ES1102 Blogging

Thursday, 17 April 2014

Critical Reflection

I am not disappointed at all after knowing that I have to do ES1102. I had expected that I would need to do this module before the results were announced to us. My English was not very good as I never got an "A" grade for any of my English assignments or exams. During the course of my study in Polytechnic, I had difficulty in writing a good report and would always need to seek assistance from my friends and teachers. I felt frustrated as it seems that no matter how hard I tried, I could never write a good report by myself.

Learning English is a process and it requires much time and effort to master it. I was glad that I was given the opportunity to do this module. This module has taught me many things that I found useful whenever I write a report or essay. For instance, I am taught how to write a proper and good thesis statement. I do not remember I have learned any of it before doing this module. I believe that writing a thesis statement is important as it guides the writer to keep the essay focused and aids the reader understanding. Furthermore, I am taught how to cite sources in my report properly. Citation is the basis of academics in which any person who is in pursuit of knowledge has to know how to do citation.

Blogging, one of the main activities in this module that I never enjoy doing it, has forced me to practice writing and commenting on other students' writings. However, as I started to blog more often, I felt that blogging is an effective form of self-expression. Blog is like my personal diary. It allows me to look back from where I began and evaluate how much I have changed to a better one.

All in all, I believe that the class has enjoyed the learning experience as much as I did. Through the entire semester in ES1102, I am glad that I have made friends who shared the same experience and difficulties while dealing with English as me. As mentioned earlier, learning English is a process. I will not stop learning and improving my English even if I am not doing any English module for my future semester.

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

Presentations in ES1102

I believe that presentation should be incorporated into ES1102 because it gives opportunity for us to practice our oral presentation skills and also get to receive immediate feedbacks from teachers and friends to further improve in both areas: essay content and oral presentation skills. By listening and observing how other classmates present their work, it made me to evaluate and reflect upon myself on how I can be like or better than them.

Presentation has always been my greatest fear even though I did several presentations in the course of my Poly. It never fails to made me nervous. However, I believe presentations are useful in helping me to fully understand which areas I have to improve and make changes. While I was preparing my presentation, I will keep reviewing my work so as to ensure my work is well-organised and evidently supported and relevant before I present to the class. I believe that others do the same way too. Thus, I felt that even though the presentation is not graded, it still benefits us in many ways. I admit that listening to how my classmates present in class has inspired me to become a more confident speaker or presenter.

Thursday, 10 April 2014

Final Essay Draft

The Rise of Cyberbullying on Social Media

In his TED talk, Goldin (2009) mentions a few negative and positive issues that the world is facing due to rapid globalisation. Advancement in technology and digital media have redefined how we interact with people across the world. Today, consumers are able to stay “connected” with the use of social media. Social media has brought about new levels of global interconnectedness, which often result in the rise of a new global consciousness. Needless to say, social media have an enormous implications for globalisation.

However, social media has led to several negative issues such as amplifying the incidence of cyberbullying. High usage of social media by teenagers has allowed cyberbullying to thrive over the recent years, which has attracted more and more critical attention towards the role of social media in bringing negative effects on the victims. According to Donegan (2012), in the past, bullying could be better controlled because they were limited to face-to-face interactions. However, in recent years, this age-old form of conflict has matched the pace of technological evolutions, making it more dangerous and harder to contain. Under these circumstances, several schools and parents in US have been adopting the blocking software to control teenagers from accessing social networking sites. However, utilizing the software is not an effective enough method to solve the cyberbullying problem. Instead, an educational approach will be a better alternative to solve the cyberbullying problem in the long run.

Pew Research Centre (2010) has done an extensive national study in US which shows that of teens who use social media, 88% report that they have witnessed someone being mean or cruel to another person online, with 12% saying cyberbullying is a 'frequent' occurrence. Social media has provided more avenues and convenience for abusers to conduct cyberbullying. For instance, Facebook and Twitter has allowed significant incident of cyberbullying to thrive. With the "share" function in Facebook and “retweet” function in Twitter, abusers can create and share negative comments to the public, easily and instantly. It also made it possible for the abusers to gather together and attack a single victim through an interface. This form of bullying is commonly known as mass cyberbullying. In addition, abusers may use faked identity to conduct cyberbullying. Abusers can act on their free will, insulting and harassing others online without bearing any immediate consequences. Thus, as cyberbullying continue to thrive, victimization can be continuous and inescapable.

Many schools and parents have been utilizing the blocking software so as to prevent teens from accessing social networking sites. However, the software can be disabled by the teenagers. Microsoft, as cited by Wong (2006), warns parents that although filtering and monitoring tools are helpful, they can be disabled by a savvy computer user. In addition, Jesdanun (2003) also demonstrated how easy it was to defeat various filtering and blocking software. Although the software can be effective when used with younger, less IT-savvy teenagers, it may fail to achieve the same effective result with teenagers who are IT-savvy. On the other hand, teenagers who are not or less IT-savvy may reach out to other alternatives. When teens are determined to circumvent the blocking software, they will find all means to defeat them in order to access the social networking sites. This often leaves parents with a false sense of security as teens may have already deactivated the software without being noticed.

The current model of mitigating cyberbullying by blocking access to social networking sites only controls the actions of the abusers and protects the victims when they are at school or at home. This control model does not prepare teenagers on how they should react when faced with a potentially dangerous environment when they leave the safety net provided to them. It may be impossible for a teenager to know how to navigate through without danger when the protection is no longer around.

Thus, the cyberbullying education is needed to provide teenagers with the relevant skills when encountering any incident of cyberbullying. One such skill is the ability to filter and evaluate information found in social networking sites. This can be achieved through workshops and classroom discussions conducted by the educators during class time. Students will go through a process of reflecting, evaluating and making their own decisions regarding the sources they authenticate and information they choose to share about themselves to others. Another such skill is the ability to withstand critique by others. This can also be achieved through role playing scenarios practiced in the workshop. Students will learn how to recognize, react and control their emotions when dealing with negative comments from people on social media. All in all, with this cyberbullying education approach, students can still interact with different people through social media if they are acquiring skills that they feel are relevant to protect themselves when engaging the social networking sites.

In conclusion, although social media improved the level of global interconnectedness, it has provided more avenues and convenience for abusers to conduct cyberbullying. I believe that the existing solution to combat cyberbullying by utilizing the blocking software is not effective enough. This is because protection does not always mean avoidance of danger. It will be better to adopt cyberbullying education approach rather than just blocking the social networking sites completely. Although it often seems that the problem of cyberbullying will never go away, the alternative of not solving the problem is not a viable option either.

References

Centre, P. R. (2010). Cyberbullying statistics. Retrieved from Pew Research Centre: http://www.pewresearch.org/

Donegan, R. (2012). Bullying and Cyberbullying: History, Statistics, Law, Prevention and Analysis. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 33.

Enough Is Enough. (2006). Youth and general internet use. Retrieved from Enough Is Enough: www.enough.org/inside.php?tag=statistics#7

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania. (2006, August 17). 1 of 3 teens &1 of 6 preteens are victims of cyber bullying. [News release]. Retrieved from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania: www.fightcrime.org/releases.php?id=234

Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future [Motion Picture].

Gottesman, B. (2006) A hardware solution in the software-dominated world of parental control. Retrieved from PC Magazine: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1948981,00.asp?

Microsoft (2004) Are your kids addicted to the Internet? Retrieved from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidwebaddict.mspx

Riccardi, K. (2013). Cyber Bullying: Responsibilities and Solutions. Retrieved from Digital Learning Environment: http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/teaching_learning/cyber_bullying_responsibilities_and_solutions

Robey, T. F. (2008). Cyberbullying. Retrieved from National Association of Secondary School Principals: http://www.principals.org/tabid/3788/default.aspx?topic=58057

Sheppard, M. (2012). Cyberbullying Resource Centre. Retrieved from EdgeWave: http://cyberbullying.edgewave.com/

Wong, K. (2006). How Tech Savvy Teens Defeat Parental Control Software. Retrieved from Parent Support: http://www.pcmoderator.com/pcmoderator_021.htm

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Essay Draft #3

The Rise of Cyberbullying on Social Media

In his TED talk, Goldin (2009) mentions a few negative and positive issues that the world is facing due to rapid globalisation. Social media has brought about new levels of global interconnectedness which often result in the rise of a new global consciousness. However, social media has led to several negative issues such as amplifying the incidence of cyberbullying. High usage of social media by teens has allowed cyberbullying to thrive over the recent years, which attracted more and more critical attention towards the role of social media bringing negative effects on the victims. According to Donegan (2012), in the past, bullying could be better controlled because they were limited to face-to-face interactions. However, in recent years, this age-old conflict has matched the pace of technological evolutions, making it more dangerous and harder to contain. Under these circumstances, several schools and parents have been adopting filtering or blocking software to control children from accessing social networking sites. However, utilizing the software is not effective enough to solve the cyberbullying problem. Instead, an educational approach will be a better alternative to solve the cyberbullying problem in the long run.

Pew Research Centre (2010) has done an extensive national study and shows that of teens who use social media, 88% report that they have witnessed someone being mean or cruel to another online, with 12% saying cyberbullying is a 'frequent' occurrence. Social media has provided more avenues for abusers to conduct cyberbullying. For instance, Facebook and Twitter has significantly allowed incidence of cyberbullying to thrive that negatively impact victims in the various aspects of their lives. While the "share" function in Facebook and Twitter allows abusers to share negative comments to the public, it is possible that many abusers can gather together and attack on a single victim through an interface. This form of bullying is commonly known as mass cyberbullying. In addition, social media allows users to act on their free will, insulting and harassing others online without bearing any consequences. Thus, due to anonymous bullying, victimization can be continuous and inescapable.

Many schools and parents have been utilizing the blocking software so as to prevent teens from accessing social networking sites. However, several researchers and administrators argue that the software may not be as effective as people thought. Microsoft, as cited by Wong (2006) warns parents that although filtering and monitoring tools are helpful, they can be disabled by a savvy computer user. In addition, Jesdanun (2003) also demonstrated how easy it was to defeat various filtering and blocking software. Although the software can be effective to younger and less IT savvy children, it may fail to achieve the same effective result for older and IT savvy teenagers. When teens are determined to circumvent the blocking software, they will find all means to defeat them in order to access the social networking sites. This often leaves parents with a false sense of security as teens may have already deactivated the software without being noticed.

The current model of mitigating cyberbullying by blocking access to social networking sites only controls the actions of students when they are at school or at home. This control model does not prepare students when faced with a potentially dangerous environment for when they leave the safety net provided to them. It is impossible for a student to know how to navigate through without danger when the protection is no longer around.

Thus, it is important to conceive that cyberbullying education is needed to provide students with the relevant skills when encountering any incident of cyberbullying. One such skill is the ability to filter and evaluate information found in social networking sites. This can be achieved through workshops and classroom discussions conducted by the educators during class time. Students will go through a process of reflecting, evaluating and making their own decisions regarding the sources they authenticate and information they choose to share about themselves to others. Another such skill is the ability to withstand critique by others. This can also be achieved through role playing scenarios practiced in the classroom. Students will learn how to recognize, react and control their emotions when dealing with negative comments from people on social media. All in all, with this cyberbullying education approach, students can still interact with different people through social media if they are acquiring skills that they feel are relevant to protect themselves.

In conclusion, the increasing usage of social media among teens has raise the need for eliminating cyberbullying. I believe that the existing solution to combat cyberbullying by solely relying on the blocking software is not effective. It will be better to manage them through cyberbullying education approach rather than just block them completely. Although it often feel that the problem of cyberbullying will never go away, the alternative of not solving the problem is not a viable option either.

Words: 806