Part 1 Identity: We can't ever really know someone. Often we don't even know ourselves.So how do we trust people in our Connected Learning Networks?
What can we do to protect ourselves? Encrypt? Decrypt? Password Protect? Lie in wait. Lie?
This is not Match.com. We don't have reason to pretend we are 10 years younger, or that we don't have grey hair.
So what's the big deal?
It's not. A big deal, that is. Unless you're pouring out your heart. Like many of us do, in spite of [probably] [maybe] [sometimes] looking like silly fools.
It's those that I love, though. The silly fools. If you can't "push past the platitudes," as Tania Sheko put it, I am not all that interested. If you just want to sound smart, look dignified, write big dense paragraphs, then I don't read on. AKA I don't develop trust in you. Can you be vulnerable? Do you share idiosyncracies? Do you reciprocate? Do you not only post, but also comment on others' posts? Then I start to trust you.
And if you are willing to connect outside of the [albeit loose] confines of #ccourses, then I really start to trust you. Not required, but nice to have and know.
Part 2: Bombs I built this trust bomb, using the article here. Why this article? Because "Real Names Policies" can hurt. Can kill. Because if you fit into an historically enfranchised category, you might not understand what the big deal is. Hiding. Daily. Fearing. Daily. That who you "really" are might be shared in the wrong place, with the wrong people, at the wrong time. A pseudonym lets you participate at whatever level you want. Otherwise, you are a buffet who can only share your flatware, or your dessert. Losing the multi-dimensionality of what you could be, when you choose. Meaning we lose that, too.
Part 3: Hiding:Reading about encryption last night, my first impulse was to encrypt everything. My second was, "It's too late anyway." My third was, "I don't really understand a lot of this." My fourth was, "I better learn more."
Part 4 [final part] Challenging: I was reading a blog post in module 1 when I
Clearly, I am still learning. And asking. And misreading. Ancora imparo - Michelangelo.
I am so with you about pseudonyms... I think they are fun AND useful! In a sense we are all pseudonymous, being who we are only partially, pretending (but not in a bad sense), fitting the role of the play we are in at the moment. I've been baffled that the LMS at my school does not offer pseudonymous options... we make a big deal of letting students go register their desire for increased privacy as part of their official record, but then we make them reveal their real name and email address in the LMS (indeed, those students who go by their middle names cannot even choose to do that: it's first name or last name, no middle names allowed!) ... so I can give students a totally pseudonymous option if they want out in the open, but inside D2L BS, not possible ... and, as so often, it's not a technology problem: just a lack of vision. :-)
ReplyDeleteOur students are not allowed to have email addresses (or cell phones), and pseudonyms at my school won't work, because I work at an alternative school, but I agree with the "fun and useful" in kids who can handle it. Unfortunately my students have to learn the other side of it first - following laws and such. :)
ReplyDelete