A critical eye

How does the expansive range of ideas and techniques, in every discipline, affect our ability to teach?

In my experience in teaching video, there was more than one instance where student's found ways to do things that differed from the way I was teaching them. I had to be able to evaluate these viewpoints for the students, and often admit that these were better than what I had been using. Though humbling and somewhat discouraging at first, it's helped me let go of my attachment to being right, and ultimately know more and become better.

This, to me, is at the heart of the change in education that technology is affecting. This constant influx of differing opinion and techniques also increases the value of critical thinking skills, as one must be vigilant in their willingness to look deeply at a wider and wider range of ideas, and that's a very good thing.

Re-photo sharing

If I can manage to pull my wool socks out of this interminable pile, we will take our annual ski trip to SnowBowl in Flagstaff tomorrow, me and my boys. Our gear is spread across the living room floor, and I imagine the flakes flying, peaks rising up in the distance, colors emblazoning the white winter slopes - in short, a picture perfect experience.
Problem is, I don't want to bring my camera. An early 7MP digital, it's huge by today's standards, and the thought of being any more encumbered while trying to remember how to ski again gives me pause. I have a great set of photos from our last trip...what if I just change the date on those?
Blasphemy?!
I know, this is one of those weird mental leaps dark-futurist types warn about: substituting our real life for a proxy, like having a robot write papers (or blogs) for you, or photoshoping your self-portraits. So can one set of ski photos be the stand-in for all the times we skied, and I send out a message saying, "Had a great time at the mountain this week, here are some shots of us there last year"?
The practise of re-gifting is well-known, its convenience in a busily encumbered world an accepted norm. Can re-sharing of our packaged, codified online experiences be far off?

Socializing

If you're not social in real life, will social life on the internet be much different? I am always asking: what's the difference? I find much of what happens on the web to be exactly the same as in real life.

I often rethink what I say; on the web, what I write can take a long time to get out, and we can write paragraphs, pages, novels - then retract and never send any of it (I promise not to do that with this post).

An important part of the web spaces we create needs to be safety, an issue that comes up in almost everyone's "cons" of technology. How we create that safe space on the web is not that much different that in a room full of people: we need a set of rules to play by, a mediator if not an absolute authority, and something to aspire to. Perhaps peer pressure can be the most powerful force for good in this arena: pressure that suppresses negative impulses and rewards the positive growth of individuals and groups.

But I don't know how to facilitate this. I honestly don't. I do my best in my family and my workplace and I have done great but I have yet to codify the process except in generalities which sound really fluffy. I think I can do (it), but I really have no idea how.

Should I really post this?