For my second multimedia reflection I choose the article “Digital Redlining, Access and Privacy” by Chris Gilliard and Hugh Culik. This article was very interesting to me because I did not know how far IT policies went to hide information from us. In high school I was aware that they blocked websites like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and You tube; but was completely unaware that resourceful information was also being blocked. Digital redlining is essentially policies that are put in place by colleges and universities to regulate what information students can have access to. This can be positive because it can stop things like viruses and malware, but the problem arises when resourceful information is being blocked because of the socioeconomic status of the institution. Smaller community colleges that are considered to be mostly a working class demographic are being penalized from the consequences of differential access. These situations need to be further evaluated and changes need to be implemented so that access to knowledge is equal for everyone looking to explore open-ended inquiry.
I have a strong belief in equality for all individuals no matter your ethnicity or what school you decide to go to. This is why I feel so strongly that redlining needs to be reevaluated by software developers in order to eliminate these bias. Before I read this article I have never heard of redlining before, it was a completely different concept to me. The history of redlining completely shocked me, I know that people of colour have had to deal with a lot of adversity, but I did not know it went as far as federal government regulations. The fact that a developer had a wall built in order to separate what they believed to be valuable and non-valuable land is appalling to me. I also thought it was very interesting to know that certain institutions have more resources then others depending on how much they want to spend to give access to their students.
To reflect on this article, I choose to do a twitter essay. This was a very new experience for me because I do not use twitter very often and am fairly new to it. Twitter is a very good way to get your message across, even over a series of tweets. I really enjoyed using memes as a way to bring in more interest to your tweet, it also brings in humour which makes any serious conversation better. As a future teacher I would love to implement twitter essays in the classroom. Not only does it bring in a platform that most high school students will understand, but it has them connecting to other students in their classes and hearing opinions they would not get to see if they were simply just writing an essay and handing it in to the teacher. During my first practicum my associate teacher was not very tech-savy, which I believe is an issue a lot of teachers have with the increasing popularity of electronics in the classroom. They did not have the opportunity to have classes like this one to prepare them for all the possibilities that it can create. This class has already taught me so much about different technologies that I have never heard of before, and also has brought to light different opportunities for evaluation and connectedness that I can use as a future teacher. I am very happy I stepped out of my comfort zone this reflection by completing this twitter essay because I truly enjoyed the process and cannot wait to try it out in my own classroom one day!
The article 'Digital Redlining, Access and Privacy', has recently brought to my attention some issues I had never thought much about before…https://t.co/ukQ5Tiqv8z #UWinDig pic.twitter.com/KYabX2VsQv
— Karlee Parent (@KarleeParent) October 30, 2018
***** Click the link or the tweet above to see the rest of my thread 🙂 *****