#most of my education has been cobbled together by teaching myself

[botchallthethings]

Today I had the delightful experience of talking with a preteen kid about spinning. I’ve only just had a breakthrough in my spinning that’s allowed me to get regularly fine yarn, and as it turns out, this kid is among the ranks of those who (like me) tried drop spindling by checking out the kit from the library and turning to youtube. Kid had had a hard time of getting even yarn (I sympathized) and so was very impressed by my fine, even yarn (I am also quite pleased with it).

I think I garbled something about the local weaver’s guild that I want to join but keep missing the meetings of. Man, I hope he picks it up again. Spinning is cool!

[mnthpprt]

Chapter 30: All That Knowledge And No Experience

[As y’all can probably tell from the lack of original posts, I’ve been pretty blocked with this chapter. There’s other parts of the story that I have planned out and really want to get to already, so this just feels like writing filler even though I love focusing on Anaïs’ interactions with all the residents. Sorry if it’s not as interesting T_T but good, juicy shit is coming soon, I promise!]

“Anaïs, wait.” Before I can follow Napoleon off the carriage, Isaac grips my wrist to stop me. I turn to him, confused, and he silently reaches up to adjust the velvet choker around my neck. “That’s better,” he says, blushing slightly. “The bruise was showing.”

“Oh. Thank you,” I smile.

Napoleon offers his hand to help me step down onto the cobbled street. I quickly let go and light myself a cigarillo before taking hold of his arm again, letting him guide me down the road, Isaac close behind us.

“You still haven’t told me where we’re going,” I remind them, earning a chuckle from Napoleon.

“You’ll see.”

I become absorbed by a patient silence, quietly smoking as we walk. By the time we come to a stop in the middle of a square, I have already put out my cigarillo. A group of children are gathered by the fountain. I wonder what they’re playing.

To my surprise, Isaac approaches them. A little girl’s face lights up as she rushes to hug him, causing a shy smile to grow on his face, and the rest of the children quickly stop what they are doing and focus their attention on my companions.

“Bonjour, everyone!” Napoleon announces, only for the children to greet him in unison. “Let’s see, who’s missing... Has anyone seen Mathieu?”

“He fell off a tree and sprained his ankle!” a boy yells his reply from the back of the group. Most of them have sat down on the floor, facing towards us, expectantly.

“Oh, no! If you visit him, André, tell him I hope he gets better soon,” Napoleon sighs. He then claps once, indicating the start of what I now think is a lesson of some sort. “Alright, gamins, before we start, I would like to introduce you to our friend. Say hello to Anaïs, everyone!” The children oblige, yelling out a poorly coordinated chorus of ‘bonjours’ as Napoleon gently nudges me in front of him. I wave my hand at them with a chuckle. “She is a scientist, like Isaac.”

I open my mouth to correct him, but Isaac is already ahead of me.

“Physics and chemistry are two entirely different disciplines, you should know that by now,” he lightly scolds the soldier before turning to the ‘audience’. “So yes, she is a scientist, but we focus on separate fields. Any questions?”

“Me! Me!” The little girl that hugged Napoleon waves her hand in the air enthusiastically, and Isaac nods, signalling her to speak. “Hello mademoiselle Anaïs, my name is Marie and I would like to know what is ‘chimistry’,” she rambles quickly, causing me to laugh at her cuteness.

“Well, Marie...” I begin to answer, smiling. I make sure to talk louder so the rest of the group can hear. “Chemistry is like... a recipe for the world. Everything around us is made of tiny little particles that are too small for us to see. There are different types of them, and they combine to make... well, everything. Including ourselves,” I explain, gesturing vaguely at my surroundings. “I study how those different particles react with each other to make new things, and try to find combinations that work well together, that are stable. Does that make sense?” I ask. The students nod.

“What is ‘stable’?” an older boy, about 12 or so, chimes in. I look at Napoleon, and he smiles at me approvingly.

“That’s a very good question... What’s your name?”

“Pierre,” he answers.

“Alright, Pierre. Imagine I’m baking a cake. What would happen if I forgot to put eggs in the batter?” I start, gaining confidence. This is easy.

“It would... fall apart?”

“Correct! The ingredients don’t work well without the egg to keep it all together. The egg makes it stable, so it stays as it is instead of all the different parts of the cake trying to separate. Now, what if I got the eggs right, but I used sand instead of flour?” I continue, chuckling at the disgusted noises from the younger kids. “That would be... I don’t know what that would be, but certainly not a cake!” They laugh along with me. I am not exactly comfortable with teaching, but at least they think I’m funny. “Do you all see what I mean? If I changed one ingredient in the mix, the result would be a completely different thing. If I stirred them in the wrong order, or if I baked it all at the wrong temperature for the wrong amount of time, the result would no longer be a cake. Maybe something resembling a cake, but it would not have all the qualities of one.”

I observe the crowd of children for a few seconds, but no further questions seem to pop up, so I let Napoleon take over as I go sit on the edge of the fountain. It’s taller than the one in the mansion’s garden, and I struggle a little to climb on the stone surface while keeping my dress out of the water. I wobble briefly, convinced that I am about to fall, but ultimately manage to find my balance and get comfortable.

As Isaac and Napoleon begin to divide the students in two groups, he turns to me, questioningly. I think he wants me to join them.

“Oh, I don’t have anything prepared, Napo,” I say, flustered. “Can’t teach if I’m not ready. Besides, I want to watch you two,” I smile from my seat. “What you’re doing with these kids is great... I’m sure they’ll thank you for it in the future.”

Although neither of them really explained the situation, then did not have to. Judging by the children’s clothes, they were probably not privileged enough to afford an education. And then, there’s the fact that we’ve bee teaching class in the town square, as opposed to, you know, an actual school. It’s rewarding charity work, and I can see why they do it. I, however, have no idea how to teach, and I don’t want to ruin the lessons they had planned for the day.

Napoleon teaches history to his half of the group. He tells it like a tale, his charm and flair inevitably captivating the attention of the children. They will surely remember every word he says if he keeps making it that interesting. Meanwhile, Isaac slowly makes his way through each individual student, correcting their equations and taking his time to explain everything they have trouble with. He works patiently, aware of each child’s capacity, and gently guides them towards the correct answer without giving it away. It’s actually quite sweet.

I enjoy watching them until the bell of a nearby church tolls, and I count the chimes. Time to go. I approach Isaac to tell him, as he is the one closest to me, and he excuses himself to the children, pulling me aside. Napoleon sees and does the same before joining us.

“Thank you for today, it was lovely to see this side of you two,” I explain with a smile. “But I have to leave now. Don’t wanna be late for the play.”

“Be careful, nunuche,” Napoleon tells me, growing serious. I wave him off, rolling my eyes.

“Seriously, I’ll be fine!” I protest, annoyed, before turning to Isaac. “All good?” I tilt my head up so he can see my neck and point at the velvet ribbon tied around the bruises. He takes a look.

“All good,” he repeats. “Have fun at the theatre.”

“Thanks.”

I stand on my toes to kiss both their cheeks, like I usually do, and wave at the children as I walk away from the group. I make my way into a narrow street, following the map I brought with me. This time, le Comte gave me a purse along with the dress and choker, and it has proven to be very useful. No more storing items in my stockings, at least. 

A carriage passes by me and abruptly stops. Speak of the devil, it is le Comte’s voice I hear calling out to me from inside.

“Need a ride, ma chérie?” he offers, opening the door.

“Thanks, comte, but I prefer to walk. I haven’t really done much since, you know,” I explain, pointing at my neck, “so I appreciate the exercise.”

He retreats back to say something to the driver, but he speaks to quickly for me to catch it. He then proceeds to step out of the carriage fully before it drives off without him.

“Allow me to accompany you, Anaïs,” he smiles, offering his arm. “I, too, was invited to the opening.” 

“Great, we get to actually spend time together this time,” I reply, returning the smile, and hold on to his arm. He chuckles.

The conversation continues where we left off three days ago in his study. Le Comte is extremely charming, almost supernaturally so. I had forgotten that he is supernatural, but it no longer bothers me. I think it never really did.

We are about halfway to the theatre when he leans down and whispers in my ear without stopping.

“We’re being followed.” 

I turn around to shoot a discreet glance behind me, and sure enough, a man I saw near the square is walking a few paces behind us. I barely noticed him then, but now that I am paying attention, I recognize him from the coffee house. Shit.

We are crossing the same part of the city. That’s probably how he found me. Regardless, I know this neighbourhood already, and I can take advantage of that. I pull le Comte into an alleyway and press myself against the wall. For a moment I think we’ve lost the man, but my breath of relief gets stuck in my throat when I hear his footsteps approaching once again.

“Kiss me,” I command, pulling on le Comte’s lapel to force him closer.

“Pardon?”

“No time to explain, just do it.” He stares at me, confusion glimmering in the gold of his eyes. “Dude, just kiss me, quickly!” I whisper urgently. He hesitantly meets my lips with his and puts his arms on either side of me to lean on the wall as I push him against me, my hand on the back of his neck.

The kiss is chaste, a fact obscured by the deceivingly passionate position we are in. I keep my eyes open throughout, enough to see the man from the coffee house peek into the alleyway and then leave, uttering a curse at the prospect of having lost sight of me. It isn’t until his footsteps fade away completely that I turn my face away from le Comte, a sigh of relief managing to escape my lips this time.

“Sorry about that,” I breathe out. “I’m the one he was after.”

“Is he the man Sebastian told me about? Is he giving you any more trouble?” he asks, worried.

“You mean with the coffee? Yeah, that’s him.” I thought he would have forgotten me after a few weeks, but it turns out that man is as bitter as the drinks he scams people into paying.

“You do know I could have fought him, don’t you? He is no match for a pureblood vampire, after all,” le Comte says, looking in the direction of the main street. “Nobody threatens my guests. That scoundrel needs to be taught a lesson-”

“You will do no such thing,” I interrupt him, interlocking my fingers with his before he can get away. “Arthur already punched him in the face and it only made things worse. Besides, we have somewhere to be. Don’t want your shirt to get wringkled or something.”

“You are right,” he chuckles. “Ma chérie, always so thoughtful. Although if you see that man again, do not hesitate to let me know. I will handle it,” he assures me, regaining his serious expression. The look in his eyes is threatening, but not towards me. I have never seen him like that, even though he is certainly protective of me. That he has proven since the day we met.

“Okay,” I nod, making eye contact so he can see I understood. I begin walking out of the alleyway and gently pull him along, still grasping his hand. “Now let’s go, we’re going to be late.”

[hayesit]

matt’s 2019 year in review

here it is! and it’s late because i had other/better things to do (and procrastinating), was recovering from hangovers (also procrastinating), and recovering from being sick (procrastinating).

i’ve been doing these year in review posts since 2016, so here is my fourth installment. every year i look back through my google calendar, my camera roll, and my bullet journal as a gratitude exercise and to chart my own development as an adult. 

here is my spotify wrapped 2019!

the beginning of this year was off to a good start: i met two friends that i know through the internet! i met my friend riley when she visited boston (i met her through a mutual friend and through overwatch league twitter) and my friend jimmy that i’ve known for…. 6 or 7 years (?!) through tumblr and designed the logo for me and alex’s late podcast, hardly tea, may she rest in peace. 

i moved dorm rooms in between the fall and spring semester, and once again i was not happy with where i lived. i lived with 4 rando’s that i was placed with and the 5 of us barely even talked with each other. my direct roommate i saw for only two weeks, and for the nights he slept over in the bed (that he was paying room and board for) and had the worst snoring humanly possible that not even earplugs could kill (video below). i hardly slept while he was there and roamed the halls of riverview suites like a ghost due to the anxiety i felt about my lack of sleep (we love a vicious circle)! he disappeared after those two weeks without notice and i lived in fear of him returning for the rest of the semester (which he didn’t), but returned to my normal sleep schedule. 

that semester was my first semester of full-time grad school. i got a poor grade on an assignment that had a note from the professor that said she knew i could do better and it hit me how much different grad school is from undergrad and how much more effort and dedication it requires. after crying in my professor’s office, my work ethic has improved since then, but it’s not anywhere near where i’d like it to be (more on that later). 

now to more positive things for the spring semester: i met some friends that semester both ~on and offline~ that made the semester far more bearable AND i did however truly pop off in every last one of my powerpoint presentations for class. i looooove making powerpoints and just fuckin telling jokes about my research topic and have ppl tell me that they are looking forward to my presentation & that i should teach college classes :)!

me and 4 friends had a social group in which we’d drink and play board games and forget about the board game and drunkenly talk shit called cabam after all our first initials! i always looked forward to that and dug the group chemistry a lot.

during this semester i grew a   “ beard “, otherwise known as i chose not to shave just to  “ see what would happen “ (praythatitfilledin). sorry about that!

the overwatch league was something that i had to look forward to watch every week and i had my experience enhanced through sideshow and avast’s unofficial companion streams, which guaranteed lots of laughs. i have bought tickets to two boston home games in 2020 which i am very excited about! analysts have predicted boston to be in 20th place this year (there are 20 teams) but i’m still excited for the 2020 season anyway!!

i can’t have a year-in-review of 2019 without mentioning game of thrones. due to the show’s final season being undeniably weak, i enjoyed the camaraderie with the other people that watched thrones during those six weeks. i haven’t thought about the show or its universe for quite a while, unfortunately. i truly was quite into the world of westeros, but the weakness of the end of the story cheapened the journey of each of the characters, in a way. such a shame.

while i got my diploma in december 2018, i walked across the stage of umass lowell’s tsongas arena with my bachelor of arts in psychology (and minor in theatre arts). it wasn’t as emotional or triumphant of an experience and just felt weird, considering i had already gotten my diploma and was going to remain in the clutches of rowdy the riverhawk as i am staying for my masters degree in applied behavior analysis/autism studies. i brought a ceramic monkey to graduation. it didn’t have any symbolism, but i just wanted to see if they’d stop me (which they didn’t)

 this summer was better than most summers of mine go, i hung out with alex nearly every weekend, got my very first iphone, and got a data plan. the combination of these three things got me back into playing pokemon go, an unexpectedly fun pastime! went on lots of walks!

my favorite day of summer was going to a lake with alex and our friend gianna, who i grew closer to after meeting her during macbeth last year. fond 2019 memories with gianna include: doing simulation patients with her, watching movies with her and alex, and the halloween party. what a great gd person and a great gd friend! big fan and eternally rooting for her. 

fire emblem: three houses came out on the switch in august and is, without a doubt, my game of the year. there’s truly so much to love about the game: the world, the characters, new changes made to the series, things that were gone but returned, interesting micromanaging, and best of all, how huge my brain feels when playing it. 

i got a 6-week summer job as a paraprofessional at an extended-school-year program for children with developmental disabilities at a preschool in haverhill which taught me a lot of lessons, such as: i hate cleaning shit off of children.

then i had feelings that didn’t make much sense for about a month! whoops!

my full-time job i currently have is working at my old high school as a behavior specialist. i provide consultation and work on programs to lead to more appropriate behavior in students, primarily ones with developmental disabilities. so far it’s been fairly rewarding, some days are more challenging than others, some days are a lot of sitting in meetings, and some days are a lot of running around. some days there is not much to do at all, which has its obvious upsides and downsides. working at the high school isn’t something that i want to do forever, but it’s a good place to start with. i’m definitely learning a lot and there are a lot of benefits to working here. sometimes i can work on my grad school work (which is all online until the 2020 summer semester) which is definitely huge. and my commute is either a 15 minute walk or 3 minutes if my mom drives me! 

a ~complex~ thing about working in my hometown is that it makes the most financial sense to live at home because it’s so close to work. this is my first time living at home full-time since high school and i’m not enjoying that part too much. most weekends i visit alex in lowell, but being stuck at home with no car (going to retake the license test in the spring when the ice melts!) and having to go to bed so early definitely hurts. sure, i have what is likely the lowest amount of expenses i’ll ever have in my life (no car-related payments, no rent, no groceries), but i feel landlocked. i feel like a teenager with minimal freedom, which is in part because my mom doesn’t quite understand yet that i’m a 22 year-old that should have a lot more freedom than i do now. the most i really do on weekdays after work gets out (2:30p) is go to savers with my mom if it’s tuesday (senior citizen day), maybe go for a walk if it’s nice out (which for most of the school year, it isn’t), or be on the computer watching bon appetit videos and playing overwatch, fire emblem, or pokemon, eat a bland dinner at 6, go to bed at around 9:30. sad! truly not a situation that i want to be trapped in that much that much longer!

i think the best and most important part of this year was becoming closer with alex. as i mentioned before, we see each other most weekends, to our great benefit. our living situations have flip-flopped, with me living at home and alex living in an apartment near campus, which in both similar and different ways have taken their respective tolls on us. having each other while going through changes and stagnations in our lives has been immeasurably important. thank you alex for providing a place to be myself other than my own head. thank you for being my best friend. 

now i come to the thing that i’m most excited about for 2020. not 2 suck my own horn but i have cobbled together a fuckin dream team of five friends (me, alex, chris, kelly, and molly). the two times we have all gotten together it has been so satisfying in such a wonderful and otherworldly way that i am filled to the brim of happiness being around them. the craziest thing is that i met chris and kelly through twitter! TWITTER. and they’re real-ass people and my real-ass friends! i haven’t been so pleased with something in my life like this for so long and it feels so good to have adult friends that i have chosen rather than friends by circumstance. it’s truly a crime that we can’t see each other more often, but we already have a day picked out for the next time we all do something together. feeling emotional writing this paragraph bc i love me gd friends so much!

there is a lot of uncertainty about this new year for me. i sure as fuck don’t want to live at home more than i have to but don’t know where to go, my practicum class starts for me this summer which means i’ll most likely have to change jobs (fine by me, but will be exhausting), i recently began my search for therapists and hope to find one soon to help me ~unpack things~, my thesis begins in the fall semester and i don’t know what to do for it, and i’m not 100% dead-set on working in special education. it’s been hard transitioning from living on campus and going to school full-time to the life i have now. 

[inhumcn]

❛ parabola end - chapter four ❜

I am not oblivious to my sister's whereabouts. She was still safely in the hands of Leo as far as I could tell. I am watchful, considerate. At first, six years ago, I would receive small, yellowed envelopes still smelling like dust and cigar smoke. I would pry open the flap and slip out the scrap of paper, tiny, frightened handwriting scrawled across it. "Dear Caleb..." they would always begin. At first I was amused - Abigail still believed, after all this time, I would come back to her. What a child. She had never really known who I was - then again, she had never looked into my eyes as I snuffed the life out of her, like her mother had. To her, I was her loving, doting brother. I tossed the envelope into the drawer of my desk and forgot about it. The second letter was a bit more aggravating. She was still insistently writing to me? And that man, Leo, seemed to humor her, actually delivering the letters. Clutching the envelope in my hands, fingering it. And I would write her back with empty promises. Telling her that I was working very hard to be able to come get her. “Very soon”, I’d say.

It would be three years before I finally encountered Leo again, as I strode through the dusky streets of New Jersey. I was checking my watch - the numbers read that it was near midnight, certainly not the time to be taking a stroll, but I had no fear. I suddenly felt a firm hand grasp me by the elbow, stopping me. I turned slowly, hand poised on the hilt of my pocket knife. "Easy, easy," the voice grunted hoarsely. "I's me, Leo! Remember me?!" I look at him in the face - it is mottled and falling apart like a decaying corpse - the tell-tale signs of drug abuse. I am disgusted. "I see your getting to be a powerful man, sir," he chuckles, groping my coat collar. I raise my knife to his throat. "Easssy!" He seems taken aback, almost offended. He steps backwards, hand raised. "Sorry, pal. Just wanted to see if you were wondering about you sissy." 

"Right," I say, adjusting my shirt sleeve, my voice obviously disinterested. "How is she?" Leo chuckles, spits on the cobbles. "Jeez, you really are as heartless as they say," he snorts, spinning on his heel, departing. "Good night, Leo," I murmur, eyes following him as he disappears in the dark.

It is one year later.

I have purchased a few girls from a reputable (well, as reputable as they come) dealer. Their previous owner had either died or moved on to other ambitions, the former being the more likely choice. Most of the girls I accept; those who are inadequate I press a gun to their heads and pull the trigger. What else can I do? Let them roam free? The empty parking lot behind my whorehouse is full of unmarked graves. The girls sometimes whisper that when the wind whistles past, you can hear the voices of their fallen comrades, crying. I don't encourage such fantasies. I want to keep my women as refined as I can make them - I teach those who don't know how to read and write, give them sewing and knitting to occupy their free time, show them how to cook and clean properly. They can seem educated, at least. If I am caught with one of them at my arm, they can pretend to be someone worth being seen with. Besides, I cannot stand being pleasured by someone who cannot even recite the alphabet. It is deplorable.

I am sitting in my "office" - a windowless room with peeling wallpaper and oil paintings tacked on the walls, worn carpeting, an oak desk and a futon. I don't conduct much real business here - very few people have even had reason to speak with me. They leave my brothel satisfied. One of the women who works part time as my assistant knocks on the door lightly. "Sir, one of the new girls," she whispers softly into the room. "Yes, thank you. Send her in, please." The woman ducks her head swiftly out, almost flinching as I turn in my seat. The door opens wider and a small, skinny girl waltzes in. She seems...vaguely familiar. I think that I've seen her face before, but has been lost in my usually sharp memory. She is nothing special to look at, I think. Perhaps attractive in a cute, spritely way, and though she is small she seems to be able to handle a few hard knocks. 

I touch the tips of my fingers together and stand, towering over her short frame. I ask her for her name, though she shakes off the question with a look of hard resolve. My eyes become colder, more menacing. "Tell me. Now." She peers back up at me; for a moment a look of innocence and fear flashes across her face. It dissolves as rapidly as it appeared. "Abigail. I don’t know my surname." She approaches; her voice reminds me of something. I can't quite put my finger on it. "What’s your name? Michael? Henry? If you don’t tell me I’ll just call you Hannah." 

She strides up to me, runs a hand through my hair. I remain unresponsive, my eyes scouring hers. "They tell me I’m supposed to blow you but I don’t have me a name to call you to turn you on." She purrs, pressing her lips against mine. She seems experienced - her touches are seductive, and to anyone who hadn't been in the business as long as I had, she almost seems genuine. She was short, though, and strained to reach me. I didn't bother to attempt to ease her suffering. No, my job is to increase it, not relieve it from the shoulders of my whores. “Gonna tell me now, Hannah?” The name disconcerts me slightly, bringing forth memories of a plain woman with brown hair and brown eyes that I had hoped had been banished from my memories forever. But I don't let this unease taint my features; instead, I run my hand across her body, starting from her inner thigh and slowly working my way up her smooth, warm skin. Then I feel something peculiar. A rough patch of skin, extending down her...I hiss quietly, "Your name is Abigail?" I find myself suddenly revolted. I have an overwhelming desire to vomit, despite not feeling in the least bit nauseous. I push her aside, slamming a hand down on the desktop with a loud thud. "There is a burn on your side," I say quietly. Though my voice is controlled, albeit tense, my eyes are flaming. "Your last name is Thompson."

My sister is here. The very woman in the world I had meant to never see again. She was here in my office, a dirty whore.

I want to vomit.

[caveartfair]

Six Artists Who Teach Share the Lessons They’ve Learned

Artist Rodrigo Valenzuela works with a student during an open studio at UCLA. Photo by Reed Hutchinson. Courtesy of UCLA.

Artists’ creativity often extends to the ways they make a living. The most famous may live off their studio practices, but many more cobble together a livelihood from sales of their art, grants, freelance work, and day jobs. For tens of thousands of artists in the U.S., this means teaching art.

The exact number of visual artists who teach at colleges and universities at any one time is hard to pin down, but according to a 2013 National Endowment for the Arts study, of the 271,000 workers who reported holding secondary jobs as artists, almost 21 percent, or nearly 57,000 workers, identified as teachers in their primary jobs. For some, teaching may be a temporary solution; for others, it becomes a career-long calling that presents its own distinct set of challenges, from navigating institutional bureaucracy and campus politics to supporting students, all the while continuing to develop their own practices. It represents an enormous commitment of time and energy that can be nurturing for some and stultifying for others.

“You can’t simply think of it as a supplement to your art sales income,” says Laura Parnes, who is currently a visiting artist in three different MFA programs (at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, and Maryland Institute College of Art). “Your academic engagement should expand your artistic practice. Otherwise, you would be better off finding another way to make a living.”

Of the 271,000 workers who reported holding secondary jobs as artists, almost 21 percent identified as teachers in their primary jobs.

And, as a way of making a living, teaching at an art school—even one that is very highly regarded—isn’t without its perils, either. The recent boom in higher education for artists may be starting to level off, and prospective students are increasingly aware of the often-enormous costs of art school.

In fact, those exorbitant costs have been important factors in the controversies that erupted at two major art schools recently. Earlier this year, 51 of the 54 students in Columbia University’s visual arts MFA program met with their dean and provost to demand tuition refunds. Their primary complaints were about appalling conditions in many of the on-campus studios and the prolonged absences of many of the school’s more high-profile faculty members, both of which were extenuated by tuition rates of nearly $64,000. And in 2015, all of the students in the first year of the MFA program at the Roski School of Art of the University of Southern California dropped out in protest of changes to the school’s faculty and reduced tuition subsidies, among other issues. Art schools, in other words, are not impregnable ivory towers. Nevertheless, they offer working artists the prospect of a stable income, benefits, and intellectual stimulation.

“Being an artist in New York is so difficult, to have a job that helps with the hustle is such a relief,” says Monica Cook, the interim head of the sculpture department at the New York Academy of Art. “When I am in the position where I don’t need the income from teaching, I still see myself involved, doing workshops and master classes.”

Teaching and being taught

Artist Michelle Grabner speaking to a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Courtesy the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

One oft-cited distinction between (and advantage of) teaching art in a college or university setting as opposed to other artist day jobs (like, say, professional blackjack player) is that it can help artist instructors be more engaged in their own studios. Working through intellectual, material, and formal problems with students helps artists develop their practices.

“Teaching is an extension of my work,” says Parnes. “Working with students, I’m constantly reassessing my own philosophical relationship to artmaking. The experience of having to advise and respond to work outside of my own immediate interests (formally, conceptually) can be a tremendous catalyst for growth. It’s a challenge that pushes me.”

Consequently, an important dose of humility is key for any artist who wants to make a go of being a teacher.

“A lot of times, some 18-year-old will prove you wrong. You have to have the generosity to let them be on their own and give them freedom.”

“You can’t just expect to go and teach the things that you know, and then leave and get paid for all that knowledge that you think is so great inside you,” says Rodrigo Valenzuela, a Chilean-born artist now based in Los Angeles, where he has been an assistant professor of photography at the University of California–Los Angeles since 2017. “This capacity of wanting to learn, and the capacity to speak out loud about the doubts that you have, it requires a certain openness. A lot of times, some 18-year-old will prove you wrong, or an 18-year-old who hasn’t made any art will have better ideas than you. You have to have the generosity to let them be on their own and give them freedom.”

Location, location, compensation

Learning on the job—from students and fellow faculty—is hardly the only potential perk of a teaching job for an artist.

“There are some places that will give professors studios, that will give professors housing, that will give you a moving package, that will help you get set up—those are important questions to ask if you’re relocating,” says Sam Vernon, an artist who moved from New York City to the Bay Area to take an assistant professor position at the California College of the Arts.

After working as a teaching assistant at Yale while she pursued an MFA there, and as an adjunct professor at Vassar College, she didn’t take the decision to move across the country for the job lightly. She stresses the importance of getting as full a picture as possible of the campus culture at a given school before committing to a teaching role. “What’s the energy like? Are people frustrated, are they excited? Is there a level of camaraderie that you sense among the students?” she asks.

A photography critique at at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Courtesy the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Another question artists should ask themselves when sizing up teaching jobs has to do with compensation and cost of living. While major schools in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago may confer institutional prestige, the compensation they offer will not necessarily go very far compared to what schools in more affordable cities can offer art teachers.

“Knowing what the cost of living is in that particular city is really important,” says T.J. Dedeaux-Norris, an artist and assistant professor at the University of Iowa. “So if you’re comparing a salary that might seem like a really, really good salary, it might not be that much money if the cost of living is really high. Or you look at a job and see that the salary feels mediocre or low compared to somebody else that you know that lives somewhere else, but then you realize that the cost of living is really low.”

From compensation to cost of living to campus culture, the more artists can know about a school before taking a job there, the better, says Vernon. “Because you will be committing a very large part of your time and your life to these spaces, and—I have to stress this because I’ve seen it happen—if you have any level of resentment toward where you have chosen to be, the students and your colleagues will sense it; they will know.”

The adjunct hustle

Artist Catherine Opie speaks to a student during an open studio at UCLA. Photo by Reed Hutchinson. Courtesy of UCLA.

And for many artists who teach, there are plenty of possible sources of resentment. The adjunct crisis is well-documented in every sector of secondary education. In recent years, in California alone, part-time faculty at the Otis College of Art and Design, California College of the Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, and Laguna College of Art and Design have voted to unionize in hopes of negotiating for better pay, benefits, and greater job stability. Adjunct pay differs from one institution to the next, but typically ranges from $2,000 to $6,000 per course, with instructors often taking on many classes—often on different campuses and for different schools—in order to make a living.

“I was confronted with many challenges teaching adjunct,” says Dedeaux-Norris, who previously held visiting and adjunct teaching roles at Xavier University and Dillard University in New Orleans and Santa Monica College in California. “Even with my Yale degree, I found it difficult to crack the glass ceiling of adjunct work and I would oftentimes not know until a week or two in advance what classes I’d be teaching—if any. This made course planning difficult and pretty stressful.”

The adjunct hustle has become such a common part of how artists make a living that, in 2015, Dushko Petrovich, an artist and longtime adjunct himself, was inspired to launch the Adjunct Commuter Weekly, a publication intended specifically for educators routinely traveling many miles between part-time teaching jobs.

Courtesy of California College of the Arts.

“I started at Boston University in a two-year position called ‘teaching fellow,’ and then I stayed there as an adjunct, adding Yale, RISD, and NYU to the list as an adjunct,” says Petrovich, who is now the chair of the New Arts Journalism program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and doesn’t miss being an adjunct at all. “I would rather have a full-time position. I like teaching and running a department, and the financial stability gives me a lot of freedom, which I cherish, in my own work.”

For other artists, a part-time or adjunct role can provide the freedom to tune out the bigger issues at a given school and focus on their students and their studio.

“It’s such a rewarding job, with many challenges,” says Vernon. “But I don’t blame someone who opts out and just wants to be in their studio and drop in every now and then.”

Students in the studio?

One particularly prevalent challenge for artists who decide to teach involves the boundaries they do (or don’t) erect between their careers as artists and their careers as educators. The classroom can be a helpful space for teachers to work out issues they’re wrangling with in their studios, but this can lead to difficult situations where students’ work begins to resemble that of their professors.

“If your role as a teacher is defined and limits are set, everyone is more comfortable and students can delve into their own particular interests without feeling pressure to emulate their teacher’s work or to appease various personalities,” says Parnes.

Artist Monica Cook with student Spyros Procopiou in her Painting from Imagination class at the New York Academy of Art. Courtesy the New York Academy of Art.

For Vernon, the boundaries between her artistic practice and her pedagogic practice are more porous, and she stresses the potential risks of that arrangement.

“If you do bring [your work] into the classroom, with that comes a certain level of intimacy in which the students’ curiosity is piqued,” she says. “And then it can lead to more questions, like, do I allow my students into my studio space—which I have done—and then, how much do I share with them about my practice, because many students become inspired and that turns into, are they making work that looks like theirs or yours? It’s a fine line.”

“When I am overwhelmed with my own work, helping someone else can be like stepping into the calm during a storm.”

Making that line much clearer can also help an artist who teaches mindfully balance one’s schedule and priorities.

“It can be really difficult when I am preparing for a show under tight deadlines,” says Cook. “When I am overwhelmed with my own work, helping someone else solve their problems can be like stepping into the calm during a storm.”

Ultimately, for many who do it, the decision to teach art comes down to a question of generosity and wanting to help and be helped by younger artists.

“If you feel like you need to improve something, and that art education would be better with you in it, I think it’s good,” says Valenzuela. “We shouldn’t surrender to the weight of the institutions and not think that they’re made up of people; people should improve these places.”

from Artsy News

[corpasa]

Teaching Digital Rights and Responsibilities

Teaching used to be based on textbooks used by millions nation- or worldwide. They took an entire school year to finish leaving little time for curiosity or creativity. Some subjects still do fine with that approach because their pedagogy varies little year-to-year.

In my classes, though, that’s changing. I no longer limit myself to the contents of a textbook written years, sometimes a decade, ago. Now, I’m likely to cobble together lesson plans from a variety of time-sensitive and differentiated material. Plus, I commonly expect students to dig deeper into class conversations, think critically about current event connections, and gain perspective by comparing lesson materials to world cultures. That, of course, usually ends up not in a library but on the Internet.

Before I set them loose in the virtual world, though, I teach them the “rules of the Internet road” because make no mistake: There are rules. The Internet’s Wild West days are fast disappearing, replaced with the security offered by abiding to a discrete set of what’s commonly referred to as “digital rights and responsibilities“. It boils down to a simple maxim:

With the right to discover knowledge comes the responsibility to behave well while doing so.

The privileges and freedoms extended to digital users who type a URL into a browser or click a link in a PDF or scan a QR Code require that they bear the responsibility to keep the virtual library a safe and healthy environment for everyone.

Digital Rights

Most people if asked could easily name the benefits of the Internet:

Everyone can speak their mind knowing they’ll find like-minded individuals. 

Privacy is ensured by its vastness. Think about living in the desert — who could ever find you there? It’s that sort of vastness. 

As a creator, you can expose a world of people to your creations to purchase or just spread the word. 

You can find any information you want just by typing in search terms and slogging through the multitude of hits. 

You can create an online persona that doesn’t include your faults, lousy personality, or mistakes. 

These rights are so pervasive to our daily activities that many consider them to be inalienable, not unlike those laid out in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To these folks, disconnecting people from the Internet is a violation of international law and tramples all over an individual’s human rights.

Digital Responsibilities

But there are two faces to this digital coin: Inalienable or not, they require great responsibilities. Some think the Internet’s lawlessness (because no world authority holds legal authority over the world wide web) precludes cultural norms like kindness, morality, and ethics. After all, if you purchase porn from a third-world nation where it’s legal to sell, who’s going to enforce what law?

That’s where I teach my students that with rights come responsibilities. Think of the Internet as having comparable expectations to a neighborhood:

Act the same online as you’d act in your neighborhood.

Don’t share personal information. Don’t ask others for theirs. Respect their need for privacy.

Be aware of your surroundings. Know where you are in cyberspace. Act accordingly.

Just as in your community, if you are kind to others, they will be kind to you.

Don’t think anonymity protects you—it doesn’t. You are easily found with an IP address. Discuss what that is.

Share your knowledge. Collaborate and help others online.

Information Security Education and Awareness posits these Ten Commandments for computer use:

One shall not use a computer to harm other people.

One shall not interfere with other’s computer work.

One shall not snoop around in another ‘s computer files [and will keep one’s own data safe from hackers].

One shall not use a computer to steal [or plagiaurze].

One shall not use a computer to bear false witness [or to falsify one’s own identity].

One shall not copy or use any materials for which one has not paid.

One shall not use other’s computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.

One shall not appropriate other’s intellectual output [and will legally download all material like music and videos].

One shall think about social consequences of the program written or of the system designed.

One shall always use a computer in ways that respect one’s fellow humans [and report bullying, harassing, and identify theft when possible].

… and eight “don’ts” for computer users:

Do not use computers to harm other users.

Do not use computers to steal other’s information.

Do not access files without the permission of the owner.

Do not disrespect copyright laws and policies.

Do not disrespect the privacy of others.

Do not use other’s computer resources without their permission.

Do not write your User Id and Passwords where others can find it.

Do not intentionally use computers to retrieve or modify the information of others.

Knowing this, consider three of the great threats to the safe and equitable use of the Internet:

plagiarism 

hoaxes

spam

Plagiarism

The responsibility to use all data, files, and information from the Internet legally, wisely, and safely means: Don’t plagiarize. Always credit the creator. In general terms, you must cite sources for:

facts not commonly known or accepted

exact words and/or unique phrases

reprints of diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials

opinions that support research

Most students are well-versed in the illegality of stealing someone’s online words but plagiarism extends to all forms of media — images, photos, audio files, videos, and more. Few students make those connections. In fact, they’re likely to think if a picture is online, it’s free.

Hoaxes

It’s tempting to believe that everything online is legitimate yet it’s easy to fake a picture with programs like Photoshop. Look at this picture of President Roosevelt crossing a river on a moose*.

This happens so often, even by amateurs, that they are no longer legal in courts of law.

When trying to differentiate between legitimate information and hoaxes, consider these questions:

Is the author an expert or a third grader?

Is the information current or dated?

Is the data neutral or biased?

Is it believable (could a man cross a river on a moose)?

Look at these sites and decide if they’re hoaxes — and why:

Fake baseball blog

Hoax or not?

Save the tree octopus

Spam

Spam is defined as “irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients.” Today, that not only includes annoying marketing emails but phishing (sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies) and spoofing (the forgery of an email header so that the message appears to be from someone legitimate). These are designed solely to trick you into giving out personal information or install malware on your computer that gives others access to it.

Here are seven tips for avoiding spam:

Don’t give out your email address in public forums. If you must, write it as johndoe at verizon dot net. That will trick trolls but not humans.

Never respond to spam.

Always preview email before downloading.

Never open attachments unless you’re sure they’re safe (i.e., from someone you know).

Use an email filter.

If spam slips through, block it through the tools available in your email program.

When you purchase online, beware of receipt dialogue boxes with checkboxes already filled in.

The most important part of this article: Accessing the Internet includes behavioral expectations. Teach this as soon as students visit the Internet (probably kindergarten). Reteach it every year. Add details that are age-appropriate. Never consider your job done until your students and children can cross that virtual road safely, after looking both ways for dangerous digital traffic.

*The Roosevelt photo is in the public domain because it was created more than seventy years after the death of its creator. That’s why I didn’t cite it.

— published first on TeachHUB

More

Alice Keeler’s Every Lesson is a Search Lesson

How to Grow Global Digital Citizens

Building Digital Citizens (online Certificate class)

Digital Citizenship: What to teach when? (a video)

Building Digital Citizens (online certificate class)

Building Digital Citizens (a college-level class)

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CAEP reviewer, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. You can find her resources at Structured Learning. Read Jacqui’s tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days.

Teaching Digital Rights and Responsibilities published first on https://medium.com/@DLBusinessNow

[endevia]

Teaching Digital Rights and Responsibilities

Teaching used to be based on textbooks used by millions nation- or worldwide. They took an entire school year to finish leaving little time for curiosity or creativity. Some subjects still do fine with that approach because their pedagogy varies little year-to-year.

In my classes, though, that’s changing. I no longer limit myself to the contents of a textbook written years, sometimes a decade, ago. Now, I’m likely to cobble together lesson plans from a variety of time-sensitive and differentiated material. Plus, I commonly expect students to dig deeper into class conversations, think critically about current event connections, and gain perspective by comparing lesson materials to world cultures. That, of course, usually ends up not in a library but on the Internet.

Before I set them loose in the virtual world, though, I teach them the “rules of the Internet road” because make no mistake: There are rules. The Internet’s Wild West days are fast disappearing, replaced with the security offered by abiding to a discrete set of what’s commonly referred to as “digital rights and responsibilities“. It boils down to a simple maxim:

With the right to discover knowledge comes the responsibility to behave well while doing so.

The privileges and freedoms extended to digital users who type a URL into a browser or click a link in a PDF or scan a QR Code require that they bear the responsibility to keep the virtual library a safe and healthy environment for everyone.

Digital Rights

Most people if asked could easily name the benefits of the Internet:

Everyone can speak their mind knowing they’ll find like-minded individuals. 

Privacy is ensured by its vastness. Think about living in the desert — who could ever find you there? It’s that sort of vastness. 

As a creator, you can expose a world of people to your creations to purchase or just spread the word. 

You can find any information you want just by typing in search terms and slogging through the multitude of hits. 

You can create an online persona that doesn’t include your faults, lousy personality, or mistakes. 

These rights are so pervasive to our daily activities that many consider them to be inalienable, not unlike those laid out in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To these folks, disconnecting people from the Internet is a violation of international law and tramples all over an individual’s human rights.

Digital Responsibilities

But there are two faces to this digital coin: Inalienable or not, they require great responsibilities. Some think the Internet’s lawlessness (because no world authority holds legal authority over the world wide web) precludes cultural norms like kindness, morality, and ethics. After all, if you purchase porn from a third-world nation where it’s legal to sell, who’s going to enforce what law?

That’s where I teach my students that with rights come responsibilities. Think of the Internet as having comparable expectations to a neighborhood:

Act the same online as you’d act in your neighborhood.

Don’t share personal information. Don’t ask others for theirs. Respect their need for privacy.

Be aware of your surroundings. Know where you are in cyberspace. Act accordingly.

Just as in your community, if you are kind to others, they will be kind to you.

Don’t think anonymity protects you—it doesn’t. You are easily found with an IP address. Discuss what that is.

Share your knowledge. Collaborate and help others online.

Information Security Education and Awareness posits these Ten Commandments for computer use:

One shall not use a computer to harm other people.

One shall not interfere with other’s computer work.

One shall not snoop around in another ‘s computer files [and will keep one’s own data safe from hackers].

One shall not use a computer to steal [or plagiaurze].

One shall not use a computer to bear false witness [or to falsify one’s own identity].

One shall not copy or use any materials for which one has not paid.

One shall not use other’s computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.

One shall not appropriate other’s intellectual output [and will legally download all material like music and videos].

One shall think about social consequences of the program written or of the system designed.

One shall always use a computer in ways that respect one’s fellow humans [and report bullying, harassing, and identify theft when possible].

… and eight “don’ts” for computer users:

Do not use computers to harm other users.

Do not use computers to steal other’s information.

Do not access files without the permission of the owner.

Do not disrespect copyright laws and policies.

Do not disrespect the privacy of others.

Do not use other’s computer resources without their permission.

Do not write your User Id and Passwords where others can find it.

Do not intentionally use computers to retrieve or modify the information of others.

Knowing this, consider three of the great threats to the safe and equitable use of the Internet:

plagiarism 

hoaxes

spam

Plagiarism

The responsibility to use all data, files, and information from the Internet legally, wisely, and safely means: Don’t plagiarize. Always credit the creator. In general terms, you must cite sources for:

facts not commonly known or accepted

exact words and/or unique phrases

reprints of diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials

opinions that support research

Most students are well-versed in the illegality of stealing someone’s online words but plagiarism extends to all forms of media — images, photos, audio files, videos, and more. Few students make those connections. In fact, they’re likely to think if a picture is online, it’s free.

Hoaxes

It’s tempting to believe that everything online is legitimate yet it’s easy to fake a picture with programs like Photoshop. Look at this picture of President Roosevelt crossing a river on a moose*.

This happens so often, even by amateurs, that they are no longer legal in courts of law.

When trying to differentiate between legitimate information and hoaxes, consider these questions:

Is the author an expert or a third grader?

Is the information current or dated?

Is the data neutral or biased?

Is it believable (could a man cross a river on a moose)?

Look at these sites and decide if they’re hoaxes — and why:

Fake baseball blog

Hoax or not?

Save the tree octopus

Spam

Spam is defined as “irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients.” Today, that not only includes annoying marketing emails but phishing (sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies) and spoofing (the forgery of an email header so that the message appears to be from someone legitimate). These are designed solely to trick you into giving out personal information or install malware on your computer that gives others access to it.

Here are seven tips for avoiding spam:

Don’t give out your email address in public forums. If you must, write it as johndoe at verizon dot net. That will trick trolls but not humans.

Never respond to spam.

Always preview email before downloading.

Never open attachments unless you’re sure they’re safe (i.e., from someone you know).

Use an email filter.

If spam slips through, block it through the tools available in your email program.

When you purchase online, beware of receipt dialogue boxes with checkboxes already filled in.

The most important part of this article: Accessing the Internet includes behavioral expectations. Teach this as soon as students visit the Internet (probably kindergarten). Reteach it every year. Add details that are age-appropriate. Never consider your job done until your students and children can cross that virtual road safely, after looking both ways for dangerous digital traffic.

*The Roosevelt photo is in the public domain because it was created more than seventy years after the death of its creator. That’s why I didn’t cite it.

— published first on TeachHUB

More

Alice Keeler’s Every Lesson is a Search Lesson

How to Grow Global Digital Citizens

Building Digital Citizens (online Certificate class)

Digital Citizenship: What to teach when? (a video)

Building Digital Citizens (online certificate class)

Building Digital Citizens (a college-level class)

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CAEP reviewer, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. You can find her resources at Structured Learning. Read Jacqui’s tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days.

Teaching Digital Rights and Responsibilities published first on https://medium.com/@greatpricecourse

[evnoweb]

Teaching Digital Rights and Responsibilities

Teaching used to be based on textbooks used by millions nation- or worldwide. They took an entire school year to finish leaving little time for curiosity or creativity. Some subjects still do fine with that approach because their pedagogy varies little year-to-year.

In my classes, though, that’s changing. I no longer limit myself to the contents of a textbook written years, sometimes a decade, ago. Now, I’m likely to cobble together lesson plans from a variety of time-sensitive and differentiated material. Plus, I commonly expect students to dig deeper into class conversations, think critically about current event connections, and gain perspective by comparing lesson materials to world cultures. That, of course, usually ends up not in a library but on the Internet.

Before I set them loose in the virtual world, though, I teach them the “rules of the Internet road” because make no mistake: There are rules. The Internet’s Wild West days are fast disappearing, replaced with the security offered by abiding to a discrete set of what’s commonly referred to as “digital rights and responsibilities“. It boils down to a simple maxim:

With the right to discover knowledge comes the responsibility to behave well while doing so.

The privileges and freedoms extended to digital users who type a URL into a browser or click a link in a PDF or scan a QR Code require that they bear the responsibility to keep the virtual library a safe and healthy environment for everyone.

Digital Rights

Most people if asked could easily name the benefits of the Internet:

Everyone can speak their mind knowing they’ll find like-minded individuals. 

Privacy is ensured by its vastness. Think about living in the desert — who could ever find you there? It’s that sort of vastness. 

As a creator, you can expose a world of people to your creations to purchase or just spread the word. 

You can find any information you want just by typing in search terms and slogging through the multitude of hits. 

You can create an online persona that doesn’t include your faults, lousy personality, or mistakes. 

These rights are so pervasive to our daily activities that many consider them to be inalienable, not unlike those laid out in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To these folks, disconnecting people from the Internet is a violation of international law and tramples all over an individual’s human rights.

Digital Responsibilities

But there are two faces to this digital coin: Inalienable or not, they require great responsibilities. Some think the Internet’s lawlessness (because no world authority holds legal authority over the world wide web) precludes cultural norms like kindness, morality, and ethics. After all, if you purchase porn from a third-world nation where it’s legal to sell, who’s going to enforce what law?

That’s where I teach my students that with rights come responsibilities. Think of the Internet as having comparable expectations to a neighborhood:

Act the same online as you’d act in your neighborhood.

Don’t share personal information. Don’t ask others for theirs. Respect their need for privacy.

Be aware of your surroundings. Know where you are in cyberspace. Act accordingly.

Just as in your community, if you are kind to others, they will be kind to you.

Don’t think anonymity protects you—it doesn’t. You are easily found with an IP address. Discuss what that is.

Share your knowledge. Collaborate and help others online.

Information Security Education and Awareness posits these Ten Commandments for computer use:

One shall not use a computer to harm other people.

One shall not interfere with other’s computer work.

One shall not snoop around in another ‘s computer files [and will keep one’s own data safe from hackers].

One shall not use a computer to steal [or plagiaurze].

One shall not use a computer to bear false witness [or to falsify one’s own identity].

One shall not copy or use any materials for which one has not paid.

One shall not use other’s computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.

One shall not appropriate other’s intellectual output [and will legally download all material like music and videos].

One shall think about social consequences of the program written or of the system designed.

One shall always use a computer in ways that respect one’s fellow humans [and report bullying, harassing, and identify theft when possible].

… and eight “don’ts” for computer users:

Do not use computers to harm other users.

Do not use computers to steal other’s information.

Do not access files without the permission of the owner.

Do not disrespect copyright laws and policies.

Do not disrespect the privacy of others.

Do not use other’s computer resources without their permission.

Do not write your User Id and Passwords where others can find it.

Do not intentionally use computers to retrieve or modify the information of others.

Knowing this, consider three of the great threats to the safe and equitable use of the Internet:

plagiarism 

hoaxes

spam

Plagiarism

The responsibility to use all data, files, and information from the Internet legally, wisely, and safely means: Don’t plagiarize. Always credit the creator. In general terms, you must cite sources for:

facts not commonly known or accepted

exact words and/or unique phrases

reprints of diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials

opinions that support research

Most students are well-versed in the illegality of stealing someone’s online words but plagiarism extends to all forms of media — images, photos, audio files, videos, and more. Few students make those connections. In fact, they’re likely to think if a picture is online, it’s free.

Hoaxes

It’s tempting to believe that everything online is legitimate yet it’s easy to fake a picture with programs like Photoshop. Look at this picture of President Roosevelt crossing a river on a moose*.

This happens so often, even by amateurs, that they are no longer legal in courts of law.

When trying to differentiate between legitimate information and hoaxes, consider these questions:

Is the author an expert or a third grader?

Is the information current or dated?

Is the data neutral or biased?

Is it believable (could a man cross a river on a moose)?

Look at these sites and decide if they’re hoaxes — and why:

Fake baseball blog

Hoax or not?

Save the tree octopus

Spam

Spam is defined as “irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients.” Today, that not only includes annoying marketing emails but phishing (sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies) and spoofing (the forgery of an email header so that the message appears to be from someone legitimate). These are designed solely to trick you into giving out personal information or install malware on your computer that gives others access to it.

Here are seven tips for avoiding spam:

Don’t give out your email address in public forums. If you must, write it as johndoe at verizon dot net. That will trick trolls but not humans.

Never respond to spam.

Always preview email before downloading.

Never open attachments unless you’re sure they’re safe (i.e., from someone you know).

Use an email filter.

If spam slips through, block it through the tools available in your email program.

When you purchase online, beware of receipt dialogue boxes with checkboxes already filled in.

The most important part of this article: Accessing the Internet includes behavioral expectations. Teach this as soon as students visit the Internet (probably kindergarten). Reteach it every year. Add details that are age-appropriate. Never consider your job done until your students and children can cross that virtual road safely, after looking both ways for dangerous digital traffic.

*The Roosevelt photo is in the public domain because it was created more than seventy years after the death of its creator. That’s why I didn’t cite it.

— published first on TeachHUB

More

Alice Keeler’s Every Lesson is a Search Lesson

How to Grow Global Digital Citizens

Building Digital Citizens (online Certificate class)

Digital Citizenship: What to teach when? (a video)

Building Digital Citizens (online certificate class)

Building Digital Citizens (a college-level class)

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CAEP reviewer, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. You can find her resources at Structured Learning. Read Jacqui’s tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days.

Teaching Digital Rights and Responsibilities published first on https://medium.com/@DigitalDLCourse

[statrano]

Teaching Digital Rights and Responsibilities

Teaching used to be based on textbooks used by millions nation- or worldwide. They took an entire school year to finish leaving little time for curiosity or creativity. Some subjects still do fine with that approach because their pedagogy varies little year-to-year.

In my classes, though, that’s changing. I no longer limit myself to the contents of a textbook written years, sometimes a decade, ago. Now, I’m likely to cobble together lesson plans from a variety of time-sensitive and differentiated material. Plus, I commonly expect students to dig deeper into class conversations, think critically about current event connections, and gain perspective by comparing lesson materials to world cultures. That, of course, usually ends up not in a library but on the Internet.

Before I set them loose in the virtual world, though, I teach them the “rules of the Internet road” because make no mistake: There are rules. The Internet’s Wild West days are fast disappearing, replaced with the security offered by abiding to a discrete set of what’s commonly referred to as “digital rights and responsibilities“. It boils down to a simple maxim:

With the right to discover knowledge comes the responsibility to behave well while doing so.

The privileges and freedoms extended to digital users who type a URL into a browser or click a link in a PDF or scan a QR Code require that they bear the responsibility to keep the virtual library a safe and healthy environment for everyone.

Digital Rights

Most people if asked could easily name the benefits of the Internet:

Everyone can speak their mind knowing they’ll find like-minded individuals. 

Privacy is ensured by its vastness. Think about living in the desert — who could ever find you there? It’s that sort of vastness. 

As a creator, you can expose a world of people to your creations to purchase or just spread the word. 

You can find any information you want just by typing in search terms and slogging through the multitude of hits. 

You can create an online persona that doesn’t include your faults, lousy personality, or mistakes. 

These rights are so pervasive to our daily activities that many consider them to be inalienable, not unlike those laid out in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To these folks, disconnecting people from the Internet is a violation of international law and tramples all over an individual’s human rights.

Digital Responsibilities

But there are two faces to this digital coin: Inalienable or not, they require great responsibilities. Some think the Internet’s lawlessness (because no world authority holds legal authority over the world wide web) precludes cultural norms like kindness, morality, and ethics. After all, if you purchase porn from a third-world nation where it’s legal to sell, who’s going to enforce what law?

That’s where I teach my students that with rights come responsibilities. Think of the Internet as having comparable expectations to a neighborhood:

Act the same online as you’d act in your neighborhood.

Don’t share personal information. Don’t ask others for theirs. Respect their need for privacy.

Be aware of your surroundings. Know where you are in cyberspace. Act accordingly.

Just as in your community, if you are kind to others, they will be kind to you.

Don’t think anonymity protects you—it doesn’t. You are easily found with an IP address. Discuss what that is.

Share your knowledge. Collaborate and help others online.

Information Security Education and Awareness posits these Ten Commandments for computer use:

One shall not use a computer to harm other people.

One shall not interfere with other’s computer work.

One shall not snoop around in another ‘s computer files [and will keep one’s own data safe from hackers].

One shall not use a computer to steal [or plagiaurze].

One shall not use a computer to bear false witness [or to falsify one’s own identity].

One shall not copy or use any materials for which one has not paid.

One shall not use other’s computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.

One shall not appropriate other’s intellectual output [and will legally download all material like music and videos].

One shall think about social consequences of the program written or of the system designed.

One shall always use a computer in ways that respect one’s fellow humans [and report bullying, harassing, and identify theft when possible].

… and eight “don’ts” for computer users:

Do not use computers to harm other users.

Do not use computers to steal other’s information.

Do not access files without the permission of the owner.

Do not disrespect copyright laws and policies.

Do not disrespect the privacy of others.

Do not use other’s computer resources without their permission.

Do not write your User Id and Passwords where others can find it.

Do not intentionally use computers to retrieve or modify the information of others.

Knowing this, consider three of the great threats to the safe and equitable use of the Internet:

plagiarism 

hoaxes

spam

Plagiarism

The responsibility to use all data, files, and information from the Internet legally, wisely, and safely means: Don’t plagiarize. Always credit the creator. In general terms, you must cite sources for:

facts not commonly known or accepted

exact words and/or unique phrases

reprints of diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials

opinions that support research

Most students are well-versed in the illegality of stealing someone’s online words but plagiarism extends to all forms of media — images, photos, audio files, videos, and more. Few students make those connections. In fact, they’re likely to think if a picture is online, it’s free.

Hoaxes

It’s tempting to believe that everything online is legitimate yet it’s easy to fake a picture with programs like Photoshop. Look at this picture of President Roosevelt crossing a river on a moose*.

This happens so often, even by amateurs, that they are no longer legal in courts of law.

When trying to differentiate between legitimate information and hoaxes, consider these questions:

Is the author an expert or a third grader?

Is the information current or dated?

Is the data neutral or biased?

Is it believable (could a man cross a river on a moose)?

Look at these sites and decide if they’re hoaxes — and why:

Fake baseball blog

Hoax or not?

Save the tree octopus

Spam

Spam is defined as “irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients.” Today, that not only includes annoying marketing emails but phishing (sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies) and spoofing (the forgery of an email header so that the message appears to be from someone legitimate). These are designed solely to trick you into giving out personal information or install malware on your computer that gives others access to it.

Here are seven tips for avoiding spam:

Don’t give out your email address in public forums. If you must, write it as johndoe at verizon dot net. That will trick trolls but not humans.

Never respond to spam.

Always preview email before downloading.

Never open attachments unless you’re sure they’re safe (i.e., from someone you know).

Use an email filter.

If spam slips through, block it through the tools available in your email program.

When you purchase online, beware of receipt dialogue boxes with checkboxes already filled in.

The most important part of this article: Accessing the Internet includes behavioral expectations. Teach this as soon as students visit the Internet (probably kindergarten). Reteach it every year. Add details that are age-appropriate. Never consider your job done until your students and children can cross that virtual road safely, after looking both ways for dangerous digital traffic.

*The Roosevelt photo is in the public domain because it was created more than seventy years after the death of its creator. That’s why I didn’t cite it.

— published first on TeachHUB

More

Alice Keeler’s Every Lesson is a Search Lesson

How to Grow Global Digital Citizens

Building Digital Citizens (online Certificate class)

Digital Citizenship: What to teach when? (a video)

Building Digital Citizens (online certificate class)

Building Digital Citizens (a college-level class)

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CAEP reviewer, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. You can find her resources at Structured Learning. Read Jacqui’s tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days.

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