on a word document for example. Then that may open more time for assignments or another opinion (perhaps a contrasting one). That would have been interesting to explore, the internet is still new and allows for a lot of contrasting ideas.

All in all I had a great time with this course. My only regret is there are no other options to continue learning like this though the Cascade-Campus in Bend, OR. Thanks Dr. Goodnow!

News Story

I read an article (there are several) detailing the controversy between a police officer and Craigslist.com’s adult classifieds. The officer claims the site is promoting illegal and unhealthy activity. Because the internet allows individuals to mask their identity, it is difficult for law officials to find activity that is illegal and harmful. The officer produced witnesses, under aged girls who testified that the availability of the adult classifieds was too tempting; as such they solicited using the website. Craigslist.com issued a response to the officers’ accusations. Craigslist.com was astute in their stand against illegal activity, they noted that stand is posted on the website in multiple places. To their credit they have fully cooperated with law enforcement in every circumstance where illegal activity was suspected. An interesting fact to consider is how Craigslist.com charges a fee to list an adult classified add. This could open the door for Craigslist.com to be categorized as a “pimp” and from what I understand make all activity tied to the adult classifieds illegal. However, craigslist.com has donated all the money to charity.

This situation opens questions of corporate responsibility, appropriate regulatory action, and the very sensitive and pertinent issue of pedophile activity on the internet. For me personally I have a very astute position against any activity that harms children. But, these girls who are using the website illegally are 16-18. Furthermore these girls are eliciting themselves voluntarily. So for me there was a bit of a dilemma; in today’s society girls and boys are exposed to more mature material and circumstances than they were just 50 years ago. It seems to me that the result is teens behave on a more mature level than previous generations. Whether this mature level of behavior is successful or not could be debated, but I don’t think it can be denied that kids must grow up at an earlier age. So when is a child an adult? It seems to me that this issue opens that issue for debate. Maybe 18 is too young, maybe it is too old. Either way the internet allows for children of younger ages to successfully engage sexual activity. My question is, “why are they doing that?” Does our society put undue pressure on them at an early age only to hold up a huge “stop” sign for them until they are 18? Again, I believe wholeheartedly in protecting the innocense of children, but this activity seems a difficult one to properly tackle via larger socital means.

With the opportunity for under aged teens to successfully engage sexual activity what is society to do? It seems to me that if Craigslist.com is banned from facilitating this activity I do not think it will be hard for this activity to find another place in the internet. This question leads me to the question of what is appropriate regulatory action? If honest websites such as Craigslist.com are shut down what freedoms might society be willing to surrender to resolve this issue? Not that I’d advocate no action, but I do think this particular issue has potential to be the Achilles heel to societies free use of the internet. My concern is that websites such as Craigslist.com act in a manner that at least within the legal perameters set by government and society. But where those perameters are inadequate to prevent harmful activity I am leery of further regulation. Where does one draw the line? I’m not totally sure, this issue is a difficult one for me.

WILD CARD!!!

Recently I had an interesting discussion with someone via email. This person is my cousin and he had sent me (and others), directing me to this website: http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/11.08/bilderberg.html. Feel free to check it out. Here was my terribly sarcastic response, which brought somewhat of a heated debate.

“Great idea “History Channel”, what better way to combat unsettled economic times by proposing outrageous claims of secret societies controlling the world and driving us to a “globalized version of Nazi Germany”. Cultivating widespread distrust in the social and economic systems our economy needs is a grand idea.

Its not any news to find out there are a select few people calling most of the shots in the world. I’m glad the people of the “silverbearcafe” have finally caught on to one of the most blatant facts of history, namely that the systems of government are ruled by a few powerful members of society. Brilliant insight.

These people are nuts, interesting in the same nature that a comic book would be; and about as helpful!”

This situation brought about a slightly heated debate between folks about the legitimacy of facts presented by the History Channel. It was particularly pertinent to the recent chapter in Postman’s book. The situation revolved around how our culture innately thinks scientifically. In life I look for hypotheses, theories, and evidences supporting or usurping whichever idea I encounter. I have been taught that objective thought is superior to faith driven thought; I also value my objective thought when it does not discriminate against other thoughts, just when it disproves the ones containing no verifiable evidence. The point (I think) is this: we operate in a scientific world. I recognize not everybody embraces science… or that science is always accurate… but everyone values scientific reason though they may call it by a different name. The point is I inhabit a worldview claiming to be on the crest of superior technology, the pinnacle of human discovery, and the ultimate realization of self-actualization. And all this is supported, in theory, by science.

So many people discussed their thoughts on science and it’s application to that particular website. It was a strange experience because I don’t often have such meaningful conversations; some of these people I didn’t even know. But for a short time there was a lot of email activity surrounding peoples very interesting and meaningful interactions to the website.

The discussion was actually (I think) helped by the medium of the internet because it kept people from interrupting others. If someone was upset they could very easily disengage the conversation (just don’t reply). So for this particular situation I think CMC helped to spur honest conversation which allowed communication to more easily tackle a difficult topic.