Lindsey Module 1 recap

The big idea presented by Karen Sternheimer is something I didn’t originally agree with. The idea that childhood has changed and it isn’t all at the hands of the media. It is suggested that our youth has changed from generation to generation due to outside influences such as the economy and the needs of the family at home. In the early twentieth century, children were used in the workforce as labor and helped support their families with the money they made. Today, children are not as useful in the workforce and are instead encouraged to receive higher education so they can take care of themselves in their future lives.

I recently gave a persuasive speech, asking parents to limit their child’s usage of electronics. However, after reading the first two chapters in this book, I can see that I was speaking out of fear. I am worried that childhood is changing for the worse but it may not have the option to stay the same when our world is changing. What do you think? Do our youth have the option to stay innocent in our media saturated world where sexual innuendo and violence are portrayed everywhere? Another question I have is related to the article from Gainer (2007). As a parent of educator, children will look to us to answer their questions honestly. Therefore, when they are being shown possibly inappropriate media, is it our responsibility to tell them it’s inappropriate or is it best to explain the innuendo honestly and leave the rest up to them, depending on the age?

I first of all felt challenged with the amount of reading for the semester but through my notes I will have an easier time in the next module. I’d like to ask you, group members, how you think we should organize our blog page to make it more user friendly for us. A question I have in regards to the reading is how will I be able to decipher between good media and bad media for children if I hadn’t had a class like this one?

This entire course has been a very new experience for me. Having to be online for so much time every day has shown me that I would rather work in an environment where a computer isn’t the most important tool in my box. However, the readings along with the video clips and the power points are helping me to learn more from this course than if it were only text. At this point in the class, not knowing how I’m doing, I can only say that I hope we all succeed, I’m excited to be learning new things and that my past experiences in online classes have been different.