Stranger Danger, aka Blogs and Teaching
Jenny has commented my post where I point out that she’s set up a teaching blog, pedabloggy (now that’s a good turn of phrase). Now, I haven’t set up my templates properly so actually finding Jenny’s comment means you have to click the comments link for the post.
I’m not sure about Jenny’s comments, since all I noted was that she was using a blog, though perhaps it was that I ‘outted’ the blog by blogging it? Anyway, her comments go to an ongoing discussion we have had about the ‘publicness’ of blogs and teaching. (Insert here comment about why we need that automatic aggregator spider more like this blog thingie). I’m not sure why comments by people from outside would be an issue for a course about network literacy. Even the language here is problematic in this context: “strangers entered the classroom” for example. I’m not sure.
I’d suggest that one of the fundamental things about network literacy is precisely the question, or problem, of the stranger. There is the self as stranger – what role or voice do I use when? In email, in a blog, in chat, newsgroups, etc. Then of course the email to a friend, teacher, colleague, to an email list, tech support, or an individual all require different voices. But this is trivial and something we’re familiar with already, just think about all our different phone voices, for example.
But in relation to the stranger as stranger, then yes, here’s the guts of the social face of network literacy. Everyone online is a stranger. This, to begin with, is the rule, not the exception. As your online literacy (competency, sophistication) grows you learn some names, some id’s, some voices. You make friends and locate yourself within several communities of practice. More importantly you learn how to tell the difference between strangers. What a troll sounds like, flaming, and so forth.
The simple error that is so commonly made in relation to network culture and literacy is to equate stranger with danger. Strangers aren’t enemies and the basic social skill required for online literacy is learning how to let strangers become acquaintances, friends, and to separate the good strangers from the bad. To not recognise this is the internet equivalent of xenophobia, so the beginning condition should not be disallowing the network in because there might be strangers, but learning that the network is all about strangers.