Annotated Bibliography of Digital Story

Cantu, Aaron. "Scary New Surveillance State Idea: Government Tracking Students from Preschool to Workforce." Alternet. N.p., Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.

http://www.alternet.org/education/scary-new-surveillance-state-idea-government-tracking-students-preschool-workforce

This source discusses the thoughts of the American education system in their efforts to raise the standard of education in the country. Their solution was to monitor every moment of a childs life when they enter into the educational system in order to better determine a trend for the best way to teach children. Although this has great intent, there are many potential problems with surveillance and logging too much of a child's life through this program. This program is known as “P-20” and will have logged every moment from pre-kindergarten until a student enters the work force. It has already been listed that several other agencies besides the Department of Education will have access to this data that the DOE will collect. Many speculate that this data will be used much more than for pure research intent.

Sengupta, Somini. "Warily, Schools Watch Students on the Internet." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/technology/some-schools-extend-surveillance-of-students-beyond-campus.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

This source argues the legality of schools monitoring the students social media and other internet outlets and levying punishment on students because of it. It brings up the questions if the school administrations can actually do this or if they are truly overstepping their bounds. Not only are the administrations wrongly punishing students but they are paying outside companies to filter through the students social media to help them find wrongs. Originally those outside companies only had access to certain information on medias such as facebook and twitter but as time goes on, the companies have announced that they will have access to view and evaluated a lot more personal information. Already at the time of the article it was predicted by the end of the year over 3000 schools will have bought into the program. This causes a major issue of how can these programs legally have access to that information as well as can the schools really penalize students based on this information.

http://www.infowars.com/schools-new-spy-system-places-children-under-complete-surveillance/

Daniels, Kit. "School’s New Spy System Places Children Under Complete Surveillance." Infowars. INFO WARS, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.

This source discusses a new system which is intended to monitor for gunshots in schools and be the response unit for when these shootings would take place in order to get help to the school as fast as possible. It is very interesting how they go about doing it though. The schools will have to have something similar to that of 1984 where everything is monitored including voice interactions. Clearly this is something similar to Big Brother and was proven to be even more similar to that when a man faced trial and was charged based on some of the recording that this system had picked up. The worst part is the system itself is not even fully functional. It has been known to go off with the sound of loud noises rather than gunshots. The ACLU does not approve of this device and monitoring software at all and believes it is a breach in security as well as privacy.

http://www.academia.edu/362383/Editorial_Surveillance_Children_and_Childhood

Steeves, Valerie. "Editorial: Surveillance, Children and Childhood." Academia.edu. Academia, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.

This article in particular talks about how early the children have been montoried in a day and age where technology is becoming more and more depended on. It starts off talking about being monitored all the way back to day care when people can see feeds of you in the day care. It talks about all of the different ways that we as children growing up are kept under a watchful eye by people as we go through the educational system. It says that “ social networking has opened up the child’s world to surveillance on the part of parents,schools, corporations and governments alike.” Our lives, our identity, our relationships are all monitored and taken note of as we are growing up. It talks about the major problems that we face in a day and age where surveillance is used because of disciplinary measures. It talks about the limited freedoms that we have because of the surveillance that we face.

Digital Story Proposal

In an age where we are more and more dependent on technology many issues have arisen with it as well. Coming from a school which required iPads for educational purposes, it is very easy for me to see the potential in these devices. I started using the devices in high school in the middle of my four years there so I was able to see both ends of the spectrum. However there are a large list of possible problems that go along with it. It can definitely be a great learning tool for students if it is limited to only that but as we see that is not always the case. 

For one the technology can easily be misused and used for games or other non-educational distractions. Ill be the first to admit, when class starts getting dull or its just one of those days, there is absolutely the temptation to turn to social media and the internet to provide entertainment during those hours. When we should be involved in the classroom all of a sudden our minds are else where doing all sorts of things. This has caused major concern with administrations as they are beginning to monitor every students involvement on social media and other outlets as a result of cyberbullying and many other issues out there. There has been much controversy as to how much schools can actually penalize students based on their social media. Schools now days are paying outside companies to monitor students internet “foot prints” so to speak claiming that it is for a good cause. (Sengupta)

This rings loud and clear with the discussions that we have been having about government surveillance problems that our nation is facing such as in the movie Citizenfour. The question remains where is that line that indicates these administrations and governments have gone too far. At what point do they overstep their bounds and begin to take on roles not meant for them. 

Many different groups of people have already expressed the grave danger in this. As many companies look to monitor people from as young of an age as possible, this inclusion of technology in education is helping them right along the way. Businesses and other companies claim it will help them discover the methods that make the most successful students and other claims. However it is still the issue of them monitoring our every move in our lives. (Cantu)

Already the Department of Education is setting up programs such as “P-20” which will monitor our every academic step all the way from preschool until we prepare for college and the work force. Apparently to them, all of the standardized testing and entrance exams are not enough. (Cantu)

If the government is choosing to monitor our calls, emails, texts, and conversations; what is to stop other organizations and administrations from doing the same thing. Things that were once thought to be personal and off limits are now open for the world to see whenever they like. 

The fact of the matter is children in schools are being very controlling with children these days. Children in schools are monitored and controlled more than children that aren't even in these institutions. They are receiving penalties for things that are out of the administrations jurisdiction. The rights of these children are being compromised and violated more so than children who are not even in these institutions.

There are several ways this information can be used. An interactive website displaying some of this information to show what is really going on would be a great possibility such as word press. Powerpoint presentations could be used to get the information across.

Works Cited

Sengupta, Somini. "Warily, Schools Watch Students on the Internet." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/technology/some-schools-extend-surveillance-of-students-beyond-campus.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Cantu, Aaron. "Scary New Surveillance State Idea: Government Tracking Students from Preschool to Workforce." Alternet. N.p., Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.

http://www.alternet.org/education/scary-new-surveillance-state-idea-government-tracking-students-preschool-workforce

Gender Stereotypes

For our project we decided that instead of going with the regular stereotypes that a lot of groups did, we wanted to specifically find people that stood out and broke these socially acceptable parameters of what a person must be based on their gender. This case in particular talks about a woman who is not at all your typical female. This goes to not only show what can happen when you fight the social parameters, but the feedback you will receive. It is honestly quite sad the things she had to deal with for pursuing the lifestyle that she did. She was forced to change who she was because of shame for the way she looked.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Nz_pFD426c_GuVKlsTXb_kYhU1WhHP7kUBoOZHk3SpU/edit?usp=sharing

Gender Roles

For our group digital story project we are are pairing up with another class to look further into gender roles and the effects that it has. After watching a couple of videos in class we were asked to look further into this. As a result the most common discussion is the typical stereotypes associated with each gender. In the video sports illustrated was brought up. The film broke down all of the different sections it had. For instance, in all issues women were portrayed as helpless and usually less clothed than the men. It was quite the opposite for men. They were portrayed to have this dominance and superiority and masculinity. It went further to replace the male models with female models striking the pose that a male model would. The same goes for the female models with men. After this transition everything seemed to be off. Our group decided to pursue this issue further. We looked for all of the examples as to things that go against the typical stereotypes of women. We looked for women who showed power and dominance and men that looked sensitive and fragile. Our results were astounding. One thing in particular stuck out. It was a female who had recently gotten involved into body building. She started off as a bartender and eventually took up lifting in her spare time. As her training got more and more serious she began steroid use. She became so masculine in her physique that she began dressing as a man because people were accusing her of being a man dressing up as a woman. This and many other examples are evidence that we are quick to judge with these stereotypes on what a male and female should look or act like. 

Discussion Questions 10/27/14

http://mkopas.net/files/talks/UVic2013Talk-WhatAreGamesGoodFor.pdf

1. What makes Video Games such a perfect medium? Why do we choose this medium over blogs, articles, videos, etc?

2. Do you think that video games have the potential to be used much more beneficially and if so how?

3. Are there severe negative effects with these video games on a wide scale use?

4. Is this process making issues too simple and systematic?

5. Can this be used to get important information across? Does this show the proper issuers of that lifestyle?

Digital Media Social Action Project Overview

Our Digital Media Social Action Project is addressing the issue of cyber bullying. Most people do not take this as seriously as it should be taken. This issue rings home to me as there was a very severe instance resulting in a stabbing at my high school a couple years ago when one student was bullied both in person and over the internet. Eventually he took matters into his own hands and attempted to stab and kill the bully. Although he did indeed stab the bully, the bully survived the incident and clearly shows how serious of an issue this can be. Now this is different from the typical issue. Usually cyber bullying results in suicide which is extremely devastating that someone would take their own life because of the words of their peers. The frightening thing that is on average well over 50% of teens and kids have experienced some form of cyber bullying in their lives. What is even worse is only one in every ten of these kids will ever report to their parents that this is going on. For the majority of the instances it is kept secret and the parents have no idea what is going on. With one in every three kids receiving threats of some kind online clearly this is becoming a serious issue as we move to a culture and world based more and more on the internet and technology. Through social media, our group plans on getting these facts out to the campus at JCU as a start. Our goal is to raise awareness on this issue and hopefully will cause others to stand up and defend those who face these problems. We will be using the social media forums of Twitter, Instagram, and Yik Yak to get this information out to the students on campus. We will be displaying these account information across campus encouraging students to take a look at the accounts and hopefully gain their interest on the matter. It is time to take a stand for cyber bullying now. 

"Cyber Bullying Statistics." - Bullying Statistics. National Crime Prevention Council, 2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html

Invasion of Privacy and Social Media

       Through much of the class discussion we have talked about the concept of Big Brother and Government poking their nose where they ought not to. Even corporations and businesses use social media to find better information about a potential employee. We hear stories about this all the time. Usually it can be an aid to law enforcement to find criminals who post pictures or videos of their acts and are ignorant enough to post it onto social media. However, when is too far? How far is the law enforcement allowed to go with searching through our lives looking for even the slightest hint of wrongful action. There is a fine line between exposing criminals and invasion of privacy not on the basis of wrongful action but on suspicion of fraudulent activity.

The article in particular talks about several sets of people around the world who were mistreated and faced serious consequences due to social media. Law enforcement in Canada charged and arrested a woman for being in a bar fight and she was not even in the bar that night. In fact she was at an art gallery and had proof that she was not at the bar. However the police overlooked this because there was a Facebook photo taken near the bar that matched a woman with the same hair style. Although her lawyer had the charges dismissed, she is still required to pay all of the fees associated with the wrongful conviction and has not received even an apology from the police. 

Similarly there was a man who was arrested for posting racial comments directed towards an athlete and was charged and jailed. Many speculate how this is a clear violation of freedom of speech regardless of what was said on the social media. Even in the United States a boy was expelled from his high school after posting a tweet using the “F” word. Regardless of how the school feels about his vulgar language, how are they going to expel a student on those grounds? Clearly in these circumstances some people have overstepped their bounds and used social media to such extremes to penalize people for what they are posting or doing. 

After looking at all of this it is kind of scary to think of how much our social media can actually be used against us. We must be careful of what we put out there as a lot of times this outlet can be used against us. In certain circumstances, like catching a criminal in the act, these methods prove to be very helpful to law enforcement and other agencies. But where is the line at? At what point does the government and other bodies go too far in analyzing our medias and give wrongful or extreme consequences for things that are not that serious. Clearly in several of the examples above the line has been obviously crossed. It is very scary to think of how powerful social media really is and the overlooked consequences that it could have.

Warmington, Joe. "Social (media) Injustice." : Prime Time : SunNews Video Gallery. Sun News, 04 Apr. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/1547642366001