#UWinDig

The article Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy by Chris Gilliard proved to a piece that pushed the idea of access to information at the post-secondary level.

This article was a well-done piece that provides the origins of the word redlining and why it is critical to understand this concept to grasp the overall discussion of the article. Through student experience, there is a deep insight into this idea because of our greater access to information than the average citizen. This relevant because the modern student is a digital native and therefore fluent in the access information, but this proves problematic through limiting their access to knowledge. This plays a critical role within the modern digital academic landscape because there is large contention with freedom of speech and freedom of information being presented as a major issue on campuses. This is ironic because schools will not acknowledge digital redlining as a problem however they will acknowledge the limiting of speech and information as a forefront problem in post-secondary education. The irony continues because the article states that there are students who are paying to expand their knowledge but are attending institutions that limit the information they have and therefore becoming counter-intuitive with community colleges being at the forefront of this.

Being in the role of an educator this proves problematic because those students in a secondary school are just starting to learn academic digital literacy. If they go to schools that will limit this or digital reline them then this stunts their digital literary growth and causes these individuals to not only get a limited education but be misled into thinking that community colleges are wells of knowledge that train them for the future.

_Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy

https://www.powtoon.com/c/bmXdWPt8k37/1/m

In my second multimedia reflection, I have chosen to focus on the Tufekci article titled How Social Media Took us From Tahrir Square to Donald Trump. This article focused heavily on the way in which social media had experienced major transformations since its creation. More specifically, this article examined how social media had originally been used by the youth during uprisings to communicate and connect with one another, but had transformed in to a way for oppression to spread throughout the media sphere. This article often goes into the gritty details of some of these uprisings, and allows the reader to vividly picture themselves in the situations described by Tufecki. As a student who has grown up around a number of forms of social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), this article resonated with me because I could very much imagine myself in situations where I was able to use the beneficial aspects of social media to keep in touch with others who are not directly connected to me in the physical world. That being said, I was also unfortunately able to connect with some of the less-idealistic aspects of social media that people can often encounter when using these platforms. More specifically, I recently encountered one of the more frustrating (and quite frankly disturbing) aspects of social media; targeted marketing. In this situation, a product that I had been discussing with a couple of my family members suddenly appeared in the advertisement bar on both my personal Facebook and Instagram accounts overnight. Not only was this a little unsettling (especially because I know I had not searched this product previously), but it made it clear that many of what we consider “offline” daily conversations are actually being monitored or studied by any number of our social media accounts. This was all the more concerning because of something I had recently witnessed while out on my practicum. One of the first things that I noticed when arriving to placement was how massively digitally connected high school students are in our society today. While it is only a rough estimate, I would say that well over 95% of students I encountered on practicum not only had a smartphone, but also used it multiple times throughout the course of each class. This constant monitoring goes against my own personal views as far as the way in which our constantly increasing levels of technological connection should be used. More specifically, I would say that I subscribe to a more classical sense of the use of technology, meaning that I am happy to use the latest and greatest forms of information technology, but would like to do so without being constantly tracked by “big data” companies. After reading this article and completing the Canva infographic, I would say that these personal beliefs have only been strengthened, as it becomes more and more clear that we are losing online privacy by the day. As far as new information provided by the article, I found it interesting just how many different organisations and individuals were using social media to help further their personal causes. While I know this may sound confusing when we consider how prevalent social media is in our daily lives, I personally have been guilty of only focusing on daily updates or news from within my own personal sphere of information and perspective. Considering the way in which digital media platforms and large organisations are currently able to target individuals with specific products they might find interesting, it is quite concerning how susceptible our younger students are to these practices.

That being said, I feel as though the actual creation of the Canva infographic went much more smoothly during my second multimedia reflection. Having been able to practice with this platform throughout my first multimedia reflection, I feel as though the end product I was able to produce was of much higher quality than the final product from my first reflection. While I was able to credit most of this increased output to more experience using the actual Canva site, I also felt that this article was much more interesting than the first, and thus left more of a lasting impression after my first read of the article. On the infographic, I have used the main ideas that I was able to take from the article and include them in large font to ensure the eye of the viewer was drawn to these critical aspects of the article. From there, I have broken down each of these main ideas with a smaller, more specific write-up regarding each topic. I have used different colours to move the eye throughout the infographic, as well as to draw attention to the main points within the article. Finally, as consumers and social media users, we must be conscious of the way in which the information we knowing (or often unknowingly) provide to large corporations is being used. In turn, this means we must be willing to demand quality policing of digital media platforms in both the political and economic realms. Overall, this article was eye opening as well as concerning, and I feel that it is relevant to almost everyone within in our digitally connected society.

The Jacobsen Article and the Henry Jenkins video both provide a call to action in regards to how we educate the youth and prepare them for the future workforce of tomorrow. Both the video and the article have a standpoint of providing and integrating more mobile technology into the realm of education. Major shifts need to occur from our outdated 20^th Century education model which is meant for standardization, individualization, and memorization. Education must evolve into a more communal and interactive class structures which is filled with rich meaningful learning experiences. Education must be engaging and provide authentic work for students to truly understand the material provided. Education must also evolve to develop the competencies needed for future adult performance in the workplace. Skills such as networking, team work, question-posing, and critical assessment must be taught and imparted on students to ensure they are ready to be functioning and successful adults in the workplace of the future. In order for this type of educational shift to occur, it is not just a matter of teachers teaching harder. It is imperative that the educational structure goes through a top down deconstruction and reconstruction. It also requires teachers who are engaging and skilled in the material they are presenting to students and also in the craft of teaching. This is where the technology integration comes to the forefront. The internet is not used the same way it was 10 years ago. The internet has become a place of interconnectivity and special interaction. Things such as social media, Google, Wikipedia, Blogger, the iphone and ipad, are all mobile tools which constantly keep students connected to each other and different resources and opinions around the world. New concepts and new ideas present themselves continuously on the internet and with the mobile and hand-held technology of students every day. It is absolutely crucial education systems use and embrace these technologies to the fullest extent to help mold and create an enhanced 21^st Century education model.

In reflection to these two media outlets, I have decided to design a sketchnote. The first thing I wanted to start with was my beginning and end. In the Jacobsen Article, it made a point of saying our 20^th Century education system must evolve and change using the technology available to us as teachers. This made sense for me to start my sketchnote with 20^th Century education. The article also made a point of stating how the internet and computing as a whole have changed. This has created 21^st century learning and work spaces. It made sense to me to make my endpoint a greater 21^st Century education model.  The major points I used to follow in order to get from my start point to my end point were; Major Shifts, Rich & Meaningful Learning, Develop the Competencies they Need for Expert Adult Performance, Engaged and Skilled Teachers, Enhanced Learning Experience, Active Participation in Knowledge Construction, and finally Technology Integration. I chose these because I felt these themes had the most significant meaning to the overall point of the article and video. I also integrated quotes relating to each major theme which were either found in the article or the video. A major aspect of my sketchnote reflection which I would like to point out is the placement of the theme Engaged & Skilled Teachers. This was placed specifically in the middle of the sketchnote because I felt this was the most important part of the both the video and the article. Without Engaged & Skilled Teachers in the education system, this reconstruction of education is not possible. All the great and innovative ideas and technology can be presented but with an absence of these teachers, the material cannot be presented to students in an effective way. The technology available cannot be organized and structured in an effective manner and the material provided to the students cannot be meaningful, engaging, and structured in a way that prepares students for the workplace of the future.  #UWinDig

Attached is my sketch reflecting the article Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy by Chris Gilliard and Hugh Culik. On the left is a sketch resembling redlining in a popular and modern aspect (digital redlining). This sketch examples the effect of censorship when browsing the internet on a protected network (schools etc). Sites that are commonly blocked by educational institutions and even governments (China, Iran etc.) are social media websites (Facebook, Twitter etc.), pornographic websites, gambling websites and violent websites.  From my own personal experience I remember being in high school and having Facebook being blocked. I remember finding this very annoying and I used a Proxy to get around this censorship.

The sketch on the right reflects redlining in a more serious “hands on” manner. Back as early as just 40 years ago redlining was very prominent hurting inner city and “high risk” communities. Detroit Michigan was a city that was very targeted by redlining.  A literal “red line” could drawn around areas on a map which would show the areas targeted by financial institutions such as insurance companies preventing the people that live inside the red line from receiving affordable coverage. In my image it shows a family who has home insurance compared to one who lives in Detroit who does not.

While it is very easy to agree with some types of censorship it is very important to understand what affect this has the people being censored. It is hard to argue a school restricting their internet users from using gambling websites or watching pornography. An issue occurs when students are researching those sites for educational purposes and the students are restricted from their research. I think that is very sad that financial institutions redlined marginalized communities as little as 40 years ago. I think that this type of organized discrimination is still prevalent to this day throughout Aboriginal communities.  It is important for us a society to realize the impacts of redlining both digitally and physically.

Personally, I am not a fan of censorship of almost any regard when it can have any negative impact towards education. Any student should have access to ANY information if it is for an educational purpose. While reading this article and the author pointed out that schools are censoring students from potential information it really bothered me as it conflicted with my personal beliefs. “At the community college where we teach — as at many community colleges nationwide — where digital resources are scarce and the students and faculty are embedded in working class realities, digital redlining imposes losses that directly limit the futures of our students”. After reading this point in the article I firmly agreed with Prof. Gillard and as many of you may know reading an article that your views align with is really enjoyable.

Link of the article:

https://www.commonsense.org/education/privacy/blog/digital-redlining-access-privacy

I hope to encourage discussion and look forward to communicating with you all.

Adam

For this week’s multimedia reflection I decided to tackle Chris Gilliard’s article Digital Redlining Access Privacy

https://www.commonsense.org/education/privacy/blog/digital-redlining-access-privacy

Overall, I found Gilliard’s article quite fascinating. Though I had been previously aware of the traditional concept of redlining, the notion of digital redlining was a new discovery.

As a student in the Greater Essex County District School Board, I often complained about the internet restrictions preventing me from reaching websites hosting video games. Not once had I stopped to think that there would be other limitations, aside from the safe search function. After attending what Gilliard considers a higher-level institution, I once again complained about my access to internet resources. I can recall, on many occasions, being blocked by a paywall on academic hosting sites but had not considered the notion of their existence being scrubbed from my search results. Gilliard’s exposition on the fact that digital redlining attempts to limit working class students, seeking an education, from discovering new ideas and pathways in life.

To cover the ideas represented in Gilliard’s article, I decided to create a twitter thread incorporating gifs to highlight important concepts.

A twitter essay based on Digital Redlining Access Privacy written by Gilliard, C. & Culik, H. (2016)https://t.co/RWa3iCbYcU

— Adam.Drouillard (@drouillard_adam) October 30, 2018

Chris Gilliard and Hugh Culik’s article, “Digital Redlining, Access and Privacy” brought forward issues we as postsecondary students experience on a daily basis but don’t recognize as problems. Digital redlining is when institutions and policy makers enforce boundaries and/or use technology policies, practises and teachings to discriminate against specific groups (Culik & Gilliard, 2016). If you are unfamiliar with digital redlining, a prominent example outside of a classroom setting could be Facebook. When you sign up for Facebook you don’t identify your ethnicity, however advertisers can target certain populations based on your previous likes, shares and groups joined. They can also choose who they want to exclude from seeing their advertisements. This is invisible redlining because  we as consumers are unable to see this happening. Doesn’t it spike your curiosity to how much information is circulating the world that you have no knowledge about?

Digital Redlining affects the way we learn as students and teach as educators. Students are limited to the amount of information we can learn about and community colleges and lower income institutions suffer these consequences to a greater extent. These schools are unable to access information that is available to higher educated schools and programs. Imagine attending a school that had restrictions on majority of the websites you were trying to research information on? I can relate to this in the sense when researching journal articles to provide support to arguments for a research paper and being unable to access them because I have to pay for it. It’s extremely frustrating and discouraging to have a limited amount of information to use for a topic. Another issue is feeling less qualified while applying for a job because you weren’t exposed to/ blocked from the same resources and educational tools your competitor was allowed to access. Redlining poses many restrictions to our learning as students.

How are we as future educators supposed to promote creativity and exploration in undiscovered topics if the information surrounding these topics aren’t readily available to us? We are setting students up to fail if we expect them to gather enough information to build on topics that are restricted to the public. We are also unable to know what policies will shape what our students will see and not see which is where the problem begins. Policy makers need to ask themselves who and why their target population is and whether these filters, available access, and policies are restricting a student’s learning or promoting the openness students require to achieve their goals. I personally believe after reading this article, the only students that set up to succeed are the ones privileged enough to attend higher education institutions, so how do we change this? This is the pending issue that needs to be made aware of and addressed. I react to this issue the way I do because it directly affects me as a students and a future educator. With my knowledge about this topic now as I teach, I will be aware and take into considerations the issues redlining causes. I hope you enjoy my twitter essay addressing many of the concerns and issues associated with digital redlining.

Brittany Rocheleau

Visual Explanation:

For my multimedia assignment I focused on Chris Gilliard’s article “Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy.” The numbers in each box illustrate the order in which the information should be read. I first start by exploring what ‘redlining’ means, and the history of redlining in Detroit. The next box explains how the Gilliard uses the term ‘digital redlining’ to explain the boundaries that surround researching on the school’s internet. In the background of this is the Detroit redlining map to further the analogy. The third box explains how racism and classism is prevalent in secondary schools. This discrimination takes subtle form in digital redlining and by not acknowledging it is to not acknowledge forms of racism and classism in our educational system. The last box illustrates how educators can combat these issues in their schools.

Reflection:

As someone who has always had unrestricted internet access in my own house, I have never thought about policies blocking web searches as an unfair boundary that some students face. Before reading this article I thought that the only digital boundary that some students face is not having a computer at home, and having to complete their assignments at school. It had never occurred to me that school policies restrict access to some websites and therefore limits the student’s research. If the student’s research is limited and they do not necessarily realize that there is a lot more information out there, then their research will be lacking without the student realizing. Because I never realized that this was an issue, this demonstrates my privilege. Going forward, I will be sensitive in my classroom and be aware that some of my students may experience this. I will also explore what types of web searches my own school flags and see how I can challenge these policies to ensure my student’s research is not limited because they do not have access to internet in their homes. This issue will be especially relevant to me as a teacher because I will be a secondary school teacher, teaching history and social sciences. These two content areas are research heavy and I know my students will be needing to do web searches to complete their projects. Furthermore, some social sciences research may challenge school web search policies, so I will have be mindful moving forward. I will ensure my students know that there may be more information out there than can be seen on the school internet. To think critically about the information available will help to combat digital redlining.

Article: https://www.commonsense.org/education/privacy/blog/digital-redlining-access-privacy

Enjoy!

Caroline Voyer